Faribault Weaver Family and Community Limestone Home 1943- 1953

 
In 1943 Paul H and Margaret G Weaver purchased this home on windy hill "Tate Paha" in Faribault MN. A fading Kodacolor print, captures the east side of the limestone home, built by a French Canadian Miller in the 1870's.   Note the side porch and the trellises on either side of the bay window. Today, Halloween of 2014, thinking of how big this place was to grow up in and to share with others, as my parents were quite socially involved in Faribault during these years.

1945 - 425 SW 3rd St, Faribault. View looking southeast from corner of NW 3rd St and 5th Ave. Interesting to see the sizes of the trees. The Colorado Blue spruces and what appears to be a weeping or river birth between the 1st and 2nd spruces.  And the larger Norway Spruces, perhaps planted by the Carufels in the 1870's.  


Labeled 1945 by Peg Weaver, here are Jim with holster and Jack, barefoot on the winding stairway of the Weaver spacious family home in Faribault.  p24 of Family album by PHW
Labeled Spring 1949 by Peg Weaver, here are Jack, Jim and Tom Weaver on the living room floor.  Anagrams, Dominoes . p56

1949, p 56 Jack, Tommy (Tom), Davey (David) and Janey (Jane)  Agerter playing on living room floor. Ken Agerter appears to be sitting the chair behind, with legs crossed. By PHW

 In 1949, here at the Weaver Boys in costume for Halloween, Jack age 6,  Tom age 2 and Jim age 9 in the Faribault living room in front of the fireplace.  Page 56 from P-P Family Album

1949 blurry snap shot of Boys Tom in hat Jim in back and Jack right as clowns. Halloween by PHW p56

1950 Jim, Jack and Tom, with Dr "Charlie" Charles Robilliard, who was doing magic tricks in the living room.  Dr Robilliard was a partner in the medical practice with my dad and C Walter Rumpf above Payant Drug Store in downtown Faribault at this time. 

Halloween Traditions at 425 SW 3rd Street

From Peg Weaver's memoir p 67:

"The most sewing-fun I had was making Halloween costumes. For Jim I concocted a Canadian Mountie based on Pete's army campaign hat, making a bright red, percale jacket and a black oil-cloth belt and holster. Jack was Robin Hood, carrying a bow and arrow, and wearing green-dyed, long underwear pants, a sleeveless, crenulated, percale jacket and a hat with a feather. I thought that Tom was too young to require anything impressive, so he was a ghost wearing the customary white sheet."

 Halloween 1950 Gary Heath, next door neighbor in Devil costumer.  Jim Weaver as a Canadian Mountie.

 Jack Weaver as Robin Hood, page 70, P and P Album 1950.

 Halloween 1950 Tom Weaver as ghost.

Shattuck School, Civic Music Connections in the Faribault Home

My parents were involved with the Cathedral as the families home church, as Peg describes their choice coming into Faribault in 1939, with their traditions in Ohio being different.  P 42-3 Rememberings of a 83-year old grandma p42-43

