Back to work!

I will be returning to my work after a several month hiatus! 

I finally can get some new materials and software and get this ball rolling again. 

E.A. Bishop led a fine Christian Life

A big thank you to Carol of the Tehama County Genealogical and Historical Society for sending me news paper clippings. Below is the obituary of my Great Great grandfather Erastus Asbury Bishop.

Red Bluff Daily News and Time Sentinel, Red Bluff California 22, June 1922

 

E.A. Bishop led a fine Christian Life

E.A. Bishop, pioneer of the Los Molinos colony, passed away at the sisters hospital in Red Bluff Tuesday June 21^st at 2:30 P.M. following a lingering illness. Erastus Asbury was born in Pottawattamie county, Iowa, March 20 1853, being at the time of death 79 years of age.

He crossed the plains in a covered wagon with his parents, being six months of age when they reached the state of Oregon. It was here he grew to manhood, wooed and won Miss Margaret Jane Compton, who he took as his bride on April 11 1874 at Scio, Oregon, and who has been his faithful companion of over 57 years. To this union were born seven sons and three daughters, two of whom have passed to their reward.

With the members of his family still under the same roof he came to California in 1911, becoming one of the early settlers of the Los Molinos colony.  Being one of those who suffered of influenza in the epidemic of 1918, he was left with a weekend heart from which he had continually been handicapped since and which at last was responsible for his death.

At the age of 21 he gave his heart onto the keeping of his Christ and during the past 14 years of suffering has found great comfort in his abiding faith. At the time his summons came he was a faithful member of the Bethel church of Red Bluff.  He was always ready to give his testimony for Christ to any and all whom he came in contact, and expressed to his loved one many times his readiness to go and be at rest, when his call should come.

In his passing there will be greatly missed  a true and faithful companion, a loving father and a staunch and loyal friend. Those left to mourn their loss are his faithful wife, Mrs. Mrgaret J. Bishop, and his sons, J. Arthur Bishop and Roy E. Bishop of Portland Oregon, H.H. Bishop of the Los Molinos colony; William O. Bishop of Rupert Idaho; O.R. Bishop of Redding and Floyd E. Bishop of Susanville; Daughters, Mrs. Rosa Powers of Wallowa Oregon; Mrs Florence Wilson of Redding; twenty two grandchildren, four great grandchildren, five brothers and two sisters, Oliver, Will and Marvel Bishop of Washington and Elmer Bishop and Mrs. Ella stokes of California, and Mrs. Ora McKinnis of Oregon, besides a host of friends.

The last sad rites will be held at the Bethel chapel in Red Bluff, Thursday at 2:00 P.M. Rev. L.A. Dodson pastor of the church officiating, followed by interment in the oak hill cemetery.

US Patent No: 971,823

If anyone knows anything about Patent's please let me know. The below letter is addressed to President Woodrow Wilson, Dated sep 23 1914 and is from my Great Great Grandfather. I am assuming this is a copy he made for his records and have contacted the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library to see if they have any other documents related to the document. 

Los Molinos Calif., Sep 28 1914
Mr. Woodrow Wilson
Washington D.C.    
  
Dear Mr. President, 


Having secured a patient of a "Spark arrester" of the U.S. Patent office Oct 4 1910 and I still hold the same whose no is 971823, I am desirous of Selling my patient and wished to take the matter up with you direct, as you seem to manifest a great desire to assist the working class. I would like you to investigate this matter and see what you can do to help me. You will find my model in the office there. After investigations should you consider it practical would be glad to depose of it to the U.S. Government for a consideration of 13,000. My former address was Wallowa Or, but am now located at Los Molinos Calif.
Waiting a speedy reply. I <unknown> Respectfully, Erastus A Bishop

I have found the patent documents on the US Patent and trademark offices website, I am unsure if the patent was ever used, renewed, sold etc. If anyone knows how to look these things up it would be great to know! I have been looking trying to see if E.A. Bishop had any other Patents, I will let you know if I find any more out! 

postcards

First let me apologize for not posting in a week.  Things have been a bit crazy.

So without further ado a post card.

Mt. Shasta no99 copyright 1907 by C.R. Miller

Florence Bishop, Oak Park Cal.

Text of card:

Another scene of Mt. Shasta this lake is located some 20 miles north of the mountain. There are quite a number of summer flowers around here. Mrs. Hearst, mother of Mr. Hearst who has so many news papers in this country has a castle on the McCloud river 8 miles below town. I was down to see it last Monday. It stands 6 stories high and made of stone. It is claimed it cost 150 thousand dollars to build and finish it.

My first pictures

This picture was developed from a size 120 Film negative

 When my great grandmother passed away in the 80's one thing recovered was a cardboard box full of envelopes that we thought were pictures, however turned out to be only the negatives. When I stated going this project it was to clean develop (digitally) and archive these negatives. I started this aspect about three years ago but had to stop due to having my own daughter and not wanting her around the chemicals and fumes that were needed to physically clean the negatives before scanning.   

