(continued from December 2005 issue)��.)

Father rented two upstairs rooms in the building next door, ordered a stock of undertaking goods from Kansas City and was ready for business two days after the fire. The walls of the stone structure were repaired and extended at the back, and the building rebuilt so that we had seven rooms for a home with a correspondingly sized store below. After a month of living in a rented house we moved back into this home. In this combination of business and home we children grew up, assisting, as we could in the store and doing our part in the work of the home. In March Pearlie was born and warmly welcomed by all the family.

Our home life was influenced by the English ancestry and training of our parents. Mother used many English dishes in her menus � roast beef was frequently the meat for our noon day dinner and with it was served suet pudding; which was not a pudding at all but a substitute for bread, that was made of flour, chopped beef suet, salt and water and boiled in a cloth. Plum pudding on Christmas was an institution and never lacking. Raspberry and currant pudding, meat pies and turnovers, and tarts were familiar dishes.

For recreation in our younger days we played house in the coffin boxes piled in the back yard and made doll furniture from scraps of wood and coffin linings. A horse and wagon were kept for delivery purposes and with this the boys and I went fishing in the summer and nutting in the fall. In the winter bobs replaced the wheels and we enjoyed sleigh riding. We learned to skate on the Marias des Cygnes and the boys learned to swim an accomplishment not considered suitable for girls. We played games with neighbor children after school but never were we allowed on the street after sundown. Our evenings were spent sewing carpet rags, for which we were paid a penny a pound, studying lessons or playing authors, checkers, and dominoes. We all took our turn �minding the store� while Father was upstairs eating his meals or about town on errands. Not that we could wait on customers but we could find out what was wanted and by knocking on the floor summon Father or Mother to make the sale. Father was too cautious to incur the expense of hiring help which was probably not the best judgment on his part.

The discipline of our home, as we were growing up was complicated by the fact that in Father�s home, his mother took all responsibility for the discipline and in Mother�s home, her father was the authority. Mother really did the disciplining but when she needed help she always promised �to tell your father� and usually he did not back her up. However, we were taught to mind without questioning and got along together with no more than the usual amount of friction.

Mother was influenced by her father�s attitude toward religion, though she was never as strict as he. When we older children were young, every doll and toy was put away on Saturday night, to remain until Monday morning. No games of any kind were allowed. The entire family attended church and Sunday School and the afternoon was usually spend in reading. Father was fond of walking, and after being confined to his business the entire week, it was his recreation to walk miles into the country on Sunday afternoon. He often took the boys on these tramps. Mother didn�t openly object but she could never get away from the thought that this was breaking the Sabbath. She was as consistent with herself for she always did extra cooking on Saturday, that the Sunday dinner would not prevent her attending church.

Our family went through the usual number of accidents and experiences of large families. Ed once came home with typhoid fever and was sick for six weeks; another time with a broken leg that kept him on crutches an entire winter. Rob fell off a box car when he was trying to walk the top of a string of cars on the track back of our home. A bad cut on his head was the result. Henry fell into a trough of water from which the ice had been cut on the river and was rescued by one of the workmen and told to run home which he did as well as he could considering the fact that his clothes froze stiff in a short time. Johnnie, as we then called him, went through a siege of many months of inflammatory rheumatism, which kept Mother worried for fear it would go to his heart.

Fannie and Ed were ten years older than the oldest of my mother�s children and because during their childhood the family was having a hard struggle to get along, they did not have many of the advantages we younger children later enjoyed. White the family lived on the claim in Osage Co., they had little chance for schooling and even in Ottawa the opportunities were not as great as they were ten years later. There was no high school until after the new Central building was built in 1874. Fannie assisted Mother with the work of the home and in the care of the younger children. In 1880 Mother made a visit to Aunt Dorman Bushnell, who was living in Osborne Co. Here, after the Civil War in which her second husband was killed, she and her sons had taken government claims. Her health was very poor and she was in need of help so, on Mother�s return, Fannie went out to assist her in the home. The following year she and Henry Dorman were married. They resided on the farm for a number of years and here four children were born: Ellen, Florence (who died in childhood), Edward and Leslie. Because of Fannie�s ill health they later moved to Oakesdale, Washington, where they made their home for the remainder of their years and where Ellen and Leslie are now living.

Edward as a boy was not fond of school so in his teens began working with his father where he learned to be an expert finisher of wood. Father�s business was not in a condition to need him continually, so he worked at other jobs as he could obtain the. He was He was the express clerk on the Santa Fe railroad between Kansas City and Ottawa for some time. After his marriage he moved to St Louis where he lived for a number of years and worked at his trade. Here he was an active member of the Baptist church serving on its official board. Later he and his wife returned to Ottawa where he lived until his death.