"Accompanying the Fosters to the Episcopal Church I found the services to have much more ritual and to  be very different from what I was accustomed to in the Presbyterian Church: kneeling benches, communion at the altar from a common cup into which a wafer was dipped, recitation of the Apostles Creed, a choir processional and recessional. In the Presbyterian church, grape juice (not wine, which was sinful) was served in individual, tiny glasses, passed down the rows of the congregation on trays with small round compartments holding the glasses. The empty glasses were placed in a small rack on the back of the pew in front. Instead of wafers, a tray, heaped with one-inch cubed, sweetish bread, was passed. Choir members did not reach their places with a processional, but unobtrusively entered from the adjoining choir room.  Because the Agerters and several other of our new friends were members of the Episcopal Church, we became members. There was no Presbyterian Church in Faribault and the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, Pete's affiliation in West Carrollton, was too narrow-minded and fundamentalist for our liking I think that Dr. Rumpf might have been influential in our decision, too, since he was very active in the Episcopal Church and was the physician for the Episcopal schools, where he might ask Pete to substitute him.
When we joined the church, Vesper Otmer Ward was its Dean. Following him were: Charles Allen (Before becoming a minister, he had worked for the Bell Telephone Company and, during the war. installed a phone for Kate and Stella Cole, two crusty, Episcopalian old maids of the prestigious Cole family, Kate referring to the common people of Faribault as peasants.), Canon Herb Morris, John Littleford, John McNaughton, and Curate Karl Bell (whose bedroom furniture was delivered to the to church choir room prior to his marriage). We were soon drafted for the church choir where we were faithful members for many, too, too many years, through the directing of Dwight DeLong, Dave Homing, Marie Levering (with loud, inaccurate foot-pedalling), Nan Nichols (who termed our singing "sweet" and made us practice the hymns endlessly) and Jan Schuehle (so superior to the others in directing, choice of anthems and organ playing). The volunteer choir members were a varied lot in singing ability, from Don Majors, who was superb, to Hugh Fitch, who tried hard, to Bess Lindberg who "sang" loudly but was tone deaf. The music we performed was gauged by the abilities of the choir directors and members, from rather corny cantatas to Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors    under the direction of Jan Schuehle. Annual singing for several services at Christmas and Easter Seasons became a chore. "

Weaver home with Civic Music piano soloist Mrs Nettleton with Marv Horstman, Headmaster of St James School ---

 

Early 1950's, Jim, Jack and Tom Weaver with 1949 Buick "Woody" Estate Wagon

in the house driveway 

Tom, Peg and Jim Weaver, cutting up part of a cow in the kitchen to wrap up for freezing

?Picnic on the floor of the Weaver living room  Peg Weaver, Marge and Ed Silvis

Visit to Washington DC Oct 2014 Library of Congress - Chase Family Archives - Visits to Home of Frederick Douglass - Anacostia and nearby Congressional Cemetery

 Looking for the Chase Family Archives in DC.

  My Mom, Peg Weaver, looking about 8 years of age, visiting with her grandpa, JZ Chase in Findlay. As a boy, never heard much about the Chase family lineage, other than they were early farmers.
When my mom, published her memoir in 1994 "My information about the Glessner family history, having been researched by my Aunt Mary, was more abundant than for my Chase ancestors. Some of the Glessner family chart data was first compiled by Tom, based on information from Aunt Mary. In January 1992, a letter out of the blue from Oscar Beasley, Iowa City, sent some much appreciated Chase family history."  Building on the research of Oscar, a distant cousin in the Justus Chase, lineage, descending from Elizabeth Alice Chase who married a Porter.  JZ was the younger brother of Elizabeth Alice Chase (Porter)


I arrived at National Airport on Wednesday night, greeted by Paige who picked me up in their trusty van at terminal A, where Sun Country lands.  Thursday morning I took the Metro into Union Station and walked to the Jefferson Building Library of Congress (pictured here) where I found out about what I can take into the reading rooms and what I need to leave in the cloak rooms.  An Adventure in learning.   I was able to call up volumes by submitting a request on a computer near the MMR, Main Reading Room on the first floor of the Jefferson Building.  They did not allow photos in the room, and it is a very famous image with a 160 dome...here is a link for on line viewers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_Building

I learned early, the due to budget cuts the Genealogy collection that used to be supported by 5 librarians and had its own room, was moved back into the stacks by the MMR.  Here is the old card catalog where I found references to the Chase Family that I found again on the computer that now has to be used to call for a book. When I learned the system, I had a small stack of books on the Chases in no time!   I also learned that the records of employees, like my friends the Silvis's were in a special facility in St Louis MO and researchers needed to prove there direct relationship by blood to get information. 
 
View of the Supreme Court Building in the light of the setting sun, as I walk back to Union Station in the late afternoon on Thursday. 

