And The Purpose Is....

For the past day now, I've had an "earworm" going on here. You know what an "earworm is, don't you? When you get some bit of music stuck in your mind, playing over and over -ad nauseum -for you.

The song I've been hearing is "The purpose of a man is to love a woman and the purpose of a woman is to love her man." No other words, just those, tumbling about in my mind.

But what got this started came to me after church yesterday and after I had three different conversations about the same topic -which involved my blog -and I got to thinking about things like the purpose of my blog, which in turn apparently pulled a trigger up for me on this song.

So no, this post is not about finding Price or Princess Charming, or relationships with them -nope, not about anything like that at all.

But it is about why do we, each of us, blog? What was it that brought each of us to start recording our thoughts -and then responses to others in the form of comments or even a new blog post to respond to a topic too -in the first place?

When I began this blog, my intent was to kind of leave something of me behind for my grandchildren to read someday. A means by which they could learn of the paths my life has taken, the things I've done, learned, experienced -good and bad. I also wanted it to be a way they could maybe learn about their extended family as I intended to put things in here about family members who I knew and loved but who have been long gone before the day my grandchildren entered into my life.

And, as I began posting, telling more and more about the issues with respect to my two younger grandchildren, both being autistic, I wanted then to pass on to readers about the things my daughter and I have learned from these two little ones -the good as well as some of the down sides to living with autistic children. My point there -or purpose, if you will -being to allow people to learn that for the most part, these children are not much different than other children in the same ages ranges. It's just that these two here need a little helping hand in learning to process information properly.

I have from time to time also talked in my blog about the place I call home -this little village, the area in general, shared my love (I hope) of history and in particular the history of this town as it came into being and as it has evolved to what it is today.

About a month ago now, I received a comment on my blog from a gentleman telling me that he really appreciated my posts about this village because it is where he was born and where he spent the first 12 years of his life. My stories brought back memories to him of a time, long ago, and he commented to tell me that.

After reading his words, I replied to him in an e-mail and thus began a little stream of communication between us. I learned for sure (I had suspected this in his early comments) that he had grown up in a house about four doors down the road from me. I had also grown up hearing about members of his family too as apparently some of his siblings were of the same age range as my Mom and some of her siblings. Probably because his parents were like my grandparents -of Swedish ethnicity and members of the local Lutheran church, there was another link there between his family and mine.

But yesterday was the first time since I began communicating with "Arnie" that I managed to get to church and because yesterday was also the day our congregation held their Annual Congregational Meeting, there were some folks there that I don't always get to see too. Three, to be exact, who I figured would be in about the same age range as Arnie and those three also had grown up here in this village.

So I approached each of them, telling them about my blog and how Arnie had commented to me and of our line of communication no on going and in doing so, I asked each of these folks if they remembered Arnie and/or any of his siblings or his parents.

How great it was for me to see the way each of these individuals eyes lit up upon learning I'd heard from someone from their past! The one man I spoke to -Steve -told me he didn't recognize Arnie's name but that he had been good friends with a boy named Herbert who had lived in the house where Arnie spent his first 12 years of live and we ascertained that Herbert was no doubt an older brother of Arnie's. The two ladies -one who after her marriage lived in the house adjacent to Arnie's old home and who remembered the family -Arnie's family. The third lady told me she had gone to school with Arnie, that they had been in the same grade together until his family left the area and had moved to Williamsport, PA.

I have a friend who reads my blog -lives down in Carlisle, PA now -and because of circumstances in her family's life, she grew up in/around the Harrisburg area while her older brother lived here with their paternal grandparents. It just so happens her brother was my age and we had gone through grade school, then high school and graduated together. Although her brother died back in 1981, she still has family in this area and those members of her family are very much a part of my life as well as my kids! We can now share information of a family tree variety now too because the daughter of one of her first cousins married the brother of my ex-husband so my nephew and nieces there are this lady's cousins! Because she spent a lot of time here as a child in the summers at the home next door to mine with her aunt, uncle and many cousins there, she remembers many of the things about this area that I write about from time to time. She knows many of the people I mention in my blog now and again too.

So, in conjuction now with some of the "purposes" I mentioned above for my blog, here are two photos I recieved on Saturday and which I scanned in here.

