Remembering Rex

Rex, Circa 1958
Laura and Linda were too young to remember Rex, the first "Averill Dog." Jennifer wasn't around at that time. He was a Cocker Spaniel and lived with us on 25th Avenue before we lived in New Orleans. Rex was the very first dog I remember. Like most dogs we had when we lived on 25th, he died by getting run over by a car, around 1961 or so.

Still, Rex was a very nice dog, and one memory I had was going out into the woods with Dad to bury him after his passing. Thanks for the memories, Rex!

Rice Puzzle

Rhoda Rice with Thomas Rawson Rice - the ONLY Labeled Photograph
Scanning various photographs, one has to see various similarities and differences. Such has been the case with one series of photographs, that look as if they are photos of other photos. Only the first one was labeled, that one is shown at the beginning of this page. Since Rawson was born in May of 1896, this would make the photo sometime in late 1896 or early 1897. At that time, Rhoda would have been around 30. Her Maiden name was Ibbotson, but that doesn't enter into this series of photos.

The second photo, shown below, appears to be either the same woman or someone with similar features with a man. Stretching things only a little, I'd guess this is Rhoda with her husband, William Rice. William was Thomas Rawson's father. Assuming the photo was taken only a few years after the first one, that'd make him about 35.

Is this William Rice with Rhoda?
Stretching things further, there appears to be yet another photograph of the woman in the second picture; this time with an older woman. That photo is below. I think it is unlikely that the older woman was her mother since Rhoda was born when her mother was nearly 40. That'd make her 70 when Rawson was born. Rhoda did, however, have three older sisters, who were between 3 and 15 years older. Alternately, it might have been either one of William's sisters or even his mother, who was Sarah Ringrose before she married. Sarah was ten years younger than Rhoda's mother - William was one of the older children and Rhoda was only two years ahead of the baby of the Ibbotson family. Inquiring minds want to know!

Is it Rhoda on the Right and Who is With Her?


However, the mystery isn't over yet. In the same series of photos is one that is shown below.
That photo is taken much later - note how the styles had changed. I wonder if that last photo is of Rhoda and William ten or even fifteen years later. You tell me!

For extra credit, come up with the name of the cute little dog in the last picture...

Rhoda and William Rice in Later Years?


More on Family Silver

Family Silver - Grandad Rice worked in Seattle for Linstead Silversmiths
Older Family Silver - Grandad Rice as a silversmith in Victoria BC
More on Family Silver - this post

I reported before on Grandad Rice. As noted here, he worked as a silversmith in Victoria, and later moved on to work at Linstead Silver, as discussed here. However, there is still MORE to the story.

As you may see from the photo below, Linstead Silver had more than one name. In fact, Grandad Rice appeared in an ad from it in 1959.


The ad was from the November 22, 1959 issue of The Seattle Sunday Times, page 78. In another issue, the Times interviewed Carl Linstead and he talked about some of the various jobs the shop had. He didn't say if the hamburger they were asked to silver plate was from Dick's Hamburgers or some other outfit. Inquiring minds want to know!

The interview with Linstead is also included. If you run across an old set of bronzed baby shoes at a garage sale, there's a good chance it came from Linstead Silver.




The second article was from The Seattle Times issue of Wednesday, April 4, 1956, on page 23. FWIW, Seattle Times archives dating back to 1895 are available from the Seattle Public Library.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linstead's First Store on 1020 Pike Street

On August 13, via "Blogger Contact," Lucille Averill suggested: 
"The shop was on about 9th?  which was torn down to become part of the  
freeway. From there the store moved to the newer location in downtown  
Seattle.  It's now on Aurora Avenue"

Actually as shown in the ad above, the shop was on 1020 Pike. It was, indeed, torn down when I-5 was built. The site today is shown in the photo at left. Across from the site today are multi-story apartment buildings. The earlier post, here, shows the newer location, including a virtual tour of the interior.

