Re: Eliza or Elizabeth Kitson
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In reply to:
Re: Eliza or Elizabeth Kitson
5/28/01
Hello Shirley;
Thanks so much for your response to my posting about Eliza or Elizabeth Kitson on GenForum.If I figure rightly, your great great grandmother was the niece of my great great grandmother, Eliza Kitson Shuck.
And that amounts to the same thing as saying that Eliza Kitson was the sister of Joshua Boyd Kitson.
Have I got it straight?
Also, am I right in thinking that the Shucks and Kitsons are known to have been marrying back and forth?Then this has to mean that any of us who are related to one another from this line are related in more ways than one.
One thing especially that caught my interest in your posting on GenForum is the name "Blackorby."Even though it turns out to be a rather long story, I'll explain why.
My mother, Viola Smith, who was the daughter of Fred Robinett Smith and Dolora Palmer (Fred being the son of Sarah Isabelle -- best known as Belle-- Shuck and George Washington Smith) was left motherless at the age of four.Her father (Fred Robinette) moved away from Ellsberry where they had been living and left her (my mother, Viola) and her brother ,Harry, in the care of his parents, Belle and George, who were, of course, the children's grandparents.Ever after that, those grandparents served as parents to my mom and so were especially dear to her.She lived with them all though her childhood, first in Ellsberry Missouri, then in a little town called Hansboro in North Dakota, then -- after a few years in Hansboro -- back in Ellsberry again.
All through my mother's childhood,the family used to be visited regularly by a man whom she knew only as "Mr. Blackorby."He was a very good friend of Grampa George's, and it was always quite an event when he visited them in Ellsberry.In fact, it was Mr. Blackorby who encouraged George , Belle, and the children to move to Hansboro North Dakota,hoping for their sake that farming would be more prosperous for them there than it had been in Missouri.As I say, they did make the move and ended up living in Hansboro, which my mother dearly loved, for six or seven years.It broke her heart to have to move away and leave her many North Dakota friends and associates.
Many, many years later, in the 1980's, in fact, my husband, Jim, and I took my elderly mother , who was then 83 years old, on a trip back to North Dakota--just for old time's sake.She hadn't been back since she, her brother, and her dear grandparents, Belle and George Washington Smith, had moved back to Ellsberry when she was about twelve.She had always thought of going back, so this trip was like a dream come true for her -- and a dream come true to me, as well, since I had heard so many stories about my mother's experiences in that little town.it was almost as if I had lived there once myself.
Actually, Hansboro was practically a ghost town when we got there in the 1980's.Most of the houses were vacant,the store fronts all boarded up, and only 45 or 46 people still living within the "city" limits.In spite of this, the visit there was a real treasure to my mom.Among other things that we did while we were there, we paid a visit to the local post mistress, a lovely lady, much younger than Mother, who, nonetheless,had known many of the people who had been special to Mom.The two of them had some wonderful conversations.
After a while, Mother mentioned that she sure would like to see the house where she had lived when she was a little girl.When she described it and its location, the postmistress immediately cried "Oh, of course, you mean the Blackorby house, don't you?Well, it's still standing right where you left it when you folks moved back to Missouri.Why don't you drive on out and see it?"That's exactly what we did.And, believe it or not, although the place had apparently been vacant for years and pigeons were nesting in the upstairs, it was still in pretty good condition, still a nice old house.Seeing it was one of the most special events in my mother's life.Mine too.In fact, I'll never forget the Blackorby house as long as I live.
Now, after having read your posting on GenForum, I realize that Mr. Blackorby must have been a kind of "shirt tail relative" ofBelle Shuck and her husband, George Washington Smith.
Dould you tell me how I may go about purchasing the Shuck book that was written by Larry G. Shuck.I would love to have a copy.
It was great to hear from you and I hope that you will write me again.My e-mail address is [email protected].
Your kith and kin,
LoLo
Dolores ("LoLo") Westrich
[email protected]