The first one is mainly for anyone from my Mom's family who might possibly read my blog.
This picture, taken over the holidays, shows at the top, the children and spouses of my first cousin, Tom Eld and his wife Linda's family. There's Corey Eld, his wife, Mindy, their daughter, Berlyn, Rick Eld, Amie Eld and her husband Rob. And the bottom photo is the granddaughter of Tom and Linda Eld. According to the note that Linda -the grandmother -sent along with this photo, our family tree also has another addition to it with the recent birth of their grandson, named Oscar Bryce Eld! Linda promised to send photos of the new baby too in the near future. Something of interest to me -perhaps not to anyone else even in my family but the grandson's name "Oscar Bryce Eld." You see my grandfather had a brother named Oscar who was one of my favorite great-uncles growing up. He passed away in 1964 or 1965 -not sure right now of the year -but now about 40 plus years, there is, once again, an Oscar Eld in my Eld Family Tree!

The other photo here was taken in October of 1959 and the people in this photo are the members of the Confirmation Class that year at what was then First Lutheran Church of Grassflat, PA. The church in which I was confirmed was struck by lightning in May of 1967 and burned completely to the ground within what was said to be seemingly a matter of mere minutes.

Here then are the names of those in my Confirmation class: (from left to right)
Dennis Nelson, Edward Handzo, Bridget Raymond, Ruby Nelson, Pastor Robert H. Magnuson, Jackie Duck, me (Jennifer Hill), Nancy Duck, Arlene Anderson, Richard Terry and Gerald Smith.

Four of my fellow confirmands are deceased -Ed Handzo, Ruby Nelson, Nancy Duck and Gerry Smith. Two -Ruby and Gerry -died in the 60's in separate automobile accidents.

And that photo serves another purpose of my blog -to remind any readers I may have who were originally from this area -of events from the past in the little village of Grassflat, PA!

How about you and your blog? Do you have a specific purpose now or did you start it with a purpose in mind and then, kind of branch out to being much more eclectic with it, in purpose?

Talk to me, tell me what it is that spurred you into blogging as well as what it is about blogging that still keeps you going, that serves the "purpose" of your blog!

Inquiring minds want to know these things, ya know!

Cold Season

The Bushism for February 6, 2007 - ok, I'm about an hour late in this:
"One of my hardest parts of my job is to console the family members who have lost their life." Washington, D. C.; April 13, 2004

And, now - for the rest of the drivel of the day ---
It's been cold - really, really cold here the past couple of days. So cold in fact that our school cancelled classes Monday and again today this week. Boy, what's this world coming to anyway? When I was a kid, if school closed for a day or two, it was because of very heavy snowfall and high winds that caused major drifting across the highways and the busses couldn't get through. But in all twelve years I attended the old school here in town (for six years), the school in Winburne (about five miles away) and old Cooper Township High School (about 2.5 miles away), we never had school cancelled simply because of LOW temperatures. And back then, in grades one through six, we had to walk almost a mile to get to that building - little kids, we were too. (And, it was uphill, both ways as well!) Kids today, get picked up at the bus stops which are spaced so as to be only maybe -at most - under a quarter of a mile's walk. In my stepgranddaughter's case, she can either walk a little over one tenth of a mile down the road to a bus stop or she can walk about one half of that distance up the road to yet another bus stop. And they say our kids today are out of shape for not having enough exercise in their lives! Small wonder there since they sure don't have any long walk to catch the bus in the morning. ARRGH - ye'll get no sympathy from me, me laddies and lassies! No Sirree, Bob, ye won't!

A little report today on my little Princess - Miss Maya - my granddaughter. She was sitting on the loveseat, chattering away and I really wasn't paying much attention to her sounds - probably because I was most likely busy surfing blogs, reading "my favorite blogs" or some such excellent activity - but then, something clicked in my mind. "What was that she was saying?" Hmmm. I stopped to listen and watch what she was doing and had to chuckle to myself.

She had a great big "Bratz" coloring book in her lap and was leafing through it, actually turning one page at a time, quite gently too, and with each new page, she would point to the picture and say "Loo at sat. Uh sat?" and she would repeat those sentences twice at each page. Translated, she was saying to herself "Look at that. What is that?" But the inflection in her voice matched that of her mother's or mine as we often sit with her and some of her books and as we turn each page, we point to the picture there and say to her - "Look at THAT! What is that?" It was really cute to see how engrossed she was in her exploring the pages of that book though - and to realize that she was imitating us in the process by the tones she incorporated into her voice.