The place on Aurora has nothing to do with Linstead. Instead, it is the current incarnation of his competitor, Zapffe Silversmiths. Their website is here.

Separately, on January 4, 2017, Steve A received the following email from Zapffe Silversmiths:
"Hello. We know we had a Linstead (possibly Carl) who worked here in the late 40's and early 50's. He worked alongside Carl Zapffe and his successor Don Thompson before opening his own shop in downtown Seattle which was then taken over by a son. It shortly closed after his succession. That is all the information we have.

Store Hours:
Monday thru Friday 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Saturday                9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Store address:
Zapffe Silversmiths
12004 Aurora Ave North
Seattle, Washington 98133
206-364-1919  Phone
800-544-9313  Toll Free
206-364-1782  Fax"
Linstead and Zapffe in Later Times

Prompted by an inquiry from Kath Whitworth, I did a bit more digging in archives of the Seattle Times. There, I found that Carl Linstead and Carl Zapffe both passed away within a couple of years of Grandad Rice. Both articles shed more light on the silver business in Seattle in the mid 20th Century.

First, I ran across an obituary for Carl Linstead in the June 15, 1971 issue of the Seattle Times on page 39.


As you can see, he is a fellow alumnus of Roosevelt High School - GO ROUGHRIDERS, BEAT HALE! More relevant to our story, however, is that he went to work for Zapffe around 1923 when that firm was only about 7 years old, and worked there until 1946. The article didn't mention that, during his career, Linstead created such things as a silver crown for the 1959 Seattle Lucia Festival that was modeled after a medieval example. Golly, perhaps we ARE turning Swedish, after all!

That brings us to Carl Zapffe himself. As I understand it, he turned over management of the firm to Don Thompson in mid 1968, after 43 years in the business. Zapffe Silver has been around since around 1919 (their web site), and Don was the third owner, so it is unclear if Carl was the founder or took it over shortly before they hired Carl Linstead. According to their web site, the firm is still operated by the Thompson family. Carl's obituary may be seen below. It was in the June 6, 1973 Seattle Times, page 52.




Changing Averill Happenings

How the new blog setup works is intended to be simpler than it used to be.

First off, to visit various pages, use the buttons at the top of the page. These will bring up all the posts associated with the button. As an example, the Valerie Averill post and the Rumbo and Cars posts are all under the "Averills in Our Lifetime" button. History posts are under either the Rice or Averill button. I plan to make a "Peterson Place" blog that'll be set up the same way for Nancy and her family history.

I suggest that the best bet is simply to sign up to be notified via email when a post is made. You can then decide if it is a subject of interest.

You'll notice that all the comment stuff is gone, as are other things that take up space. To comment, you can use the comment form and I will post a response or reply privately depending on the email.

You may also notice that there's a print button whenever you bring up a post by clicking on its title or on a link that brings it up. Clicking on the print button will either print the post using the printer of your choice, will create an acrobat pdf, or include the post in an email. Printing a post using the button avoids printing out the site title or all the stuff that is below the post.

If you are a site author, clicking on the "Site Contributors" link at the bottom left takes you to a page with author profiles and a link that'll lead to the blog post logon page. There are also genealogy organization and links that you can get to by clicking on the "Site Genealogy" link.

References and Citations and Software, Oh My!

Having gotten into this genealogy stuff somewhat, I've found that it isn't enough to simply label clearly one's finds as I noted in the previous post. You ALSO have to incorporate them into your research so that you are directed to them. That involves references and citations. All those references and citations get incorporated into your genealogy software.

I WAS using "Family Tree Maker." However, that software is becoming rather dated and might eventually stop working entirely. Amongst other things, it is very limited in how it incorporates things like pictures and other documents into the family view. What's worse is that it seems to choke on Swedish characters that are common in my wife's family history. It also lacks any real practical help function. As a result, I've started using "Roots Magic" which fixes all those problems, but it has problems of its own. One of these is it lacks some of the "tree" views that abound in Family Tree Maker.