 
East Side of the Capitol Building Thursday Evening

 
Fun modern art "sculpture" in the upper floor of the old Portrait Gallery on the east side.  TV screens are in each state that show iconic images of action from each.   http://www.npg.si.edu/inform/visit.html
  I worked from the basement of the Jefferson Library and Main Reading Room to copy from a  variety of books, to document the Chase Family history, including Nathan Chase from New York who fought in the Revolutionary War from Hoosick Falls and his ancestor William Chase who emigrated from Chesham England with the Winthrop Expedition to Massachusetts Colony in 1630.   Later Chase relatives lived in Tiverton first of Massachusetts, and later as Rhode Island, as the colony boundaries changes.  Fun to get more confirmation about the roots of the Chase family from Inez Chase my red headed grandma, through JZ Chase and Justus, and George David Chase from New York.

Over the weekend, I drove with David Frye, pictured here to Pikesville near Baltimore to attend a Mankind Project LKS meeting Saturday morning, and then he and I on Sunday had brunch in Georgetown with Robert Powell, Chair of the US MKP Organization to learn about changes in the structure of this evolving organization we each have been part of for over 20 years.  Here is David at a sculpture at the Congressional Cemetery East of the Capital in DC with tree plantings as well to honor those who died and were affected by the 911 attacks to NYC, PA and the Pentagon in VA nearby.

 
J Edgar Hoover's grave with his family at the Congressional Cemetery.  He is the iconic head of the FBI for years and allegedly was a closeted gay man.
from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover
"
Since the 1940s, rumors had circulated that Hoover was homosexual.^[55] The historians John Stuart Cox and Athan G. Theoharis speculated that Clyde Tolson, who became an associate director of the FBI and Hoover's primary heir, may have been his lover.^[56]
Hoover hunted down and threatened anyone who made insinuations about his sexuality.^{[57][better source needed]} He also spread unsubstantiated rumors that Adlai Stevenson was gay to damage the liberal governor's 1952 presidential campaign.^{[57][better source needed]} His extensive secret files contained surveillance material on Eleanor Roosevelt's alleged lesbian lovers, which some speculate was for the purpose of blackmail—as well as material on presidents' liaisons, including those of John F. Kennedy"   (Clyde Tolson is buried nearby :-) 
 
Grave of Leonard Matlovich  with the pink triangles, at the Congressional Cemetery near J Edgar Hoover's family gravesite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Matlovich
"
Technical Sergeant Leonard P. Matlovich (July 6, 1943 – June 22, 1988)^[1] was a Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.^[2]
Matlovich was the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the military to fight their ban on gays, and perhaps the best-known gay man in America in the 1970s next to Harvey Milk. His fight to stay in the United States Air Force after coming out of the closet became a cause célèbre around which the gay community rallied. His case resulted in articles in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, numerous television interviews, and a television movie on NBC. His photograph appeared on the cover of the September 8, 1975, issue of Time magazine, making him a symbol for thousands of gay and lesbian servicemembers and gay people generally.^[3][4][5][6] Matlovich was the first openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. newsmagazine.^[7] According to author Randy Shilts, "It marked the first time the young gay movement had made the cover of a major newsweekly. To a movement still struggling for legitimacy, the event was a major turning point." ^[8] In October 2006, Matlovich was honored by LGBT History Month as a leader in the history of the LGBT community."

 

Prior to visited the National Cemetery, David, Paige and I drove to Anacostia from downtown DC, across the Anacostic River to Fredrick Douglass Home that has an amazing view of DC.  What an important figure in American History as a freed slave and then an international orator!  An icon of civil rights history in our nation.  Here is the view of downtown DC from his home on Cedar Hill. 

For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

One of my big interests in visiting the Library of Congress is to see the genealogy collection specifically to learn more about the CHASE Family.   My mom, Peg Weaver, did not have much support in finding the Chase lineage, rather her aunt Mary Glessner had become a DAR tracing her COWLES line back to Josiah Cowles in CT, and also the BIXBY line to Moses Bixby in MA. 


Here are the JZ Chase family about 1896, taken in Findlay Ohio, with Zed, AKA JZ Chase, Inez, Mintie Henry, Charlie and Roy.  

