WHAT MY FAMILY MEANS TO ME

WHAT MY FAMILY MEANS TO ME

MY GRANDMOTHER - LILLIAS MAY BREWER

ON HER WEDDING DAY 

1914  TO BECOME

MRS. FORREST RAYMOND CARPENTER 

Her home was in York Beach, Maine.

Forrest Raymond Carpenter lived in Cheshire MA.

Their legacy has come down to 

me, 

their first grandchild.

CHESHIRE WAS CLOSE BY. 

ALL THE TRADING WAS DONE IN ADAMS, MA,

WILLIAMSTOWN, NORTH ADAMS.

CHESHIRE MASSACHUSETTS

This photo is of MAIN STREET IN ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS

IN 1910.   

MY GRANDFATHER WAS ONE OF THREE SONS

WHO WERE BORN TO 

GEORGE EDGAR CARPENTER AND 

TO NETTIE PRISCILLA  INGALLS

MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS ON

MY MOTHER'S SIDE.

MY GRANDFATHER'S OLDER BROTHER

LESTER GOT WORK AT THE MILL

SO 

THEN HIS BROTHER ALBERT ("BERTIE) 

WENT TO COLLEGE AND GOT A

JOB ELSEWHERE.

I have the "CARPENTER DIARIES'  LITTLE LEDGERS

;SHOWING DAILY ENTRIES AS TO THE GOINGS ON

FROM 1882 TO  1924   

There are 14 of these small diaries.

You can find copies of these in

the 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PITTSFIELD MA. 

I TRANSCRIBED THEM, AND THEY ARE THERE.

I am still working on 1915 and 1924 which were

entered by George Edgar Carpenter.     

WHICH LEFT MY

GRANDFATHER ON THE 

FARM.

HE HAD A FIFTH GRADE EDUCATION

WHICH MEANT IN THOSE DAYS

A "GOOD" EDUCATION

FOR A FARMER.

DID YOU KNOOW THAT 

THE KING JAMES VERSION

OF THE BIBLE 

IS MEANT FOR A 

6TH GRADE LEVEL 

PERSON TO BE 

ABLE TO READ?

(THINK ABOUT IT.

MOST OF THE 

NEWER RENDITIONS

OF THE BIBLE

ARE 

AT 

COLLEGE LEVEL

READING.)

THERE WAS A WEDDING 

COMING UP...

LILLIAS  WAS SEEING HER 

SISTER GET MARRIED

TO FRANK CHAPMAN

WHO WAS A BEST 

FRIEND

TO GUESS WHO ? 

HIS FRIEND FORREST RAYMOND CARPENTER

IT WAS ABOUT THE TIME

RUMORS OF WAR 

WERE ALL ABOUT

1912 

WAS FULL OF 

WORRY AND CONCERN.

BUT LILIAS DID NOT GIVE IT MUCH THOUGHT.

She was a happy woman.

Teaching in a Primary School, having been

to College, and then teach the first

three grades in a school

she was excited about

her sister's wedding.

You see,

YORK BEACH, MAINE

IS WHERE THE 

WEDDING WAS

TO BE.

                                                                 

THEY WERE AMERICAN SISTERS

GROWING UP IN A 

WONDERFUL WORLD

THEIR HOME WAS FILLED WITH LOVE

AND LOTS OF ACTIVITY

THEIR FATHER - LUTHER WILBUR BREWER 

WAS A VERY DEVOUT CHRISTIAN 

IN THE METHODIST CHURCH

AND 

WAS A LEATHER TANNER.

HE MADE THE LEATHERWORK

FOR HORSES, THE CARRIAGES,

AND THE EQUIPMENT.

VIDA MAY INGALLS 

HE HAD MARRIED YEARS 

AGO

AND NOW HIS DAUGHTER 

WAS GETTING MARRIED.

EVERYONE WAS EXCITGED!  

AS BUSY AS THEY MUST HAVE BEEN

THESE TWO PARENTS FOUND TIME

FOR FAMILY TO GATHER

AND

OFTEN PLAYED CROQUET.

HERE THEY ARE, AS YOUNG PARENTS

DOTING ON THEIR DAUGHTER

GETTING MARRIED.

WHEN FRANK BROUGHT FORREST TO THE WEDDING

FORREST MET LILLIAS.

THEY NEVER EVER LOOKED BACK

IT WAS MEANT TO BE.