Stay tuned.

In OTHER News
I've done some experimentation with page layout at the North Beach Genealogical Society site. It uses blogger as its engine just as this one does. However, you can see that the layout results are quited different.

Electronic Clarity Page 2

In my previous post, here, I outlined my notions about how to organize electronic family history stuff. Added experience has caused this to evolve and THIS post is about where things are in March, 2019. This has evolved due to three factors.

First, when I research at local libraries, the "Ancestry Library" edition will only work if you are ON a library computer. Ancestry allows you to email file links to yourself, but I have found that it works better if I simply download everything to the "Downloads" file on the library computer. In addition, "Familysearch," while free to use at home, contains some images that can ONLY be seen at a Mormon Church or a designated library such as the one in Grapevine, Texas. At the end of my session, I move everything from the "Downloads" into the "All Stuff from library" folder that resides on my USB. I then sort things out further after I return home.

To facilitate work at the library, I put things in another folder that I've labeled as "look in libary" where I put notes to help get the most out of library time. Anything that I think has an image from familysearch that I can't see at home I label as "HOT." Most of those show up quickly since I know exactly what and how to search so it comes up.

Second, I find I can keep pretty much everything on a USB 3 drive that is 128Gb in size. However, USB drives are small and can be lost so frequent backup is necessary. What's more, my own USB drive fell out of my pocket in a parking lot and a car ran over it. Luckily it didn't get broken, though it did get bent and pitted from the pavement. Since that day, I have paid more attention on ways to back up simply, quickly, and flexibly. That has influenced my top level filing system, which is summarized below - the names were chosen to sort out in the right order when viewed alphabetically.  I expect that I will eventually put the backup in more than one place since recreating thousands of files would be burdensome.
  • aaaa - Stable Averill 2018 and before Scans and Photos
  • aaaa - Stable Averill stuff from Tresa - Jan 2019
  • library downloads
  • library to do
I don't back up any of these first four folders. The first two are "stable" and unlikely to ever change, and were backed up at that time. In addition, they are large files that take a lot of time to back up. In particular, the "Tresa" folder contains several gigabytes of backup files from the original Averill Family history book that was written by Clara Avery back before 1925. The second two are working folders that are where I put stuff from each library working session and keep aids to what and how I want to search while AT the library.

These folders are followed by the ones below that I back up by REPLACEMENT of all files each time before I take the USB drive away from the computer since I frequently change file names and subfolder locations as I make discoveries. I also leave the old ones at a separate location for a while in case I want to go back.  Anyway these are:
  • Nancy - Bodin and Tuft
  • Nancy - Erickson and Erickson
  • Nancy - Jacobs and Herman
  • Nancy - Peterson
  • Steve - Averill
  • Steve - Ettinger and Glenn
  • Steve - Rice and Ibbotson
  • Steve - Whitworth and Hopkinson
These groupings represent the four great grandparent families of Nancy and Steve, respectively. The first two represent Nancy's maternal family and the second two represent her paternal family. In Steve's case, the first two are paternal and the second two are maternal. If I get a lot more Thorne or Johnson files, I'll change the name of the first Steve folder to "Averill and Thorne" and the name of the last Nancy folder to "Peterson and Johnson." The byword here is to stay flexible and organized.

The last two folders don't get backed up regularly, though I'll back them up occasionally. This is because most of the stuff either doesn't change often, wouldn't be seriously missed if it were lost, or would not be real difficult to recreate if necessary.
  • Various General Stuff
  • Various Unverified or Wrong Stuff
Finally, I have evolved in how I name the files that I come up with. some organizing and storing principles are still fully valid in the electronic age. The first of these is that too many files at one level of storage eventually get confusing. When we write, outliners tell us we should have two to five points at a level. Electronics expand that number dramatically, but once the number of files requires a fair amount of scrolling and you get a lot of similar names and dates, it is time to create lower level folders.  The second is that it is easier to tell what you have already got and what you might want to get if you have an organization to the ever-valid "who what when where why and how" rule of information transmission.

