Happy Birthday Aunt Helen

''It perhaps wasn't the most auspicious beginning. Her father Cecil Oscar Werst had died after a brief illness the previous October and her mother Grace Colby Werst was struggling to support herself and less than two year old daughter Betty Lorraine Werst. Grace and Cecil had been living in Spokane, Washington where they had married 8 Aug 1924.  Grace and Betty went to stay with her sister Madge and husband Hal Massey at their home in Pendleton, Oregon. This became the birthplace of Helen Louise Werst.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Helen pictured above holding chicken at Pine Lawn Farm, near Newberg, Oregon with sister Betty holding chicks. Circa 1935

William Wallace Colby

Yesterday was the anniversary of my great-grandfather William Wallace Colby's death. There is some confusion about his name. Surviving papers bearing his signature, invariably are written W. W. Colby.
His youngest daughter Grace Colby stated William Wallace on his death certificate, however found in his papers are numerous letters addressed to Uncle Wallace.  The Colby side of the family lists him as Wallace William Colby. It's most likely that his staunchly Presbyterian Scots ancestry chose William Wallace as his name.
Things looked very bleak March 2, 1936. Widowed twice, W. W. Colby had provided a home at Pine Lawn Farm outside Newberg, Oregon for his widowed daughter Grace and her two daughters Betty and Helen Werst. They raised chickens and prunes on the 11 acre farm. The prune dryer on the property had burned down the year before so now he had to pay to have his prune crop dried. It was money that he did not have. Sometime that winter, W. W. cut a leg badly and knowing there were no funds to pay for a doctor, tried to take care of it himself not even seeking Grace's assistance. When he finally showed her the leg, gangrene had set in and it was too late to save him.
My mother remembers going with her Mom to Riverside Mausoleum in Portland when W. W. was taken their for cremation. His remains were then shipped to Kansas to be interred with the remains of his first wife Mamie Hugunin Colby.
W. W. Colby had died with just $12.00 in the bank and there were no funds to provide a headstone. My mother and I visited the cemetery in Phillipsburg, Kansas in 2000 and she made arrangements then for a headstone.
Her father's death was the second time my Grandmother Grace Colby Werst Branchflower had been left mostly penniless with two young daughters to support.

Mamie Lizzie II

I realized after posting on Mamie's birthday Thursday that my sister had sent me another photo of Mamie from the Hugunin-Colby family Bible. I believe the photo was taken in Phillipsburg or Kirwin, Kansas about the time of her marriage to William Wallace Colby (1884). Kirwin was a small community about 10 miles from the County seat in Phillipsburg so it may be that the photographer was located in the more populous Phillipsburg.

Happy Birthday Mary Elizabeth Hugunin Colby

Today is February 29th or Leap Day, a once every four years occurrence, it is also the 144th anniversary of my Great Grand Mother Mary Elizabeth Hugunin Colby's birth. Mamie Lizzie or just Mamie, as she was known to family and friends, was born in Edgefield Junction, Davidson County, Tennessee on February 29th, 1864. Today this area has been completely absorbed by Nashville, but during the Civil War it was an important railroad hub and the site of a battle. This is an important consideration in Mamie's story as it is the central reason for her birth in Edgefield Junction.



(Above photo is Mamie on the left with her daughters in back Madge and Pansy, my grandmother Grace is in front). The photo was taken at Pine Lawn Farm just outside Newberg, Yamhill County, Oregon in 1911 or 12).

Her mother, Sarah Amanda Gibson's family had been in the area since the early 1800s.
According to the Hugunin Family Bible Sarah Amanda's father Newsom Gibson was born in Davidson County 13 April 1817 and her mother Elizabeth Jane Jones was born in Tennessee 2 May 1821. Their parentage remains one of my most frustrating dead ends or genealogically speaking "brick walls." They married in Davidson County 29 Dec 1840.


Mamie's father was Van Epps Hugunin. He was serving as 1st Sgt with the 13th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment that was garrisoned in Edgefield Junction following the battle. I imagine they met during the course of the Union troop occupation of Nashville. Van Epps was mustered out of the Army on Nov. 19th, 1864 and he and Amanda married Jan. 8, 1865. Van Epps and a partner set up a Mercantile in the Edgefield Junction area and the couple planned on creating a life there. Mamie was born there in 1868.

Most of us do not remember that the Nashville area was the birthplace of the Klu Klux Klan. In addition to targeting the black population, they also targeted Northerners who were living in the south. I imagine that is what drove the family north. In the 1870 census they have returned to Johnstown, Rock County, Wisconsin which was Van Epps' home. His mother, Janet Van Epps was still alive and she entertained Mamie with stories of her father Evert Van Epp's service during the Revolutionary War. Mamie later told these stories to her daughter Grace Colby.