 

Chase Family Crest with Three Crosses on a leather bound Rare Book 

  
Chase Family Origins in Chesham England. From Thomas, William and Aquila Chase are early emigrants to Mass Colony.  William arrived in 1630 with the Winthrop Expedition. 

Rare Book was brought in from Maryland to have me look at it in the Rare Book Reading Room

Celebrating the life of Jack, John Eicher Weaver Oct 13 1943 - Aug 18 2014

From Rememberings of a 83-year old Grandma, Margaret Glessner Weaver, 1994, p52

"Jack (John Eicher Weaver) was born on October 13, 1943, at the Faribault hospital after a much shorter siege of labor pains than I had before Jim arrived. Rules for new mothers hadn't changed much, still requiring them to stay in bed for several days and forbidding them to use the bathroom. After Jack came home he was besieged by attacks of painful colic." 
I rediscovered my parents album I now call "Peg and Pete's 1943-52 album, as it contains photos of the house they purchased at 425 SW 3rd St in Faribault, Minnesota in the summer of 1943, the year of Jack's birth.  They had rented 3 different homes in the SW part of Faribault from 1939 to when they were expecting their second child.  Jack was brought home from St Lucas Deaconess Hospital to this home. 

 
Jack Weaver, 3rd birthday 1946, birthday cake on couch in the living room Faribault MN

 
Jack with his older brother Jim, born Sept 1940, they were three years apart.  Here is the spacious side yard of the Weaver family home in the spring of 1947, 3 1/3 and 6 1/2 years. Lilac to the left.

 Jim and Jack Weaver by the side porch of the Weaver home, 425 SW 3rd St Faribault MN with lilac.
This is a fading Kodacolor print, and Jack's hair is a bright red. 

 Spring 1947 Kodacolor print from Peg and Pete Weaver's family photo album,  Apple tree with 1939 Dodge in the drive.  Note tulips in the garden and the grape arbor in the back of the home.

 Jack by the Christmas tree, 1948 Shoots and Ladders board game to the left , Crazy Ikes and other toys.

 1946 Rock Island Rocket at the Faribault Station.  Likely with Jack's paternal grandparents, Noah Elwood and Virginia Magee Weaver heading south after a visit to Minnesota, returning to their home in West Carrollton Ohio. Jack developed a long term interest in trains, train travel....and worked in the intermodal transport business over the years.

 Another view of the Rock Island Station in Faribault as Jack would have seen it in 1946.
 
1946 Virginia Magee Weaver, Noah Elwood's second wife, Paul Henry Weaver MD and Jack Weaver side yard Faribault home, note 1939 Dodge in the driveway.   This area of the yard became a traditional place to build small wood fires, and cook steaks and have picnics in the yard over the years. 

 Red head Jack Weaver autumn of 1949 on his red trike, age 6.  First Grader at Garfield Elementary School.

Jack Weaver 1949 with his dad, Dr Paul H Weaver AKA "Pete" to his friends in the side yard with Norway Spruce in the background.

PELICAN LAKE -  CROW WING COUNTY MINNESOTA
 Page 54 of Rememberings:  "OUR COTTAGE AT PELICAN LAKE Although we couldn't afford it, in 1947 we built a cottage on Lot 11, Sunset Beach, Pelican Lake, Crow
Wing County, on a 100-foot lot that John Foster had sold us for the mere sum of $250, a lot that went back to Lake Markee at the rear. At that time and in our circumstances, that was not a mere sum. Bern and John had taken us to their Pelican Lake Cottage several times for weekend visits (See picture # 1, p. 13,1.). We loved the surroundings, the pine trees, the lake, the relaxed atmosphere -- AND THE LOONS! Introducing us to fishing in their heavy, iron boat with a 2 1/2 horsepower motor, we had no trouble catching a good mess of walleyes. Their cottage had no electricity, but a pressurized gasoline lamp gave excellent white light for playing bridge. We were convinced of the advantages of having a cottage at Pelican for bringing up children as well as for our own enjoyment.
Building the cottage necessitated procuring a loan of $5,000, which proved to be no problem when we applied to Roger Peavy at the Security Bank since he was acquainted with the area, enjoying bass fishing on Lake Markee when he visited the Cowperthwaits, whose lot abutted the one we were purchasing. The $5,000 was sufficient to pay for the cottage.
Our cottage's location cottage on the lot was determined by a handsome, tall white pine, which we decided to have next to the steps from our front porch. (See picture #2, p. Bp.) Because the area toward the beach had been recently bull-dozed, there were few trees between our cottage and the lake, only two clumps of birch in addition to the large white pine. Today that area is filled with tall volunteer white and jack pine, oak, maple birch and other trees. Our lot had no red (Norway) pine. 

