Category: Foster

Reenacting a photo of my great great grandfather at Maple Creek Cemetery in Precept, Nebraska, in June 2018. See how windy it was.

I wasn’t sure I was going to do a post today, but I found a Wi-Fi spot to do a little work. I decided to post about my recent adventure since that’s the only photos that I have access to right now.

I mentioned the trip to Nebraska to visit the graves of my great great grandparents a few weeks ago, and decided to reenact one of the photos that I posted. That’s the photo of me standing next to the headstone in the cemetery.

Before we went to the cemetery, we stopped in the small town of Beaver City, Nebraska. At the library I found some information about my great great grandparents Samuel Charles Phenice and Cathrine Jane Foster. On two of their children’s marriage certificates, I saw that they went by the names Charles and Kate.

Charles and Kate lived in the small community called Precept, Nebraska. The early settlers picked the name by choosing a phrase from the Bible at random. It’s a good thing they didn’t pick Gomorrah! I also found a photo in a newspaper clipping that showed the church of Precept. It’s the church that Charles and Kate must’ve gone to. Their daughter was married there and Kate’s funeral was held there.

I’m glad I found that photo because it helped me to identify the church when I saw it on the way to Maple Creek (pronounced ‘Crick’ by the locals) Cemetery. The church was moved in 1927 from the cemetery area to the ‘town’ of Precept.

The church in Precept in 2018.

It seemed odd to me that they would make the effort to move the church less than 2 miles away to another secluded area. I suppose there must’ve been more people living in that vicinity. Nothing but fields and clouds for miles around. And an old abandoned church.

Which made the cemetery that much more surprising. It was immaculate! I’m glad to know that their graves are well taken care of. Maybe some of you want to check it out someday.

I had to get creative with this one. Her name is very hard to read when you look at it straight on. Now I know how she spells her name!

The Phenice plot. Kate was buried here in 1921 and Charles was buried in 1939.

Maple Creek Cemetery in Precept, Nebraska, is such a well-groomed cemetery. Very impressive.

S. C. Phenice visiting his wife’s grave circa 1930.

I saw this photo for the first time just over a year ago.  I got it from my second cousin once removed (my mom’s second cousin) Mona Quillen.  It’s kind of a sad photo.

It’s a photo of my great great grandfather Samuel Charles Phenice at Maple Creek Cemetery in Precept (Furnas County), Nebraska.  He is holding a grandchild or great grandchild as he visits his wife Catherine Jane Foster Phenice’s grave.

We all know the tragedy of Catherine’s death.  Her clothes caught fire in her home just before Christmas in 1920.  She was burned terribly and died as a result of her wounds on Jan. 7, 1921, at the age of 72.  She and Samuel had gotten married Sept. 27, 1866, in Hendersonville, Pennsylvania.  (They were both born in Mercer County in Pennsylvania.)  So at the time of her death, they had been married for 54 years.  Samuel went on to survive Catherine for another 19 years.

So I’m pretty sure this was just one of many of the visits that Samuel made to this graveyard.  That means this photo was taken sometime between 1921 and 1939.  In 1930 he was living with his youngest daughter Emma Quillen (Mona’s grandmother) and her family. (According to 1930 Census.)  Since he was living with that family and the photo came from that family, I’m thinking that the photo was taken around 1930 or so.  So it’s possible that the youngster in the photo was Emma’s youngest son Harry Lincoln Quillen, who was born in 1927.  Samuel died in 1939 and was buried with his beloved wife.

The reason I’m posting this photo is that I’m planning on visiting their grave site at the end of June.  “Digging up bones” is what my mom called these types of visits.  Mona and Michelle Quillen (my 3rd cousin through Samuel & Catherine) suggested the visit to the graveyard last year and I’ve decided to do it.  I’m not sure if they are going to make it or not.  I’m hoping my brother Rob (& his wife Robyn) will make it, too.

So anyone else who might want to meet us there, we’ll be at Catherine and Samuel’s grave shortly after lunch on Saturday, June 30, 2018.  We will not actually be digging, so no shovels are needed.

‘Mamma + Nook’ was the inscription written on the border of this photo.  Do you recognize anyone?  Yes? No?