Southerner Amanda was not happy in the harsh Wisconsin winter. The family moved on to Kirwin, Phillips County, Kansas before May 1879. They established a prosperous farm about 2 miles out of town and became involved in the community. Living on the next property was a young William Wallace Colby who had come from Cuba, Lake County, Illinois to help his widowed Aunt farm.

They married 16 Oct 1884 in Kirwin but not before he had passed his 2nd grade teacher's examination. He later became superintendent of schools in Phillips County. Mamie also became a teacher as did their daughters Ethel, Edythe and Pansy.


They became parents of five daughters; Ethel May Colby 1887-1949; Edythe Pearl Colby 1888-1963; Marguerite "Madge" Colby 1890-1947; Pandora Blossom Colby 1891-1972; and my grandmother Ada Grace Colby 1902-1973.

The family left Kansas to go to the 'milder' climate of the Willamette River Valley in Oregon in 1911. The milder climate was supposed to be better for Mamie's health. Today we suppose that she suffered from poly cystic kidney disease as did three of her daughters, her brother Walter and several of Walter's children.

My grandmother described her mother as tall and thin, very much a proper but not prim Southern Lady who loved to cook and entertain. She had a wide circle of friends and their home was the center of their social circle. The family made a big deal of the leap year's when they could really celebrate Mamie's birthday on the 29th.
I've been lucky enough to end up with Grace Colby's recipe box and notebook which contains many of her mother's recipes with notations. I'm including a recipe that would make a great cake to celebrate Mamie's 144th birthday tomorrow.

Chocolate Potato Cake
(Mama's 1917 this is my grandmother's notation)


Cream together 2 Cups sugar and 2/3 cup butter
add, while hot 1 cup mashed potatoes
add a pinch of salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves
Add the following:
4 well beaten eggs
2 squares Baker's Chocolate melted
2/3 cup sweet milk
2 cups flour sifted with 2 tsp Baking Powder
Add last 1 cup chopped walnuts

(I imagine this should be poured into greased and floured cake or loaf pans).

Bake at 350 degrees F 25 -30 min for layers and 50 - 60 minutes for a loaf.


Filling or Frosting

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup sweet milk
butter the size of an egg
2 squares melted chocolate


Boil until it forms a ball in cold water "softball stage". Beat until thick enough to spread.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMIE! Your family has not forgotten you.

Meant to get to this on Saturday...
Feb. 5th was the 115th anniversary of my Grandmother's birth. Hazel Bynon Allen was born in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio 05 Feb 1896. The family only lived there a few years before moving back to be near her father's family in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Allen family had moved to Tennessee from Hector in Schuyler County, New York about 1882.
Hazel's father Chester Bynon Allen was the son of Jehiel Talmadge Allen and his wife Martha Bynon. I've onlly been able to trace the Allen's back to Elijah Marshall Allen who was born in New Jersey in 1780. His son William Freeman Allen was born in Hope NJ in 1800 and married Sarah Larue in 1822 in Warren County, New Jersey. They moved to New York state by 1830 and to Hector by 1840. Their son Jehial was the 8th of their nine children.
Jehial was listed as a carpenter in the 1863 listing for Hector Township:men and their occupations. He married Martha Bynon 27 Oct 1864 in Schuyler County, New York. Her parents had immigrated to the US from Wales. The family story says that her father William Bynon was to sail ahead of his wife, but Elizabeth Maurice Bynon would not stay behind and stowed-away on the ship. William had to work off the cost of her passage. He became superintendent of a coal mine in Pennsylvania. I haven't been able to determine where.
Martha Bynon Allen was one of our ancestors who lived the longest. She was born in PA 7 Feb 1838 (that would make today the 173rd anniversary of her birth) and she died in Knoxville, 22 Apr 1934. My Dad's baby book lists gifts he received from her.
I imagine that she is one the source of red hair in the family as her son Chester was a red head as was Hazel.
Happy Birthday Hazel and Martha!

Doing the Genealogy Happy Dance

Just found a portrait of Van Epps Hugunin on Historic Mapworks from a Phillips County Kansas Atlas from 1902 :)

Granddaddy Cone

Today is Granddaddy's 112th birthday! Charles Newton Cone was born in Worthington, Nobles County MN on 6 Dec 1898. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Charles Shepard Newton. His older brother had been named for the paternal grandfather, William Warner Cone.

He really grew up in Mapleton, Utah where his family including grandparents and even a great-grandfather (John Champion Clarke) had moved in 1900. The family had gone there as lay missionaries for the Presbyterian Church to save Mormon women from polygamy. Granddaddy often talked about the difficulties of growing up one of the only gentile families in the area south of Provo, Utah.

One of the stories I remember him sharing about his birthday talked about the celebration in 1941. The family waited until the next day, Sunday Dec. 7th to have a late afternoon dinner at the Multnomah Club and celebrate. My siblings will remember eating there nearly every time we visited our Cone Grandparents. The family was enjoying their meal when the word came that Pearl Harbor had been attacked shocking everyone.

So... Happy Birthday Granddaddy!