As I look back on our childhood I realize that one of our great privileges was attending the Ottawa Chautauqua Assembly. This organization came to Ottawa about 1883 and held a two weeks session every summer for more than quarter of a century. This Assembly, patterned after the one in Chautauqua, New York, was more than a series of lectures and entertainments. It was a school in which all kinds of instruction were offered. Classes in Bible study for all ages taught by Dr. Jesse L. Hulburt, a large chorus conducted by Dr. Sherwin, and classes in literature, elocution, physical culture, art, and many others gave us an opportunity found no where else in the west. Two lectures or entertainments were presented each day and here we heard the country�s finest speakers: - Dr. Conwell, in his famous lecture, �Acres of Diamonds�, Dr. Gunsaulus, George R. Wendling, Bob Burdette, Wm Jennings Bryan and many others of equal fame. Our mother realized the cultural value of the Assembly and each year not only provided us with season tickets but saw to it that we attended the classes and lectures. I have four diplomas and two seals earned by passing the examination in six years of Bible study taught by Dr. Hulburt, than whom, there was no finer teacher in the country. I was proud of the fact that I had not missed a lecture in thirteen years. These years were the time when memory was most keen and I find now that I can recall a fairly distinct outline of many of these famous lectures that have been an inspiration through the years.

November 30, 1884 Father and Mother gave their only large party in celebration of their twentieth wedding anniversary. About a hundred guests were invited and most of them clubbed together and presented Mother with a complete dinner and tea set of gold band Haviland china.

At the time of the fire, Grace had finished the eighth grade. Influenced by his English ideas Father decided that she should stay out of school and help him in the store. Grace was a quiet studious and dependable girl and although anxious to go to high school, she did not question Father�s decision. She attended night school that winter to learn bookkeeping so she could take over that part of the work. From a man, who spent several weeks repairing some of the organs injured in the fire, she learned how to clean and repair these instruments. She took readily to all the work of the store and was really efficient help for a girl of her age. I stayed home the second semester of my Freshman year in high school and Grace attended the preparatory department at the college. After Rob had been one year in high school he decided he wanted to quit and work in the store, and Grace than had the chance to return to college and in this year finished the two years course, which was equivalent to a three years high school course. Two years later Rob was very anxious to return to high school but Father could not spare him so he never finished the course.

In 1886 Father�s hearse burned in a livery stable fire and he went back to New York to purchase a new one. Aunt Laura was then a widow with two small boys, Charlie and John. He persuaded her there were greater opportunities for her in the West, so she decided to come to Ottawa. Father brought Charlie home with him and Aunt Laura and John, came the following year.

In the summer of �87 five of the children, Grace, Rob, Will, Laura and Charlie had malarial fever � three of them had serious cases of typhoid malaria. With no help. Except what I could giver her, Mother took entire care of all the children and when they all recovered Dr. Davis gave her the credit. Mother always thought this sickness might have been caused by decaying refuse from the grocery store next door, so she urged Father to buy a house on Poplar St. which was offered at a bargain. Considering his age and the condition of his business, this was a serious venture. Father was always anxious to please Mother so he made the purchase � trading on it a smaller house that he had acquired a year or so before. In the spring of �88 we moved to this home, a large ten-room house two blocks from the college and there the family lived eleven years. Mother rented rooms to college students and later, during the depression of the early �90s, kept some college girl boarders to help with the family expenses.

In the spring of �88 I graduated from high school and Grace from the preparatory course of the college. I had always said I was going to be a teacher and was ambitious for a college education. I persuaded Father that if I had a year in college I would have a better chance to get a school as I was small and young looking for my age. So I entered college, but in March had a chance to get the Hood school two miles south of town for the spring term with a promise of it for the next year. I taught this school twelve months, staying at home and going back and forth in a cart or horseback. Grace taught the Rock Creek school that year. This was a country school with two teachers. Grace taught the primary room but after a few months the elderly man, who taught the upper grades, proved to be such a failure he was dismissed and she asked to teach the entire school. This she did to the satisfaction of pupils and patrons. She boarded with the Holmes family and by the end of the school year was engaged to be married to the son, Hosea Pope Holmes. Grace�s success, with this school, enable her to obtain one of the best schools of the county the next year. After this year of teaching she was married in July 1890.