One example is shown in the image below, which is the top part of the "Steve - Averill" folder. As you can see, There are folders that all relate to the main subject - that of Averill stuff - and which I have not become ready to put in the "General" or "Unverified or Wrong" folders.
Moving on to the files, some have an "aaa" prefix, meaning they don't change very often, but they go with the stuff in the folder and I don't want to have to jump around to find them. The aaa means they go right to the top in an alphabetic sort. I can also use them as shorthand for references in narratives that I periodically put together, such as some of the Averill history snippets I post on this blog.

Top Portion of "Steve - Averill" Folder

Another example is shown in the image below, which is the top part of  a subfolder in the "Nancy - Erickson and Erickson" folder. This example involves a whole bunch of similar sounding files that involve lots of different people in a foreign language. As you can see, long file names and a consistent naming approach make it easier to tell what I have, AND things that might be there that I just don't have yet. It may not be obvious, but "Jan Olsson" became the husband of  "Anna Andersdotter" before they married, moved to Amerika, and became "John and Annie Olson" when they settled in Minnesota. Swedish children of theirs who moved later would have likely had american names something like "Oles Johnson" or "Bertha Johnson." You can IMAGINE how many Ericksons, Johnsons, Olsons and such there were in Minnesota when the lumber industry was going great guns there, immigration was easy, and times were hard back in Sweden.

Top Portion of Subfolder John Erickson Family in Sweden
I find that as I learn more about the histories, that I wind up frequently renaming or adding items to existing names so that everything remains organized. My backup system is set up to support keeping backup files with the "latest and greatest" name while not keeping older names that could cause future confusion. This is true with American records as well as the Swedish ones. For example, I only recently learned the difference between "Wisner City" and "Wisner Township" which are both in Cuming County, Nebraska. Wisner City is IN Wisner Township, though that is not always the case that towns are in the same township name place. What's more, I also recently learned that if someone OWNED their farmland, I could find the farm in historic atlases. Likewise, city directories sometimes capture what people did and where they did it. This led me to be able to find the likely building in Bemidji, Minnesota where Nancy's Great Great Grandfather operated a grocery store back in the 1930's. That location is shown in the photo below that came from Google Streetview. I was thrilled to find that such places not only exist, but that you can find them. Anyone want to buy a derelict corner grocery store building in Minnesota?

Soon, I plan to better sytemetize my naming approach, so that, when sorted alphabetically, files will sort directly into a timeline of each person of interest. I may also start adding short "reference documents" of some sort so it is easy to see what is what for people that are almost entirely covered by documents with someone else's name. Stay tuned for further developments.

Google Maps Streetview of Possible John Erickson Grocery in Bemidji MN

Averill Farms in Nebraska. A Saga in Three Parts

The Averill family; led by Charles Henry Averill and Maria Louise (Elliott) moved from Connecticut to Nebraska around 1872. They lived near Wisner, which is in Cuming County. They left Nebraska sometime between 1885 and 1900, where they settled in McHenry County, Illinois. However, where people lived, and where they had farms was then, as today, not one and the same. In the move from Nebraska to Illinois, two of the oldest children stayed in Nebraska with their families, but that's another story.

There were three main farms. Actually, there were multiple farms in each farm. There's a post for each farm. They are:

Part 1 - Averill Farm(s) in Sheridan County, Nebraska

Part 2 - Averill Farm(s) in Pierce County, Nebraska

Part 3 - Averill Farm(s) in Cuming County, Nebraska

Part 1 - Averill Farms in Sheridan County, Nebraska


Averill Family in 1885
Sheridan County, Nebraska
My loyal reader might never had heard of Sheridan County, Nebraska, much less what the Averill family might have had to do with it. However, unlike the farms described in Part 2 and 3, the Sheridan County farmland was the only Nebraska land that was actually homesteaded by the Averill family. The homestead was granted in 1890 by the United States Land Office in Chadron, Nebraska. Chadron is in Dawes County, which is immediately west of Sheridan County. The farm is in the area roughly bounded by Hay Springs and Rushville. Sheridan County, Nebraska is immediately south of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, where the Wounded Knee Massacre took place.