I was so excited when I first saw this photo.  Not only because of the cute little baby who was obviously called Nook.  (Or do I have that wrong?  The little baby could actually be ‘Mamma’ and the older one ‘Nook.’)  I was excited because I recognized my great great grandmother Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice immediately.

Even though the other photos of her that I had seen were from about 20 or 30 years later, she still had that Grandpa Munster look about her.  I shouldn’t say that.  I still feel a little guilty about turning her later years photo into a Grandpa Munster lookalike for Halloween this year. (Animating old photos has helped to change my view of her.)

Cathrine or Kate was the mother of Harry Clifton Phenice.  Harry was the father of Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  Myrtle was the mother of Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  And everyone knows that Betty Lou was my dear sweet mama.  Kate was also the mother of the little girl in the photo.  Her name was Emma Orra Phenice and she was the grandmother of Mona Quillen, the person who graciously shared this photo with me.  It is part of the collection that I refer to as the Lincoln Collection.

I got this photo earlier this year and fell in love with it.  But I have to take my time in sharing the really good ones since there are a limited number of them.  Consider this a Christmas gift from me.  It’s kind of appropriate because the last time I featured Kate, there was a Christmas theme.  (She had her fire incident on Christmas Eve Eve, remember?)

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 1

Since Emma was born in 1889, I’m dating this photo as 1890.  And I happened to run across some other information earlier this year that gives some more glimpses into what was going on with the Phenice family in 1889.  I found a document titled “Homestead, Pre-Emption and Commutation Proof.”  It was for the land homesteaded by Samuel Phenice in McCook County, Nebraska.  He had filed a homestead entry No. 4887 on Nov. 9, 1885.  He moved onto the property on April 1, 1886 and commenced to “building a house worth $12.” (see page 2 of document)

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 2

He stated that his family consists of himself, his wife, and their six children.  This was true for June 8, 1889, which is when the document was written.  Kate had given birth to seven children, but they had lost an infant daughter named Mollie in 1881. So when little Emma was born on June 20, Samuel and Kate would have seven children.  Emma was their last child.

The document states that Kate and the children moved onto the property (and into the $12 house he built) on about June 10, 1886, which was about ten weeks after he started work on the site.  According to page 3, the house was “part dug + part sod house, 22 by 24 feet with an ‘Ell’ 14 by 22 feet in size, has 4 doors and 5 windows worth $200.”

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 3

He goes on to list improvements on the land and their value.  They had a stable worth $20, a granary worth $20, a 155 ft. deep well worth $80, 65 acres of farmed land worth $130, and forest and fruit trees worth $50.  He puts a total value as $500.  He also had farm implements such as two plows, a cultivator, a mower (not a riding one, I’m sure!), a wagon, and a barrow.  All of which he had owned since before moving on to the property.

Aren’t you just loving all of these details?  I am.  It describes so much of what their life would have been like out in the prairie lands in Nebraska where his neighbor (& witness in other documents) lived 3/4 of a mile away.  The neighbor said he visited frequently.

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 4

When the neighbor visited, he probably noticed that there was a horse, five cows, a colt, three hogs, and a mess of chickens.  When he went into the house he would have seen the stove, the two tables, and the ten chairs.  He may or may not have seen the four beds and the bedding.  If he shared a meal with them he would have seen the dishes and cooking utensils.

He would definitely notice those six kids ranging from age three to twenty-one.  (Our H. C. was 15 at the time.)  It’s hard not to notice that many kids running around underfoot.  It also would have been hard not to notice that Kate was soon to be adding a seventh to the group.  Would he have commented on that?  Would that have been frowned upon?  There’s no way to know about that.  That wasn’t included in the document.

One of the other things I like about this document is that it was written by Samuel himself and signed as well.  And his answers to some of the questions are interesting as well – “No Sir” and “I think not.”  Little did they know that we would be looking back at that document and photo almost 130 years later to get a glimpse of their lives.

You may now return to the present.

It was getting cold that late December day.  The following day would be the coldest day of the month and would get down to -17 degrees.  That would be a really cold Christmas Eve.  So as they gathered around their trash burner/wood stove, thoughts of the upcoming first Christmas of the 1920s may have been crossing their minds.  Cathrine would be thinking about the many meals that this stove would be used to prepare.  There were many grandchildren who would hopefully enjoy the feast she intended to prepare.