The wedding was a quiet one, including as guests only the families and a few intimate friends. Rev. C.J. Pope, then pastor of the Baptist Church performed the ceremony. They went immediately to housekeeping in the �little house� on the Holmes farm. Mr. Holmes had that year built a new house. Father gave them the furniture for their home and Grace had been busy all the year making her bedding and fancy things for her home. A few weeks after their marriage, Hote took sick with inflammatory rheumatism which kept him in bed for six weeks. Their first baby was born April 22 and named Mary Alice for her two grandmothers. Hote�s health was not good and two years later they decided to move to Oregon where his older brother was living. Mamie born in Jan �93 was only six weeks old when they left Ottawa on this long journey to spend the rest of their lives in Oregon. They lived first at Salem but as the climate there was not favorable they selected Ashland, a mountain town, and moved there although they knew no one. There Hote�s health improved and he obtained work in a grocery store which he later purchased and operated successfully for many years. Their sons Wilbur, Harlan and Carroll were born here.

I finished my college course in 1893. I realized that I was getting more than my brothers and sisters of educational advantages so I did everything I could to help with my expenses and later paid back part of the money Father spent on my college course. Schools were then very hard to obtain but I was fortunate in securing a position in the Ottawa High School as teacher of Mathematics and History. After teaching three years I was married July 29, 1896 to Harlan Quincy Banta. This wedding was also a quiet home affair. Rev. J.T. Crawford, who had supplied the pulpit at the Baptist Church the preceding Sunday, was the officiating clergyman and Cary Wilson and Sadie Sample our attendants. We went to Oberlin for a three weeks visit then to Lake Charles, LA. where Harlan taught in a small congregational college. Two years later he obtained a position in a township high school in Taylorville, IL, where we made our home for five years. Laura and Pearle each spent one year with us here and attended high school. Grace was born in Ottawa in June �98 and Helen in Taylerville two years later. Illinois climate did not proved suitable to Harlan�s health so in 1903 we moved to Oberlin where he was elected principal of the County High School which was then being organized. He taught this school three years and then purchased the Oberlin Reller Mill and has continued in business to the present time. Two fires were serious set backs and after the last one in 1930 he changed his location and built an elevator and feed mill specializing in commercial feeds. Howard, Lila and Lola and Harlan were born in Oberlin. Rob inherited more of his father�s sense of humor than any of the other children. He had an excellent memory and was good storyteller. He learned the Undertaking business while working in the store. Ambitious to learn a profession, when Will was old enough to take his place in the store, he decided to study dentistry. He enrolled in the Dental College in Kansas City and obtained work in a picture store to help pay his expenses. He completed the course and took the Kansas State board examination and received his certificate to practice. In July 1900 he was married to Mildred Wangarin of Vining, KS. He practiced Dentistry for several years but as times were hard and collections difficult, he decided to take advantage of an opportunity to go into the Undertaking business in Osawatomie. Here his two sons were born, Jack in November 1904 and Robert in June 1910. Robert lived only one year. Jack grew to manhood to lose his life in a tragic automobile accident. Rob died in September 1917.

Henry was the musical one of our eight. Grace and Pearle both had ability along this line but Henry�s was unusual. He began to sing as soon as he could talk and could whistle any tune that he ever heard. When he was about eight years old Mother started him with piano lessons but as he wold rather play street songs by ear than practice his lesson, she did not keep him at it. He too quit high school before finishing his course and went to work in the Herald�s office to learn the printer�s trade. After working several years he took one year in the Academy of the college, completing a course equivalent to a high school course. Later he went to Chicago where he worked at his trade. Here he was married to Mira Spearing in 1910. A year later Will offered him a position in the store, so he took a course in embalming in Chicago and came back to Ottawa. At Will�s death he bought the business and continued to operate it until 1930 when he sold it and later located in Long Beach, CA. When a young man he was one of a male quartette which composed the choir of the Baptist Church. As the other members of the quartette were older and experienced singers this was splendid practice for him. This training together with some private vocal lessons developed his fine tenor voice and gave him an ability in reading music. While in Chicago he was choir leader in one of the churches for some time. His work in printing gave him a knowledge of English and public affairs which took the place in his development of a college education.

Will had the happiest disposition of any of the family. Why he quit high school I do not remember, but he did quit about the middle of his course and went to work in the store. By this time Father was getting too old to keep up with the times and competition was keen that the business was slow. Will was ambitious. About that time an Osteopath came to Ottawa, opened an office and started a school. Will became interested and decided to take the course. He spent a year studying during his spare time in the store and attending the classes in the evening. As a doctor�s course it was a farce but it gave him a knowledge of anatomy that was a help to him in his embalming. In 1898 he was married to Maude Brinkman. He worked for a time in Kansas City and later returned to Ottawa and purchased the business of his father, conducting it for a number of years with a partner and later alone. His genial disposition and willingness to comply with any request made him popular with the people and contributed to his success in his business. His son Robert was born in 1904. Later he built a fine home on Locust street where he lived until his death at the early age of thirty-seven. His wife and son later moved to Kansas City where Robert is connected with the Business Men�s Assurance Co.