 

FRANK AND FLORENCY ("FLOSSIE) 

LOVED TO HAVE A REASON

TO ENCOURAGE 

FORREST AND LILLA 

SO

THEY OFTEN

TOOK OFF ON THE 

"HORSELESS CARRIAGE"

AND 

CAME TO THE YORK BEACH HOME

THAT MAMIE AND BAMPY HAD

LILLIAS' MOTHER WAS VIDA MAY (INGALLS) 

MARRIED TO LUTHER WILBUR BREWER.

T

TRAVELING FROM CHESHIRE TO YORK BEACH MAINE

FORREST RAYMOND CARPENTER

READING HERE ON

THE PORCH.

LET ME DESCRIBE MY GRANDFATHER

FORREST RAYMOND CARPENTER.

HE WAS A FARM BOY FROM CHESHIRE MASSACHUSETTS.

CHESHIRE MASS WAS A TOWN WHICH HAD STARTED

WHEN SEVERAL BAPTIST FAMILIES FROM 

ROGER WILLIAMS' RHODE ISLAND

COLONY DECIDED TO 

COME INTO MASSACHUSETTS

AND

FARM, AND LVE FOR GOD THERE.

THEY WERE STRONG IN FAITH.

THEY HAD MUCH DESIRE TO BE INDEPENDENT.

Forrest had to work on the farm, so 

he only went to school when he did not work

on the farm.

He was an avid reader.

He learned about Edison and and all the inventions

that were being created at that time.  He studied 

up on all the electricity and he began to take 

an interest in finding himself

in OTHER KIND OF WORK.

When he worked for his father

he traveled in the wagon all over

trading with people in the area.

Whatever was made on the farm

whether it was rag rugs, or tatting,

or butchering a calf and growing the 

potatoes and beets and corn.   You 

can see that they were going back and forth

from Cheshire to the surrounding area.

In York Beach with Lillias, it 

was different.

She was a LADY of sorts.

Her work was more in the laundering 

and the washing of the clothes.

The ladies in those days and in that time

had to have the help of their husbands

to do the work, because it required 

heavy lifting of washtubs 

and there were no washing machines 

like there are today.

Albert and his brother Forrest at the car.

Forrest began early on "driving" 

others to town, to places they 

wanted to go and 

it was a privilege.

He ordered his very own CAR 

himself, and it came packaged in

a box and he had to ASSEMBLE IT HIMSELF.

SO HE WAS LEARNING.

NOW HE HAD EXTRA INCENTIVE

FOR LILLIAS WAS 

HIS DELIGHT.

      Forrest Raymond Carpenter (b.July 29. 1890 -June 27,1970)

Cheshire MA

married  on  July 16,1914 

Lillias May Brewer (b. Feb. 5, 1891 - May 16,1979)

b. Salmon Falls, N. H.  

THEY SPENT MANY HOURS TOGETHER

IN THE NEXT YEAR

AND EVEN INCLUDED A TRIP TO

LAKE GEORGE  

LAKE GEORGE NEW YORK 

Years later when I was about 15 years old

my Grandmother  Lillias May Carpenter 

shared with me her photos from 

that time of courting.

She was strong in faith, believing

this was the one man with 

whom she would spend the rest 

of her life with.

When I think of my family,

and how the strong tie

and bond 

of love and affection

drew two people together

to live in the midst 

of 

difficulties

obstacles

frustrations

and changes,

I am amazed again and again

at the way God 

led me to find Himself

through the strong conviction

my family had that 

I WAS LOVED, AND PART OF THE FABRIC

OF A FAMILY CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER.

SO HERE I AM TODAY.

I hope to put my stories on this blog, and to share 

something of the heritage my family and my faith 

are to me.    In my husband's papers I have all of 

his sermons and some of his notes, our budgets,

our pictures, and so much to share.

I will look forward to this.

Climb along with me, in walking higher.

I am convinced that there is no other

name but Jesus Christ the Lord

and Savior, the Son of the Living God,

who came and lived and died among

us, that we might live.

He arose from the grave, and 

is risen and ascended to the Father,

and He is preparing a home for us 

who believe on Him.

As I wait for His Coming,

or for my Call Home to be with Him,

I will blog and keep blogging

telling my stories 

and sharing.