I think I mentioned last Friday -when I posted about the scene Miss Maya made at the doctor's office - that both the little ones here have bad colds. I don't think I've wiped snotty noses this often ever before! Holy Rip! Judging by the copious amounts these two are putting out, they should have drained every sinus cavity known to man by now! Buckets and buckets - or so it seems - of the stuff. And to make things a tad more interesting, Kurtis despises having his nose wiped and fights us off like a little wrestler - the Japanese type - can't think of the name of them now though! Maya, on the other hand, will ask for a Kleenex, (actually, she says "a tissue, a tissue, peez?") But trying to get any cold medications into these two, then they reverse positions. Kurtis is a trifle more complacent about accepting a dropper full of baby cold meds. Maya though - takes at least two, sometimes even three of us to hold her down - one takes the arms, another the legs and the third person tries to hold her head in a vise grip so one of the three doing the holding manages to keep an arm free to insert the eye dropper in her mouth and force feed her the stuff. Where this sudden fear of taking medicine like that came from - just started up out of the blue last week - I don't have a clue! But she sure does fight it off, tooth and nail!

The bad news today though is that my new computer didn't arrive today as scheduled. I called the guy to inquire and he said there were a couple of parts he had to order which are on back order. But, he added, it should be here in a day or two, tops! Boy, I sure do hope so as I am really -did I say REALLY - excited about a new computer. Having oodles of space for my documents and photos and such, plus a DVD burner to copy all kinds of stuff over and save that way. I'm gonna be in 7th heaven for sure once it arrives and gets all set up!

The big drawback to this whole computer deal now though is that I am going to HAVE TO break down and clean off the top of this desk as well as the cabinet section below it. YUCK! I have my own little "filing" system on the top of the desk where I stash bills - in hopes they will somehow get in there and just evaporate. Apparently my method isn't working though as the pile keeps getting bigger and BIGGER. I've got a stack of copies of the West Branch Review on a side compartment of my desk - a copy of every issue that has been published in the past 3.5 years - for reference purposes - or for posterity. Whatever. But I want to make sure I keep those things any way.

And tonight, I am also just plain tired! Not that I was overworked today - because I wasn't, but I didnt find any time at all to take any little catnaps so maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to go to bed and fall asleep and STAY asleep for oh, let's say five hours to be generous to my system. Six would be wonderful but I'm not looking for miracles in my sleep patterns here. Five would be one more than I normally sleep (if I am lucky) at a clip - before one little spot in my back that is still an irritant and reminder of the shingles will fire up and awaken me. It is getting better. I am up from 2-3 hours of straight sleep to four hours now. Progress at its finest!

So, pray for the best there will ya please? Sleep, sweet, sweet sleep!
Nite now.

Visit to my Past

Come, talk a little walk back with me, in time to about 1950-51 and you'll find me playing along the street - same one where I live today (same house, too) and you might just find me playing with the two blonde girls in this photo.

These two girls, Lucille on the far right and Martha, in the center, lived about a quarter of a mile up the road from our house, so they weren't my "everyday" playmates. Most likely, to have been playing up at their house, I would have had to have permission to venture that far from home at that age. Well, let's put it this way - I most likely SHOULD have asked and was granted permission to go play with them. Sometimes, when I was a kid, asking permission to roam around, that far from home, was a minor thing to me and thus frequently escaped my mind.

Martha was a year older than me and her sister, Lucille (or Lu) was three years my senior. Since their mother and two of her sisters all married brothers, they and their 12 first cousins who grew up in this village too all looked very much alike.

Like me - and most everyone else along this street when we were kids - we belonged to the same church, the Emmanuel Lutheran Church at the intersection in the middle of town. I think only one family on our street belonged to the Nebo Lutheran Church, which sat atop the hill - high above us, or so it seemed. By about 1953, the two churches decided to unite and become one parish - First Lutheran - and everything in our old church was sold off and the church eventually was torn down. Today, there is a stone marker along the front of the property indicating that our lovely old church had once stood there but now, well behind that marker, is a fairly large garage, built into what had once been the foundation of this church.

Martha and Lu's grandfather, Jonas Nelson, my great-grandfather, Karl Eld and my grandfather and his brothers along with most all the old Swedes from the lower end of town and the village of Peale just east of us, were among the founding fathers of the Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Almost all the men along our road worked in the mining industry - the old-timers then having worked in the old slope coal mines and the younger fellows, parents of my childhood friends, either worked in the clay mine down in Peale or as the slope coal mines faded into obscurity in the area, had shifted over to work in the "strippings." (Slope mines are underground mines but unlike most underground mines in the eastern part of Pennsylvania where the mines were generally shaft type, the old mines in this part of the state were of the "slope" variety which the miners walked into, as opposed to riding down a deep shaft to get to the ore and dig. The "strippings" were the kind that used the big steam shovels and draglines, bulldozers and such to rip huge cuts into the earth, dig down to the vein and load the coal into dump trucks to be hauled away to tipples, railroad cars or other companies to be shipped out of the area.