This picture was developed from a size 120 Film negative

I was about to start up with the negatives when all of the other pictures came into my possession, some being the same pictures I recovered from the negatives. What this means is even after I finish with the physical photos, I have HUNDREDS more pictures to go through. 

Large Format Film Negative 

One thing that will come of the negatives is as the picture above this paragraph, there will be photos of people whom we no longer have the original photos. Above is a picture of my great grandmother and her first husband Ollie E. Logan. They were married 10 July 1917 and divorced at some point before  7 July 1926 when she married William Henry Wilson. I have yet to find out any details of the divorce. My mom said she know of next to no pictures of Ollie, so when we find them its pretty exciting. 

Recovered from a size 127 film negative.

The Panama Pacific International Exposition 1915

Today we are going to look at a souvenir that was in one of the boxes of photos.

The PPIE was the 1915 wolds fair, it was a pivotal moment for San Francisco a city that had been almost completely destroyed by earthquake less than 10 years before. The event was a huge success boosting the morale of the entire bay area and helping one of Americas great cities get back on her feet.

The city chose to instead of hosting the fair in golden gate park, to fill in the mud flats and create one of modern day San Francisco's priemer neighborhoods the Marina.  The grounds comprised of more than 600 acres between the Presido and Van Ness and fronted the bay itself, and took more than four years to complete. The fair ran from Feb 230th to dec 4th of 1915 and was considered a great success.

Here is an excellent site that goes over a little of the history, art and memorabilia of the expo.

In 1915 my Great Great grandparents took a trip to San Francisco

The inside cover of the sovenieer booklet mailed to my Great Grandmother Florence May Bishop

The Council of architects adopted a general plan that was as bold as it has proven successfull. The units are not individual buildings, but beautiful courts with intervening asiles and continuous facades, and around these are interwoven eight great exhibit palaces surmounted by the tower of jewels, 433 feet high. These are flanked on the east by the huge palace of machinert and on the west by the buitiful fine arts palace, while still further west the various buildings of the states of the union and the pavillions of foreign nations are cleverly and effectively grouped. At the eastern extremeity, screened by the machinery palace, is the most wonderfull and extensive amusement section ever planned at any exposition. The great south gardens extend for 3000 feet along the south front of the main groups of exhibit palaces, and at the western end is the magnificent palace of horticulture, while waters of San Francisco bay, facing the Marin hills on the opposit side, with mount Tamalpais a few miles beyond. Symmetry, balance and harmony are the keynotes to the exposition, and these have found expression not only in architectural construction, but in decroative form, in a woinderfull color scheme and i na marvelous lighting arrangement that has never previously been equalled. It is estimated that more than $50,000,000 had been ecpended on the exposition.

(Keep in mind $50,000,000 in 1915 would equal $1,085,044,554.46 today with an average inflation of 3.86%)

Look Closely, these are colorized photographs not paintings.

Sadly the buildings were made to be temporary structures many being made with a simple wood frame then covered with a material called "Staff" that could not survive much more than a single year, and was made of a combination of burlap and plaster - It was cheap and easy to mold. The only surving building that I am aware of is the Palace of Fine Arts, home to the Exploratorium one of the best hands on science museums in the world! 

Every where were gardens, 1500 sculptures and murals, 30,000 imported plants and over 70,000 rhododendrons. The gardens were designed by the same landscape architect as Golden Gate Park John McLaren

 Lighting also played a large role in how the Expo was viewed. GE designed the basic scheem susing thousands of colored spotlights, hidden well and made to make the buildings sparkle and glow. Also The entire area was illuminated by indirect lighting by General Electric. The "Scintillator," a battery of searchlights on a barge in the Bay, beamed 48 lights in seven colors across San Francisco's fog banks. If the fog wasn't in -- no problem: A steam locomotive was available to generate artificial fog.

Sites I must Cite and Thank!

NPS/Golden Gate Park
WIKI: PPIE
San Francisco Memories

A call for help!

I am looking for family member or people doing research that might be able to compare notes with me. I am on Ancestry.com so can easily be found there. But a comment or direct message here could help as well.

Currently we are grouping our research around my Great Great Grandparents.

Erastus Asbury Bishop
Birth 20 Mar 1853 in Pottawattamie, Indiana
Death 21 Jun 1932 in California, United States 

Margaret Jane Compton
Birth 22 Aug 1856 in Scio, Linn, Oregon, United States
Death 10 Sep 1951 in Lassen, California, United States           

                 

They were married on 11 April 1875 in Linn county Oregon. A large number of the pictures I have mentioned or posted are the extended family of these two. Any information would be a big help. Im finding lots of the tools on Ancestry to be a big help, as well as a small amount of email communication with some people I have found via Google. 

-- Complements of the season To Mr & Mrs E.A. Bishop Los Molinos, Tehama Co, Cal, USA --

 From Mr & Mrs W.L Compton - Wetaskiwin Alberta Canada

Linn 15, Eula 18, Arya 23, Frank 26, Louise 10, Oda 22, Mareda 12 

Thank you!