When I was a little kid, my Grandma would tell me about going to Kalispell in the 1910's to visit her mother’s family. My great grandma was an orphaned at a young age, and shipped off to Kalispell to live with some of her grandparents and aunts, and separated from her only sister at a young age. I also used to hear the stories about some of Grandma’s very old ancestors---the revolutionary war soldier held captive on a British prison ship, the family in CT who had to hide in the woods during Indian raids and bury their pewter dishes, and about the Spanish bride who never quite fit in the family. I could never quite figure how this all fit together, or what happened to the people in Kalispell. That great grandmother, Wilma, helped her family operate a boarding house in old Kalispell; she met my great grandfather, a Scottish immigrant, and moved on. My mom’s grandma was raised by her grandparents---those grandparents (3X for me) originally came from Maine and New York, then to Wisconsin, Nebraska, and finally MT. So my mom’s grandmother’s grandparents were the grandchildren of Revolutionary war soldiers, and passed on the stories---most of which has been validated by some family geneology buffs. A trip to the old part of the Conrad Cemetary in Kalispell helped put this together, in determining who was who and when. We didn’t even know ahead of time that the tall head-stone was there----but what a monument to some long lineage.
Check out the "Fairy Steps" in the Conrad Cemetary too-- windy set of steps that start up high and lead down to the water. Supposedly after you count the number of steps going down, you'll count a different number going back up---something to do with the fairies.
When I was a little kid, my Grandma would tell me about going to Kalispell in the 1910's to visit her mother’s family. My great grandma was an orphaned at a young age, and shipped off to Kalispell to live with some of her grandparents and aunts, and separated from her only sister at a young age. I also used to hear the stories about some of Grandma’s very old ancestors---the revolutionary war soldier held captive on a British prison ship, the family in CT who had to hide in the woods during Indian raids and bury their pewter dishes, and about the Spanish bride who never quite fit in the family. I could never quite figure how this all fit together, or what happened to the people in Kalispell. That great grandmother, Wilma, helped her family operate a boarding house in old Kalispell; she met my great grandfather, a Scottish immigrant, and moved on. My mom’s grandma was raised by her grandparents---those grandparents (3X for me) originally came from Maine and New York, then to Wisconsin, Nebraska, and finally MT. So my mom’s grandmother’s grandparents were the grandchildren of Revolutionary war soldiers, and passed on the stories---most of which has been validated by some family geneology buffs. A trip to the old part of the Conrad Cemetary in Kalispell helped put this together, in determining who was who and when. We didn’t even know ahead of time that the tall head-stone was there----but what a monument to some long lineage.
Check out the "Fairy Steps" in the Conrad Cemetary too-- windy set of steps that start up high and lead down to the water. Supposedly after you count the number of steps going down, you'll count a different number going back up---something to do with the fairies.
.gif)
No comments:
Post a Comment