In 1890, when the Homestead Patent was granted, Sheridan County contained about 8700 people. Today, around 5300 people remain. An image of one of the three Homestead grant letters may be seen below


In addition, a "Timber Culture" receipt was included in the packet, along with a map of the granted land, that mostly told where the land was. That is shown below for one of the three grants.


One grant was made to Charles Henry, one was made to Ida, and one was made to Edward. The locations of the three grants may be seen below, thanks to the "historygeo" website.



You can even get satellite views of the area, such as that shown below for the land grant map shown on the "pinkish" paper. THAT is shown below from the "acrevalue" website. Remember that it is 32N 45W 6 that we are interested in. Land around that area is valued at about $2300 per acre


To wrap all this up, I'll show a Google Maps 3D view of the local, at least the part where there are any buildings to look at. As you can imagine, not long after 1890, the land was sold and the Averills (except Edward and Anna) moved on to Illinois. Edward later more or less came back in 1911 and farmed in Lincoln Township, which is in McPherson County at the north edge of South Dakota. The biggest town in Lincoln Township is Wetonka, which has a population of 8. Still, that's a long way from Sheridan County.

And, before anyone asks, I have no plans to visit these farms in the immediate future.



Back to Series Index
Part 2 - Pierce County
Part 3 - Cuming County

Part 2 - Averill Farm in Pierce County Near Hadar


The second Averill farm in this series is located in Pierce County, between Hadar and the County Seat; Pierce. This farm, as far as I can tell, was never farmed by any Averills It was purchased later and then passed down through time. According to historygeo, the farm was homesteaded in 1870 by Martin Raasch. In 2019, the land is farmed for the Averills by Robert Seegebarth. You can also see nearby parcels homesteaded by Seegebarth's Great Grandfather, Ferdinand Seegebarth . Ferdinand is buried in Hadar, as are his wife, children, and grandchildren.

Original Pierce County Homesteads
By 1920, many of the original owners had either passed away or sold their farms to move elsewhere, though a significant fraction remained; even through their descendants to the present day. Since Raasch isn't buried in Nebraska, I can only guess that perhaps he moved on north to Wisconsin. In 1920, the farm was owned by Klaus Winter. There is a good story about his tenure, along with his son Herbert, to be found on findagrave. Klaus is buried in nearby Pierce (the story is there), as is his wife, Emma. His son, Herbert, is buried in Norfolk, which is a bit further south down the highway.

Averill Farm (Circled) Around 1920 - Klaus Winter Farmed it at that Time
Click for Larger Image
Sometime after Klaus gave up the farm, Bruce and Hazel Emley acquired the farm. I don't know if they bought it directly, or inherited it from Bruce's mother, Anna Waldo Emley (Averill), who was the daughter of Charles Henry Averill and Maria Louise. In any event, Anna outlived her younger son, and Bruce was childless. To make a long story short, Bruce passed away in 1960 and his wife, Hazel inherited the farm as shown in 1961 below. Hazel, when she passed in 1979 with no children, left the farm to Eleanor Averill, her cousin. Eleanor never married nor had children either, but she outlived Hazel by ten years.
Hazel Emley Owned the Averill (Circled) Pierce County Farm in 1961
Eleanor also outlived all of her own cousins.

Eleanor Averill Owned the Farm from 1979 to 1989
When Eleanor died, in 1989, she left it to Robert and Eddie Averill. Eddie was a cousin's son and Robert was another cousin's son. A third cousin's son passed away before Eleanor. Accordingly, in 1990, the farm became "Eddie Averill et al." Apparently she felt it appropriate to split the farm evenly between Edward Averill Jr's eldest son and Arthur Averill's eldest son. In any event, that's how things worked out.