Jack grew up coming to Pelican Lake.  He ended up purchasing 200 ft about a mile down the shore, first sharing the area with his 2 brothers, after a purchase of 90+ acres with over 1000ft of lakeshore in 1967, the land was later surveyed and separated for each brother and his families specific needs and wants.   He and Nellie Jane Williams Weaver, designed and built a new house, on the site where Harold Williams, Nellie's father had built a retirement home. 

 In 1948, here are Paul Henry Weaver (with his signature pipe) Jack and Jim Weaver in front of the Sunset Beach (Lot 11) cabin. Photo by Noah Elwood Weaver  P 47 P-P Albm

1948 Pelican Beach area, Jack and Jim Weaver in the sand, with Virginia Magee Weaver,  Photo by NEWeaver  p 47 P-P Album


1950, dining room at Faribault home, here is this author, then known as Tommy, Peg Weaver reading a kids book, me at age 3, and older brother Jack, age 7.   Grateful for the respect for books and stories we were raised with in small town Minnesota.  
 
1950, Jack Weaver painting with oils age 7.  Paul H Weaver, had painted with oils and had the easel in our home.  Art, books, music all part of our childhood environment.  

1945-1949 Weaver Family Faribault Minnesota Photos, by Paul H Weaver and Noah Elwood Weaver

 1946 Faribault Rock Island Train depot with Rock Island Rocket passenger train southbound. 
 In the 1940's here specifically in 1946, shown on page 30 of the P-P Album, the Weaver Grandparents, made their way from West Carrollton Ohio to Faribault by the Rock Island Rocket.  Other times, Noah Elwood and his wife, (Edna Eicher Weaver prior to her 1943 passing) and then Virginia Magee Weaver.

 1946, on page 30 of P P Album. Note Faribault Rock Island station, overhead light and semi phore and looks like water towels in the background.

 
Lake Mazaska Rice Co, Fishing trip, L-R N Elwood Weaver, Paul H Weaver, Claudia Horning, Peg Weaver and Dave Horning.  Note clouds in the background.  Wonder if that is the result of the lens filters my grandfather NEW experimented with.  He loved photography.  Labeled 1944

 1947 - 425 SW 3rd St Back Yard swing set, Jim Weaver above, Jack Weaver below garage and snow fence .

 1945, phone likely by NE Weaver, front yard at Faribault limestone home. Peg, Jack, Pete, and Jim.

 1947 Kodacolor print, Jack and Jim Weaver in east side yard Faribault -Spring Lilacs blooming.

 1947 Jim and Jack Weaver (note red hair) by lilac and porch in spring. 

 1947 black and white,  Jim above, Jack below with swing set. Note garage on left, and Gipson, later Andrews home across 5th Ave to the west.

 Spring 1949 with 1939 Dodge in the driveway, flowering apple tree and tulips in garden.  425 SW 3rd St Faribault

 1948 Christmas Tree Dining Room Jim , Paul H, Tom in lap, and Jack Weaver.

 1948 Christmas Toys Jack Weaver.

 1949 Jack Weaver, red head, with dad, Paul H Weaver, Norway Spruce in Faribault Yard.

 1949 Jack Weaver on trike by Weaver home sunporch by PHW  Kodacolor print

1949 Black and white Jack and Tom Weaver, David and Jane Agerter, Weaver home.