Although any type of mining was, still is dangerous, the old slope mines held the constant danger of cave-ins or the potential to be injured by a mine car, pulled by mules, in and out of the mines. My Dad's youngest brother, my uncle Bill Hill, lost his leg the very first day he went to work in the mines at about age 15 or 16, when his leg got caught between two mine cars. Amputated at the knee, this meant his potential to work in the mines had ended and after he recovered, got a prosthesis, he went back and finished high school but died two weeks before his scheduled graduation because of a kidney disease. He would have been the only one of my Dad's brothers who would have graduated from high school although all three of his sisters graduated from high school and two of them went on to college and became school teachers. My Dad and his four remaining brothers all only ever completed the 8th grade but lack of education never stopped them from finding decent employment and a means to support their families. One sold life insurance, another got into country politics and was elected to various county offices during the 40's, 50's and 60's. But they all paid their dues, did their time as almost all young males in this region did by going to work in the mines as soon as they turned 14 or 15 years of age.

But I digressed there a tad and back to this picture we go.

I had never seen this photograph until last summer when Martha approached me after church one Sunday morning, telling me she had something I might be interested in. She knew from several articles I had written and published in the "West Branch Review" that I liked getting to see and often borrow, old photographs and scan them into my computer for use in a future article, or just for memory's sake and she pulled this photograph from her purse.

"I came across this a while back and have been carrying it in my purse to show you." she told me and went on to say I could use it if I wanted to scan it. I just finally got around to doing that little task this weekend - after having the photo sit on top of my computer for a while, then atop my monitor so my little granddaughter couldn't reach it and take off with it. For a time, I couldn't get to it to scan it because it had fallen down behind my computer desk and I couldn't move the desk along with the computer and all my other piles of stuff in the desk and on top of it to get to the photo. Finally, about a month ago, my daughter moved the desk out and rescued this picture along with a couple others that had landed back in the corner on the floor and I stuck it in a small holder in front of my monitor where Maya couldn't reach it and it was still out in the open facing me as a reminder, day after day, that I really should get busy and scan this photo in to save it for myself.

And, to track a little bit of other history from my time to the present, as I mentioned earlier, the church most all of us on this street belonged to "disappeared" in the mid-fifties, by uniting with the Nebo Lutheran Church at the top of Grassflat hill in town and becoming First Lutheran. Throughout the late fifites, until 1967, the minister of our church also was the pastor of the Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in Lanse, a neighboring village about 3 miles away.

In early May of 1967, my mother and I had my daughter, Carrie, baptized in the First Lutheran Church. We had no idea of course that she would be the last baby to be baptized in that church but a week later, it was struck by lightning on the steeple and within and hour's time, nothing remained of that old church. We then began to drive to the church in Lanse and shared their building until papers were drawn up and our members united with the members of Gustavus Adolphus to become what is now known at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church - located in Lanse. Since joining the two parishes and with the old church in Lanse being very small to hold two congregations, in essence, in the 1980's, a brand new church was erected there, a beautiful building we now have for our sanctuary but one which has its roots back to a very small church built in Peale in the 1880's and which also was destroyed by fire. That one, so the story goes, caught fire from live candles used on the church's Christmas tree.

And, today - indicative maybe of the beliefs of her grandfather, Jonas Nelson, one of the first members of the old Emanuel Lutheran Church of my early childhood, Martha is the treasurer now of Holy Trinity.

Something else I didn't realize until this past summer/fall too is that Martha's grandfather was a first cousin to my Mom's older sister's husband. I remember about the time most likely when this photo was taken or close to that time, going out to an old farm near home with my Uncle Albin "Butch" Gustafson to visit his great-aunt, Christina Wick, who would have been Martha and Lu's great-grandmother. All these years, I knew that family name but never connected it to my uncle's family tree until I "met" online a great-nephew of that uncle who now lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

So Eric - and for his mom and Dad, Mary Ann and Mel - if you're reading this, here's a picture tonight of two relatives of yours, one who still lives in this vicinity too. Maybe, when you come back east in June, we can arrange for you three to meet Martha - might be a very interesting meeting for all of you!