Samuel Charles Phenice with his wife Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice and their two great grandsons Floyd and Elmer Racine (sons of Marie Taylor Racine, grandsons of Anna May Phenice Taylor – listed in Cathrine’s obituary). This was probably in Nebraska circa 1920.

Samuel as well was probably thinking of that feast to come.  Of course, he didn’t have to worry about that overmuch because it was probably his devoted wife of 54 years who would be doing that cooking.  He may have been recounting to his friend Louis the exciting times he had in years past, such as that long ago day at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.  Whatever they were thinking, those thoughts were soon swept from their minds because of what happened next.

Cathrine probably opened the stove to put more wood on the fire as she had done thousands of times during her 72 years on earth.  No big deal, just a part of her ordinary life in her 1920s home in Precept, Nebraska.  But this was no ordinary day.  Either she stood too close to the fire or for some reason there was a particularly strong draft, but something definitely went wrong for her.  Before she knew it, her dress was on fire and evidently it was burning quickly.  When she realized the severity of the situation, she screamed and began to run in a panic.

I’m sure this was a horrific sight for her husband to behold.  Anybody knows how painful it can be to witness a loved one suffer.  So to see his beloved wife being consumed by fire must have been heart-wrenching.  “Who’s going to cook my Christmas feast now?” he wondered in alarm.  I’m sorry.  I was doing so well telling this serious and terrible story without breaking the tension, but then my evil humor took over.  I’m sure that thought was nowhere near his mind.  He sprang into action no matter the consequence to himself.

He got to his wife, caught her, and tried everything he could to extinguish the flames.  In the process he burned his hands terribly.  His friend Louis Adler witnessed what was happening, filled up a container with water, and did what he could to help put out the fire.  The fire had reached her hair, because he poured water over her head to stop the flames.  The fire was put out, but not before burning poor Cathrine so badly that her life ended as a result of it.

She did not die immediately.  It was said that she suffered miserably.  It must have been a very somber Christmas that year for the Phenice family.  Their beloved matriarch suffered with blood poison as a result of the burning.  It sounded like she had severe burns over a large portion of her body.  She was quoted as saying shortly before she died, “I know you if I can’t see you,” which makes me wonder if she was blinded by the fire.  She ended up dying at 3:20 p.m. on January 7, 1921, at the age of 72 years, 3 months, and 22 days.  I like the way in some parts of the country, the age is given like that in obituaries or on headstones.

Even though she suffered for two weeks, the family reported that she was patient all the way.  When writing an obituary, I would think that most people try to make it reflect the person and be true to who they were.  The report of being patient was written two times in that one article.  I suppose they wanted that to be well understood.

Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice circa 1910.

She sounds like a good woman who relied on her faith to see her through.  Generosity to those in need was also attributed to her.  I can believe it because of what she inspired in others.  Her husband risked his own life to attend to her terrible situation.  Then her children lovingly tended to her during her last weeks of suffering before tenderly laying her to rest.

I’ve been wanting to write about Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice for a while now.  Like the first picture above, she was kind of in the shadows.  Her husband was a witness to the assassination of President Lincoln, so he tended to get most of the attention.  It is such an historic event.  But his wife deserved to be the center of attention at least once.  I was planning on writing her life story, but got carried away with the events surrounding her final days.  I will probably write another story about her at a later date.  (See the great photo I found and the post I wrote about it here.)  Maybe I’ll find another photo to post of her as well.  That first photo was another one of the photos that I had taken of my grandmother’s photos back in the 80s and forgotten about until recently.

The portrait of her had been in my mom’s possession for as long as I can remember.  I hate to make fun of her, but she always reminded me of Grandpa from the Munsters.  My mom must have thought similarly, because she wrote, “Isn’t she a cutie?” on the back of the photo.  I may also do a Munsters version of this photo at one point.  All in good fun.  (Here is the result.)

I’m also posting the obituary from their local paper.  I worked for hours cleaning it up so it could be legible.  Most of the details from my story came from that.  I also looked at historical meteorological data and did a search for (vintage) trash burner (/stove).  It answered my question as to why they would have a trash burner inside.  After all these hours spent with these photos and articles, I have grown quite fond of my great great grandmother Cathrine Jane.