JOHN 10  10  

ABUNDANT LIFE IS PROMISED

TO THOSE WHO KNOW HIM.

BIRD OF NOVEMBER - JUNE'S LILAC CORNER - biblebuffjournal

JUNE'S LILAC CORNER -

BIBLEBUFFJOURNAL - BIBLELADY99CASH

BIRD OF THE MONTH    

                                        The Horned Owl     

                                                              by  June Estelle Cash   

                                                           Originally written for the 

                                                            SNOQUALMIE PASS TIMES  

                                                      November 1997  Volume 3  Issue 11

                   This bird gets its name from its two tufts of feathers on the head that resemble horns.  A dead tree stump makes a good perch for the night.    

Horned Owl   

He is big, but how big?   Stretch your 

arms out sideways as far as you can.  Your stretch probably reaches 46 or 48 inches, but the wing span of the Horned Owl 

is 55 inches.

Called the "Tiger of the Air" 

because it is such a powerful hunter, 

it makes its nest deep in the woods.

You will see them when you travel in the woods of 

the North West of the U S A and in the East Coast

in the wooded areas that are left.  You will find them in Canada also. You will hear the melancholy "whoo-whoo"  of the Horned Owl at night in these woods.

Horned Owl - released near Bellingham WA

         The Horned owl is the most common, and the largest.      Their call,  "who-who-whooo" is so well known that most people believe that all owls hoot.     This is not true.    There are several kinds of horned owls in which a number of them do not hoot, but others which have a whistling call, and still others which have a shrill screech like a high-pitched laugh.     Some even sound like the Banshee that so many people were afraid of in early Medieval days with unearthly haunting calls.  

          Horned owls are large birds standing about two feet tall, which feed mostly on rabbits.  In the time of our country's beginnings they surely ate as much on the wild turkeys, as well as woodchucks, and beavers, snakes, mice, skunks, and raccoons.   There was a time when their fondness for rabbits put them on the rabbit hunters list.  In the Western states, however when the problems of fewer places to log trees became apparent, the horned owl was thought of as helpful.   It kept the unwanted pesty rabbits and crows in check, as well as snakes.    

           On a dead stump, I have read,  a horned owl listens.  When he hears something, he will turn his head.  All the way around.   It looks, they say, like it is making a complete circle.  He quickly moves, grabbing a snake with its grip in his beak just below the head, while the tail is safely held in its claws.  Another owl who has heard the commotion will fly down from its perch and quickly tries to take the snake from the first owl.   The first owl puffs himself up to twice his size so big and frightening that the second owl is scared away.   Now he settles down to eating the snake. 

           Meanwhile, that second owl is off to do her hunting.   A sleeping crow?   Or wait for an opossum or skunk?   She waits.   A skunk passes by.    With a swift, silent swoop she will lunge at the skunk.  The skunk sprays her ! with its only defense system - an A W F U L  smell - but most birds do not have a sense of smell.  Neither does the owl.   She captures it and eats it. 

       Owls have to do a lot of hunting, especially when their babies are hatched, as they then have double duty.  Two eggs in a clutch.   The Horned Owl may often be raising one young one while laying an egg to be hatched in its own time.

        Whatever owls catch, they eat all up, skin, fur, bones and feathers.  HOURS LATER, they will cough up pellets of what could not be digested...fur, feathers, bones.      Be on the watch for the pellets.    For if you see some, that is a sure indication an owl is near by in the neighborhood.

       A final note:  Did you know that the parent Horned Owls will destroy their nest when the young are able to balance themselves in the fork of the tree?  

            -------------------------------------------------------

          In the book of Job 30. v. 29  Job comments that "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls."   Again, God the LORD asks Job,  in Job 37.v.26 "doth the hawk fly by wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? v. 27  Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? v.28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place."  

            

         The Lord our God, the Living God, has made this world, and birds are very much a part of it.   Each bird has its ways, and God set it up that way.   We need to encourage the birds, as we are stewards of that small portion on which we live.  Without the birds, we would probably be overrun by rats, rabbits, and snakes.   It is true there is not much forest left, but what we have - whether in the city near homes, or whether in the woods, away where we only go on vacations or trips, it all affects us.   

          As a Christian I believe we ought to remember thankfully for God's provision of such birds as the horned owl.  

           Psalm 150.6  LET EVERY THING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE THE LORD.  PRAISE YE THE LORD.