Running Deer

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I actually had native american ancestry. My 7th great grandmother was Running Deer. Running Deer was a lovely native american woman born in the Hudson River valley, about 1715. Based on research she was probably a Mohican, the Mohican tribal area was along the Hudson River. Current research based on where Running Deers daughter lived. At some point she married a white man and the moved into a cabin he had built. Not very accepted by locals there is very little actual records except what came from her daughter and the stories she told her children. As much as can be found they think her husbands name was Charles Crosby but the local white population just knew him as "Squawman".

Huntly Castle ghost story? and Clan Grant

There is no shortage of ghost stories related to the old castles scattered about the world. This is one you may never have heard.  While my wife and I were visiting Great Britain in 2021 we were having lunch one day at our hotel in Aberdeen Scotland.  Our server started a conversation about our trip.  We told him we were exploring places connected to my ancestors from Scotland and exploring old castles. He told us of a few castles that we should visit in the north of Scotland, one of those was the Huntly castle.

Huntly Castle

As we visited this wonderful old ruin and marveled at the architecture, we explored the grounds and the various levels of the castle. When we were on the third floor of the castle we could hear children playing outside, the usual sounds of laughing and screaming as children do. We thought nothing of it until we walked outside and it was suddenly deathly quiet. We looked at each other and commented that we had definitely heard children playing in the yard. Although it was a beautiful day it gave us a very eerie feeling.  A few days later when visiting the Urchart castle, on the shore of Loch Ness, which had belonged to my Clan Grant, I read this story in a booklet I picked up at the gift shop. 

The third Laird of Freuchie, James of Forres, was a great man of arms and was infamous for raiding and plundering. One of the chief figures in a story of orphans eating at a trough. These were the children of a Deeside clan wiped out by the Grants and their allies, the Gordons. James refused to have anything to do with them so the Gordon chief, the Earl of Huntly, took them all under his care and fed them each day from a trough outside his castle. But when James, on a visit to Huntly's Castle, saw the children huddled and kneeling at the trough, he was conscience stricken and took them home with him to be raised as Grant descendants and they consequently became known as 'the race of the trough'.

Were the children we heard the ghosts of trough children?  Since I am a descendant of this James I have to wonder if I am of the ‘race of the trough’.  Perhaps these children we heard that day are my real ancestors. But whether or not I am blood or adopted.  I'll take it.     I love reading and learning about the noble people north of the wall.

John Christian Baum

 Reading through some family histories I discovered that my third great grandfather was once a slave. John Christian Baum.

His father was so poor after the Revolutionary War that he “bound out” John to a rich man to help support the family. He worked for this man until he was twenty one years old. At that time his brother, Jacob bought him back. John and Jacob were very close and loved each other very much.

I find the term “bound” interesting. A very politically correct term for “SLAVE”

John later joined the church, was married and had nine children. He died in Heber, Utah.

Robert The Bruce

My 17th great grandfather: ROBERT I Popularly known as Robert the Bruce, was King of the Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. Robert was one of the most famous warriors of his generation and eventually led the Kingdom of Scotland during the first war of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotland’s place as an independent country and is now revered in Scotland as a national hero

SIR JOHN GRANT OF FREUCHIE1

While visiting Scotland we descoverd that one of my ancesters was not only a member of the Grant Clan but he was also the Lord of a castle.

The beautiful Urquhrt castle, siting on the banks of Lock Ness.  In 1509 SIR JOHN GRANT OF FREUCHIE the first chief of Clan Grant takes formal possession of the castle and lordship of Urquhart from King James IV.'to construct within the castle a tower, hall, chamber and kitchen, with all the requisite offices, such as a pantry, bakehouse, brewhouse, oxhouse, kiln, cot, dovegrove and orchard? from the royal charter granted to Sir John and sealed at Stirling Castle, December 1509

A Post Card Home

Years ago I was the recipient of my grandma Lee’s personal records. It consisted of her genealogy papers and a box of papers that she’d written bits and pieces of her personal history. I tried to put them in a chronological order and I compiled her history in a readable fashion.

Among her belongings was this leather post card that she had sent to her mother while she was away at school.

It reads around the edges “322 University Street SLC, It is time I was going to school, Your loving Pearl”

On the back it’s addressed to.

Mrs. S S Grant 

Theodore Utah

(Theodore was the original name of Duchesne)

I’m a little confused about the address in SL, I was told she attended school at the BY Academy in Provo. 

Issac Baum

Issac Baum was born on April 7, 1832 in Chester, Pennsylvania. His family lived for short time in Carthage, Illinois and later moved to Nauvoo. At the age of twelve he was one of the witnesses of the Martyrdom of Joseph Smith. he wrote of his experience.
On June 26, 1844, I was helping my father cultivate the corn when shots were heard. I called to Father, saying, “They have killed the prophet,” and Father asked, “How do you know they have killed the prophet?” I said, “I heard the shooting.” Father told me to go to the house and tell Mother to have his clothes laid out, for he was going to town. When I got home, Mother was starting for a bucket of water to start the noon meal, and when I met her I said, “Oh, Mother, they have killed the prophet,” and she said, “My son, I fear they have,” I took the brass bucket and got the water from the well, and as I came back and gave it to her, as she looked in the bucket she said, “Son, there is blood in this water. Throw it out and get some more.” The water was much better this time. A boy like me was too excited to wait for father, and as I put the bucket down, I started away, calling back to Mother, “Tell Father I have gone ahead.” Not taking time to go around by the road, I crawled through the fences, back yards, and arrived at Carthage Jail, where a large crowd had gathered. I heard the militia shouting, profaning and boasting what they were going to do. The body of Joseph was sitting propped up by the old curb. One of the militia took hold of his hair and jerked his head up, and raised his sword which was sharp on both edges. But just then lightning came out of a clear sky and he dropped to the ground. The mob thought he was dead, so they galloped away on their horses, any way to get away quickly.
Issac was also one of the men that volunteered to go to the rescue of the ill fated Willie and Martin handcart companies that were stranded by an early winter storm in October of 1856.
Issac married Mellissa Sessions on 6 May 1856 in Provo, Utah and they became one of the earliest families to settle in what would become Heber, Utah. Together they were the parents of eleven children, the oldest, Louisa Maria is my great grandmother.
Issac was said to always be a man of service to others willing to always lend a hand.
Issac died in Heber 18 November 1920. He is buried in the Heber City cemetery.