John, the youngest of the boys, as a child was mischievous and good natured. During his long siege of rheumatism Mother humored him more than she did any of the children. He also had a share of Father�s sense of humor and loved to play jokes. He did well in school except in spelling � his trouble with this subject was a family joke. He graduated from high school before taking his turn in the store. After Will took over the store John worked at several different jobs. He was fond of playing a horn in a band and for a time followed this as a profession. He later took a course in embalming, passed the state examination and received his license. He worked for a while in a store in Wellington. He was married to Ella Shea in Kansas City in 1913 and shortly after went into the Undertaking business in Woodward, OK, which business he still owns. His wife being a trained nurse had no trouble passing the state board examination to become a licensed embalmer. Besides being very active in civic and charity affairs she has worked with him in the business and deserves equal credit for their success. An attractive Funeral Home which they built, furnished and equipped in modern style is an evidence of their success. Two sons were born in Woodward, John Jr and Charles Claire. A tragic accident when he was seven years old caused the death of Charles Claire. John Jr finished high school and Junior college in Woodward and graduated from the Fine Arts department of Oklahoma University.

Laura, as a child, was full of energy and initiative. She was very fond of babies and often borrowed one from a neighbor to care for. Being younger than four boys she had to take more than her share of teasing. She finished grade school and took one year in the Ottawa high school and her Sophmore year with us in Taylorville. On her return home Mother�s health was not good and she was needed at home so she gave up her high school course, but found time to take some work in a dressmaker�s shop. In the fall of 1900 Mother underwent an operation for cancer of the breast. As she was never again very strong, Laura took the responsibility of the housekeeping and worked part of the time as a clerk in a jewelry store. Three years later the dread disease returned. Laura gave up her job and for six months took care of Mother as efficiently as a trained nurse could have done. The rest of the family owe a debt to our younger sisters that we can never repay for their devotion and self sacrifice in the care of our mother during the intense suffering of her last illness. Pearle did the housekeeping and Laura the nursing and thus save Mother the discomfort of having strangers with her. Grace came and helped what she could but Laura carried all the responsibility. Laura has always been the good Samaritan of the family. When my twins were born and I was in desperate need of help she came and took a nurse�s place. When Rob�s and Jack�s boys died she went to their homes to help. She has the happy faculty of seeing what is needed and the willingness and ability to supply the need. In the summer of 1904 she was married to Charles Quin. She has been �Auntie Quin� to all the children of the neighborhood and has helped children in many of the less fortunate families. Charles and she took Paul Gaynor into their home when he was five years old and through the years have done for him all that parents could do for a son. Charles has for many years conducted a successful furniture business and now has a fine double store stocked with the best in this line. Laura has been active in Civic and social affairs and a leader in the Woman�s Union in the Baptist church.

Pearle was the pet of the family but the humoring never seemed to spoil her. She began when very young to take music lessons of Mrs Brockway, one of the Conservatory teachers. She was painstaking and conscientious in her practicing and made good progress. When only twelve she decided she would get some pupils and give piano lessons. Without help from anyone she obtained her pupils and for years was not without a class. She attended high school her Freshman year in Ottawa and her Sophmore year in Taylorville. On her return to Ottawa she decided to put all her time on her music. She graduated from the Conservatory in 1905. In addition to her work on the piano she had taken pipe organ lessons. She served as pianist in the Baptist Sunday School for many years and as substitute organist for the church. In 1909 she was married to Howard Hayes and continued to live in the home and care for her father until his death. She has been active in church work and for many years has been an officer in the Ottawa University Educational society. Howard is vice president of the State Bank of Ottawa.

In the late �90s the family at home had dwindled and the big house was becoming a burden to Mother. Then, too, she was anxious to be near the church so Father decided to remodel the apartment over the store and move back there.

In 1898 Father and Mother attended the Exposition in Omaha and visited the Woodmans. Three years later they took an extended trip to the west coast, visiting Grace in Ashland, Fannie in Oakesdale, WA, and many friends in other cities. That they thoroughly enjoyed this experience is shown in Mother�s diary, which she kept during the trip. Father took Mother�s death very hard. Since he was twelve years older he expected that she would out live him. However, he did not burden others and during his remaining years was fairly contented, agreeable, and anxious to make as little trouble as possible for Laura and Pearle who cared for him.