Eleanor Averill Left the Farm to Eddie and Robert Averill in 1979
Steve purchased Eddie's share so half wouldn't get sold off outside the family, as had happened in Cuming County, and it became divided into a portion owned by Robert and another owned by Steve. Robert wanted the old homestead, though there was little left of it other than the trees that once surrounded the farmhouse and barn. As you can also see, the Seegebarth family picked up other land in between 1990 and 2009, which is shown below. The land on the other side of the highway from the Averill farm was part of Ferdinand's original homestead, and some of the nearby Mittelstad pieces have been owned by that family since they were homesteaded. Compare with the original homesteads.

Averill Pierce County Farm in 2009
As you can see from the last photo, the farm is still around. Nancy is talking corn talk with farm managers Marlin Krohn and Sam Zach. Steve would be in the photo, but someone had to hold the camera!

Nancy holding Corn for Inspection by Marlin Krohn and Sam Zach

Back to Series Index

Part 1 - Sheridan County
Part 3 - Cuming County

Part 3 - Averill Farm in Cuming County Near Wisner


The Cuming County Farm is the most complicated one of the three. Like the Pierce County Farm, Bruce and Hazel Emley acquired it or inherited it from Anna. Based on the timeline, I suspect this was from a will made up by Bruce Emley before he passed away in 1960. At that time, both Arthur Averill and Edward Averill Jr were both alive, but both passed away between then and the time Hazel died in 1979. . Apparently, however it happened, half of it went to Eddie Averill (Edward Averill Jr's heir) and half to Robert and Richard Averill (Arthur Averill's two children). As far as I've been able to reconstruct, Eddie sold his half to Lyle Roth and Robert got Richard's quarter in some sort of deal that involved Richard getting the Chestnut Street house in Des Plaines. According to land records, the more involved history of the Cuming Farm is shown below, along with family history events
  • 1874 – Homesteaded by George and Orlando Pease in 4 parcels totaling 320 acres
  • 1908 – Owned by C.O. Keiser according to “Geo. A. Ogle and Co”
  • 1919 – Owned by Frank B. Hughes according to “Anderson Publishing Co”
  • 1951 – Anna Emley passes away
  • 1960 – Bruce Emley, Anna’s only surviving child, passes away
  • 1962 – Arthur Averill, father of Robert and Richard, passes away
  • 1962 – Fred Emley, oldest son of Edward Averill Sr passes away with no known children
  • 1965 – Owned by Hazel Emley according to “R. C. Booth Enterprises”
  • 1966 – Owned by Calvin Stueve Wis 2 according to “Directory Service Company”
  • 1968 – Edward Averill Jr, father of Eddie, passes away
  • 1970 – Owned by Howard Denton et ux according to “Title Atlas Company”
  • 1976 – Herbert Averill, son of Edward Averill Sr passes away with no known children
  • 1978-1984  – Owned by Lyle Roth Wis 2 according to “Directory Service Company”
  • 1979 – Hazel Emley passes away
  • 1985 – Owned by Lyle Roth according to “Directory Service Company”
  • 1986-1994 – Owned by “Lyle Roth et al” according to “Farm and Home Publishers”
  • 1989 – Eleanor Averill passes away – you’ll recall she inherited the Pierce County Farm
  • 1995-2007  – Divided into 2 defined, equal size parcels between Lyle Roth and Robert Averill according to “Farm and Home Publishers”
  • 2008-2009 – Divided into 2 equal size parcels (but different than previous map) between Lyle and Robert according to “R. C. Booth Enterprises”
  • Between 2009 and 2014 – Robert Averill sold farmland to Lyle so that according to Tax assessor, Lyle now owns 252.5 acres and Averill owns 67.5 acres
  • 2015 – Deed of Distribution to Audrey Lucille Averill executed