That's the end of my little "memory" trip for tonight. As usual, a lot of ramblings about what many would say is a lot of nothings too. But to me, it represents where my roots lie, the strength of fabric of my life too in the type of community where I grew up, the church that has always been a major aspect of my childhood and teenage years and still is a part of my life today as are the many people I knew then and some still living nearby me today - like Martha Jane.

Thanks Mart for letting me use this picture.

This One's For You!

Tonight, I'm going to do something a little different. I'm writing this blog in honor of a very dear, old friend of mine. We won't delve too deeply into the "how old" this friend is, but she is younger than me, that much I'll tell you.

I don't remember when I first met her, though I knew her brother throughout my entire 12 years of school here - until his very untimely death at about age 36, I think. A heart attack or heart problems - whatever, but let's face it, he was way too young, still plenty of things he could have/should have been doing.

I know I first met her though at the next-door-neighbor's home as Mrs. Little - the mother of the brood of 13 children who lived in the big house adjacent to ours was her aunt. Actually, since Mrs. Little had pretty much raised this girl's mother after their mother was killed in an automobile accident way, way back, she was more like a grandmother to her, than a great-aunt.

She was back then always a bit on the spunky side - a little daredevil at times I suppose could be used to describe her. Attitude all over the place was another thing she possessed then - and still does for that matter.

She lived down near Harrisburg, PA - Camp Hill - but usually came up here and would spend a few weeks next door and maybe a little time too with her paternal grandparents here in town - which is, by the way, where her older brother -my classmate - lived year-round.

Over the years, since I left home, married, moved back here so many things changed. She married too - had three children - we both divorced. But I rarely saw her as an adult.

At times, when around any of her first cousins from the Little family, her name would pop up and they would tell me what she was doing now, where she was living - little bits and pieces - snippets of her life but enough so that I had some idea what was going on from time to time with her.

I had, for years, referred to her one cousin and her husband, as "Aunt Helen Ann" and "Uncle Joe Benny" although we aren't related. And, as my kids came along, to help them learn who people were and keep the names straight from other folks, with respect to any of the children from the Little family, it became a habit, more like a tradition maybe, to attach the label of "aunt" or "uncle" when referring to any of them. To this day, my kids and I still do this so if I mention "Aunt Rose" or "Uncle Michael" we all know exactly who I am talking about - no confusion there whatsoever. And, we're teaching my grandchildren to call them all by those names too.

I mention this for two reasons - one being, as close as I felt to all of them growing up - they were like family to me then and today, they still are and two, so my readers will be able to better follow along with me in this piece now too.

The first time I saw her -this cousin of my former childhood neighbors - in many, many years was when I went to the viewing at the funeral home for "Aunt Lily" - one of the older girls of the Little family and the first of the thirteen who passed away too. I was surprised to see her there - not because I didn't think she would come up for either the viewing or the funeral, but rather because it just so happened she was there when I stopped by to pay my respects to the family.
I recognized her immediately as she did me and we hugged, grateful for the chance to meet again.

A while after that, I got my computer, began e-mailing and I don't recall now how it all came about but somehow we connected up again - via e-mail and the AIM instant messenger or MSN's messenger which we both used. I think I may have stumbled on her name and e-mail in a geneology query site online and recognized her from that but I'm not sure today how we managed to hook up our friendship again.

But, we did and for that, I am really pleased.

Any time we talk, or exchange e-mail notes, as I read them, not only do I picture her, but it brings up mental images in me of her brother, her aunt and uncle, cousins - all of them - and that always makes me feel really warm and fuzzy - so much better even than the old "fuzzy navel" can do to you, if you know what I mean there!

Tonight, I got an e-mail from her, telling me that she had begun to read my blog and really was enjoying following my day-to-day postings - keeping abreast a little with me and what's going on here - silly stuff like that, you know.

She's not a blogger herself - so no postings in the comments section from her will you be reading at this time - but it is so nice to know that someone out there in cyberspace is reading what I write and knows who or what place or event I am writing about because she's been here, maybe is related to someone I mention - or whatever! And I wanted to stop and take the time to thank her for letting me know this too!

So tonight - this particular post is dedicated to my good friend, Ki.

I'm so glad to have you visiting my blogsite kid. Just one other little way we can continue to keep in touch, isn't it?

Love ya kid - and hugs to you!

Family History Review?