On his eightieth birthday the girls had a family party in his honor. All of his ten children came home and a very enjoyable reunion it was.

Considering his education and experience, Father, through the years, did remarkably well with his business. He was always a hard worker, honest and fair in all his dealings. I t was a matter of pride with him that he always paid his bills before he was drawn on. He had a good mind with a flair for mathematics. He could figure any practical problem and was sure he was right although he could not always explain how he obtained the result. He loved to play checkers, dominoes and whist. He was mild of disposition � very few times can I ever remember of seeing him angry. Although not demonstrative, he was fond of his children and would do anything in his power for them. That he did more for me in helping me get an education and for Will in letting him take over the business was due to circumstances and not to any desire to do more for one than another. His weakness was attending auctions, his recreation in his later years, and attending baseball games. He was an interested and conscientious member of the Baptist church, a teetotaler and worker for temperance. He was a Republican and proud of the fact that he voted for Lincoln and for every Republican candidate thereafter.

Mother�s life was full of care and hard work. To bring into the world ten children and see eight of them grow to maturity would not indicate a life of ease. Although she kept help part of the time the worries of her every day life were many and I wonder that she was able to surmount all the difficulties as efficiently as she did. With the exception of severe headaches at times, her health was fairly good until she was stricken with the cancer. She was always ambitious for the children and would make any sacrifice for their welfare. Reading was her recreation and crocheting her fancy work. In her later years she crocheted a lace doily for each one of her children. Her social life was confined to the neighborhood, the church and W.C.T.U. I do not remember that she ever gave a party for herself but she was always willing to help the children with their parties. I am sure that she would have said that her life had been a happy and satisfactory one.

In looking back over the lives of our ancestors I think we Chenoweths have reason to be thankful for our inheritance. Our parents were both persons of integrity and high ideals, who did their part in the work that fell to their hands to the best of their ability and instilled into their children the principles of honesty, responsibility and right living. Mary Chenoweth Banta 1939

(Roots Web Review; Roots Web�s Weekly E-zine, 28 Dec 2005, Vol 8, No 52)

It is New Year�s Eve 1852 and Henry Hydenwell sits at his desk by candlelight. He dips his quill pen in ink and begins to write his New Year�s resolutions.

1. No man is truly well-educated unless he learns to spell his name at least three different ways within the same document. I resolve to give the appearance of being extremely well-educated in the coming year.
2. I resolve to see to it that all of my children will have the same names that my ancestors have used for six generations in a row.
3. My age is no one�s business but my own. I hereby resolve to never list the same age or birth year twice on any document.
4. I resolve to have each of my children baptized in a different church � either in a different faith or in a different parish. Every third child will not be baptized at all or will be baptized by an itinerant minister who keeps no records.
5. I resolve to move to a new town, new county, or new state at least once every 10 years � just before those pesky enumerators come around asking silly questions.
6. I will make every attempt to reside in counties and towns where no vital records are maintained or where the courthouse burns down every few years.
7. I resolve to join an obscure religious cult that does not believe in record keeping or in participating in military service.
8. When the tax collector comes to my door, I�ll loan him my pen, which has been dipped in rapidly fading blue ink.
9. I resolve that if my beloved wife Mary should die, I will marry another Mary.
10. resolve not to make a will. Who needs to spend money on a lawyer?

Dear Friends and family,

On March 1, 2006, Rev. William E. Akehurst, beloved husband of Lois {nee Kidd}; devoted father of William K., Brian E., and John C. Akehurst; devoted father-in-law of Terri J., Joy L., and Jennifer A. Akehurst; devoted grandfather of Josiah, Christiana, Julia, Brian, Grahme, Jared, Jillian, and Myatt; devoted brother of Lauren Akehurst, Doris Tarleton and the late Carville M. Akehurst, passed away.

Interment was at Camp Chapel Cemetery.

Beachmont Christian Camp
6433 Mt Vista Road
Kingsville, MD 21087

Contributions may be made on his behalf to:
Franklin Graham Festival � Rev Bill E. Akehurst Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 7479
Baltimore, MD 21227

He served in leadership in both of these ministries and was currently planning the Metro Maryland 2006 Franklin Graham Festival.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Blessings,
The Akehurst Family

Bill Chinworth

PS: The reason given for Shirley and Richard Harris's long trek through the Chenoweth history was from the girlhood of Shirley whose Grandmother, much adored for her story telling ways, was a Chenoweth. My, how some of us do go on.....