Back to Series Index
Part 1 - Sheridan County
Part 2 - Pierce County


Averill Places

Averill, Vermont
Averill, VT - Wikipedia
Averill in Vermont is a tiny hamlet that, according to Wikipedia, has 24 people. Virtual Vermont also has a blurb on it, here. Nearby are Big Averill Lake, and Little Averill Lake. Averill was named after Samuel Averill, who got a land grant in the area way back in 1762. This was before Vermont declared its independence from New Hampshire in 1777. Samuel Averill was described in some detail in the Clara Avery book "The Averell-Averill-Avery Family, Volume 1," starting on page 242. He was one of the Averills of Washington, Connecticut. His original farm still exists and has its own web site.  It is called "Averill Farm, but I include it with the Vermont Averill locales since Samuel was involved in both. More on the Averill Farm can be found here. Samuel was buried in the Averill Cemetery, not far from the Averill Farm His findagrave memorial may be found here.

Averill Park, New York State
Averill Park in New York is a small town in Rensselaer County. About 1600 people live there. Averill Park is a part of the larger town of Sand Lake. Wikipedia does, however, have an article on Averill Park, here. There is also some added detail about Averill Park in the Clara Avery book, starting on page 549. Read all about "Major" James Gill Averill. His findagrave memorial may be found here. As you might expect, he's buried in Sand Lake Union Cemetery

Averill, Minnesota
John Averill - Clara Avery
Averill in Minnesota is named after General John T Averill, who fought in the War of the Rebellion for his adopted State of Minnesota as part of the 6th Minnesota Infantry Regiment. Mostly, the 6th fought Indians along the frontier, though they did storm Fort Blakely, Alabama, in one of the last actions of the war. Anyway, there's a brief story about the town on Wikipedia, here. There's also one on General John Averill himself, here, and starting on page 638 of Volume 2 of the Clara Avery book. John Averill is buried in Minnesota. His findagrave memorial may be found here.

Averill Park, Los Angeles, California
Not all of the "Averill" places are in the northeast. In Los Angeles, in the San Pedro area, is a place called "Averill Park." The LA summary is here, but it tells nothing about the park history or how its name came to be. We are, however, fortunate that some newspapers have started blogs of their own and they post about things like this. The Daily Breeze made an excellent post, here, on the history and features of Averill Park. Horace and his brothers are too young to find more than a minor place in the Clara Avery book but they were sons of David Averill, of Lincoln, Maine. What Clara wrote starts in Volume 2, page 614. Horace and Herbert were both buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood (home of the new LA Rams stadium). Their findagrave memorial may be found here. The third brother, Dr George, was buried back in Maine. While these Averills were from Maine, they are not closely related to Earl Averill. Which brings us to the last entry for today.

Averill Field, Snohomish, Washington
Earl Averill in Long Beach, WA
When we were all much younger than today, and PARTICULARLY when in Snohomish County, I was often asked if we were related to Earl Averill and his family. Well, that's a whole 'nother story. In truth I believe I am his eighth cousin, once or twice removed. Back before the American Revolution, some Averills moved north into what is now Maine, while OUR branch of the Averills moved south into Connecticut. Anyway, Averill Field was named not long after Earl Averill left Snohomish for fame with the Cleveland Indians (he's in both the Major League and Snohomish HS Halls of Fame). There's a good blog story on it, here. As you can tell from the article, Snohomish tore down the field over the objections of the Averill family. However, sometimes things come BACK. After much delay (and possible some illegalities by the City of Snohomish, Averill Field is being rebuilt. The latest Facebook story on it can be found here. Even more recently, it appears that Snohomish has caved in early in January and is renaming the place Averill Field. THAT story is here. Speaking of which, if you are ever in Long Beach, Washington, stop by Marsh's Free Museum. There's an arcade game that features Earl Averill. THAT is shown at left and below. Earl is buried at the GAR Cemetery in Snohomish. His findagrave memorial may be found here. His son, sometimes known as "Earl Jr," recently passed away in Tacoma. Earl Jr also played baseball for Snohomish HS, as well as for a number of MLB teams.