I had a visitor this morning. Teresa, the editor/publisher of the West Branch Review, stopped by for coffee and a "short visit." And, like always happens with one of those "short visits," it was quite elongated and ended up being sort of a family history type review of the families who had a lot of control over the economics of Cooper Township way back when.

How our conversation went in that direction began with Teresa asking me about a place near here she thought I had mentioned to her way back when - a mansion-type house that sits back in, sort of in the woods -can't be viewed from the road - and had I been the one to have told her about this place.

Yep - I knew exactly what place she was referring to - The Sommerville Mansion - located out in Lanse and which is situated back in the woods behind the later-day Sommerville homestead - which is also somewhat of a mansion type home itself.

The Sommerville family - in my opinion - probably could qualify I suppose one could say, as being the elite or the "royal family" of the region back around the turn of the century and that type of label could probably have been used to describe them somewhat, even today.

"Old Mr Sommerville" - I never knew the man as this was before my time - had a finger in many pies within not just the township, but also within the county. Before they came to this country from Scotland, it is quite evident from various things I have learned about them, they apparently were quite "monied" in Scotland. I figure any family that transports a suit of armor with them when they immigrated here, had to have more than a couple of coins in their coffers then, don't ya think?

But Mr Sommervile was involved early on with the coal mines of the region, had a finger in virtually every other industry too here back then. When they first came here, the family settled in the adjacent county - Centre - before migrating over to Clearfield County where they settled in the little village of Winburne. Mr Sommerville served for many years on the Board of Directors of the bank that once existed in Winburne, of which I don't know as yet when it finally bit the dust. He also was affiliated with the Clearfield Progress - the local county daily newspaper - and off the top of my head right now, I can't remember if his position there was as publisher or editor. One or the other and that should give a little indication too of his status not just in the local area but county-wide.

He had four children - three daughters and a son. THe youngest daughter is still living, in the Chicago area and to my calculations, is probably about 88-90 years old now. I never knew anything about the son whatsoever growing up, but one daughter was the librarian at the county library for years and years and another, who graduated with my younger uncle - I think she was valedictorian and my uncle was salutatorian (or vice versa), went on to become a teacher and for many years, she taught English and French in the old school where my Mom, her brother and younger sister and I all attended high school. The family was of an economic status as such that the daughters all did a "tour" - meaning they spent a summer or several months abroad during their younger years - probably college age or just after completing college perhaps.

Talking about the Sommerville family led to discussions of other families in the region who held a good bit of power, in the economic sense, due to their holdings within the coal mining industry here. Frans Kristianson - a Swedish immigrant - whose coal company later became known as K&J Coal and was a bit of a power house employer for many years here. The Rydberg Family whose company became known as River Hill Coal and is no longer owned by members of the family but still operates under that name - it's no longer as large an operation to my knowledge as it once was either.

And then, there was Andrew Frendberg - who for many years was employed as the mine superintendent for the CBC - Clearfield Bituminous Coal Company - and this company back at the turn of the century and for many years thereafter, was the real powerhouse Coal operation in this region as well as in other counties surrounding here too!

As a child, I remember -vividly - my Grandfather and his older brother - my Great Uncle Erik - talking about their years of working for the CBC and under the command of "Old Frendberg," as they usually refered to the gentleman in not very loving terms or tone of voice when discussing him. The opinion I garnered of this man, as a child, was that he was some kind of a tyrant to work for but from what I have gathered from the research I've been doing for the past two years - via the Clearfield Progress' old copies database -is that he was quite well-known and apparently a very highly respected businessman throughout the community - county-wide - from his work for the CBC Company!

Once one gets into talking about these various early companies that prevailed in this region, it is too small a community for one not to know today who are descendants of the various individuals who once upon a time wielded much power and almost a stranglehold, at times, over the various immigrants who came here in the late 1800's and early 1900's looking for a better life.

It's learning things like this about the beginnings of this community and how it all translates down to people here today that I find absolutely fascinating.

My job now is to try to find out, if possible, when the heirs to the Sommerville estate will be back in town again - hopefully sometime soon - and see if perhaps Teresa and I can have a chance to make contact with THE current Mr Sommerville and get him to give us a tour of the mansion built by his grandfather that is hidden away in the woods atop the hill as you go from Lanse down into Winburne.

I really looking forward to a tour of that place very much and please, let it be something we can arrange soon too as Teresa wants to do a story about the Mansion as well as the Sommerville family for a future edition of the paper! And, so do I!

Wish us luck, will ya?