Earl Averill; Center Field. In Real Life, he Hit a Line Drive that Broke Dizzy Dean's Toe

Rice Ancestors

Reading an Ancestor Tree
This is a post in which  I summarize what I have found out about the Rice Family. As near as I can tell, the people known as "Rice" originated from Nottinghamshire. Most of them were born in "Barton in Fabis," though it appears another Rice family lived about a mile away in "Clifton in Glapton."

About 1825, John Rice moved to Great Grimsby got married, and then on to Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. They stayed there for another generation.

Some time around 1875, Thomas Rice moved the family from Gainsborough to the Sheffield area. At the time, this was part of Yorkshire West Riding (the other two parts of Yorkshire were North Riding and East Riding). Today, that'd be in South Yorkshire.

It was while in Ecclesfield (near Sheffield), that William, Thomas's son, met and married Rhoda Ibbotson. Pretty much the entire Ibbotson family was from the West Riding. With one exception, they were all from less than ten miles from Ecclesfield, where Thomas Rawson was born in 1896. Rhoda Ibbotson's mother's side of the family were all from High or Low Bradfield, going back to at least around 1500. In fact, the farm where Rhoda's mother and paternal grandfather was born was called "Smallfield," and it still exists. A photo of it from Wikimedia may be seen here. Her grandfather's wife's Bramall side of the family historically lived at "Rocher End" and "Rocher Head." There is a photo of the ruins of Rocher Head here.

Anyway, the first three generations going back are shown below. After that, click on any of the images or links to bring up a large ancestor tree for each ancestor family branch.

At this time, I haven't chased back the Whitworth and Hopkinson family, though there's probably more info due to the efforts of the Whitworth cousins of Eileen and Audrey. More on THAT later!


 1st gen  2nd gen 3rd gen 


William Rice (click here for ancestor tree)
Thomas Rawson Rice
May Rice
Rhoda Ibbotson (click here for ancestor tree)
Audrey Lucille Rice
Eileen Whitworth Rice
Samuel Henry Whitworth (click here for ancestor tree)
Lucy Whitworth
Sam Whitworth
Lucy Hopkinson (click here for ancestor tree)

Most Rice Ancestors Originate in These Places


William Rice Ancestor Tree is below:
Rhoda Ibbotson Ancestor Tree is below:
Samuel Henry Whitworth Ancestor Tree is below:
Lucy Hopkinson Ancestor Tree is below:

Which Averill is Which?

Pomfret News Clipping about Hannah and Her Children
Here's a puzzle for anybody that cares to solve it. I have a photo that contains (among other people) Joseph Warren Averill and Rufus Burton Averill. I believe the photo was taken on Thanksgiving in 1879, in Pomfret, Connecticut. I also believe that the photo contains all NINE of Lewis and Hannah Averill's children that lived past childhood. The news clipping at the top is why I harbor this belief. The photo has Charles Henry Averill identified, and it also has one of the other younger brothers misidentified. The puzzle is to determine which photo below belongs to which brother. Clicking on any photo will bring up a much larger version. Right clicking on one of the Brother photos will allow you to open it in a new tab and view it full sized.

Brother Number 1

Brother Number 1
Brother Number 1 is seated in the front row, on the right side of the photo (his right hand is at the left of this photo). There is a woman seated to his right. The woman is seated next to Hannah Averill (Burton).











Brother Number 2

Brother Number 2
Brother Number 2 is seated in the front row, on the left side of the photo (his right hand is mostly covered up by his left arm). Hannah Averill (Burton) is seated to his left.











From Clara Avery's excellent book on the Averill family, following are the synopses she had on Joseph and on Rufus. So I put it to my loyal reader, which one is Joseph and which one is Rufus?

Clara Avery Synopsis on Joseph Averill


Clara Avery Synopsis on Rufus Averill