#52Ancestors52Weeks....Week 2...Origins..........Beginning With the Crawford Family Bible (The Crawford Family Part 1)

 The Crawford Family Bible (possession of Patti Alden) 

    This week's theme is Origins.  I thought I'd open the Crawford Family Bible that has been sitting in a box since 2012 when I brought it home from Auntie Claire's house so I could continue her research.  I have been putting off blogging about this branch of the family for quite some time, mostly due to the fact that I know some history of the family after they came to California in the 1850's, but I know very little of their life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before that and I know nothing of their origins beyond that.  My Auntie, who was the "keeper of the stuff" and family historian at the time, had an inkling that the Crawfords were originally from Scotland but did not get any further than that.  That was before DNA estimates of ethnicity and cousin matches that we are all blessed with nowadays.  I do have matches to Crawford relatives which might shed some light on origins further back in time.  And yes, we do share quite a bit of Scottish DNA!

   This week I thought I would  take a look at the Bible itself,  crack it open just a bit, and see what I could learn.  Because you have to start somewhere. 

 

 Title page 

    Let's start with the origins of the bible itself. The Crawford Family bible was published in Philadelphia by John B. Perry in 1849.  It could be purchased on either  North Fourth Street or North Second Street in Philadelphia.  It was probably purchased by or given to  John Washington Crawford, my third great grandfather.  He and his new family were listed as living in the First Ward (Moyamensing) of Philadelphia on the 1850 Census. In fact, the very first entry in the Family Record section is for the marriage of John Washington Crawford and Sarah Byerly, both of Philadelphia.  They were joined in Holy Matrimony on the twenty third of February, 1848.  The bible may have been a late wedding gift, or purchased after their marriage.  

The Family Record section is located in the middle of the bible. This section is for marriages. 

  The bible is still in remarkable shape; the cover unfortunately has separated from the spine. It is very large and heavy (it weighs 8 pounds!), and smells very musty. It measures 9 1/2" X 11 1/2" x 3 3/4' thick.  It has beautiful engravings protected by thin, brittle tissue paper.  I found a similar condition bible on ebay selling for $275!  

This page had color added. 

"Christ Stillith the Tempest" 

The bible is interspersed with engravings of key moments.  It must have been exciting to read these bible stories and come upon beautiful engravings with such detail. 

  The most remarkable thing about this bible (many families have similar family bibles; what is so special about this one?) is that the middle section contains recorded family births, marriages and deaths of the Crawford, Byerly, Thompson, and Hayes families dating from 1848  up to 1969. Locations recorded began in Philadelphia, and continued on to Sacramento City (founded in 1848 after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill) and then on to San Francisco.  A literal treasure trove of family history.  I just marvel that this record is still in our family. 

 Births 

Deaths

  How did this bible get into my possession?  Well, the Crawford family treasured this bible so much that they took it with them by wagon train to California sometime between 1850 and 1856.  My great great grandmother Sarah Elizabeth Crawford was born on the 17th day of October, 1856 at Sacramento City. 

 The Crawford child's tea set, brought to California on the wagon train around 1850.  The bible came along too. 

In the possession of Stephanie Efstratis.

 It then moved with the family from the city of Sacramento to the  city of San Francisco where it was preserved and written in up until 1940.  It was kept in the Hayes family and the last entry written was for Sarah E. Hayes (Sarah Crawford, my great great grandmother) who died in 1940.  There are added records for the Hayes children and the marriage of Lester Hayes to Emma King  which were written in blue ball point pen in what looks like my Auntie Dot's handwriting. The last entry she wrote was for Lester Franklin Hayes (her father) who passed away on April 5, 1969. She included a small newspaper snippet of his obituary inside the front cover. I don't know if she made these notations while the bible was in San Francisco, or after the bible moved to her home in Sacramento.  It was relocated to Grass Valley when she and Uncle Willie moved back in the 70's.  In any event,  my Auntie Claire eventually inherited boxes and boxes of family records including the bible and other Hayes family records.   She lived in Angels Camp, California which is where I picked it up while helping to clean out her home in 2012.  The bible now resides in Reno, Nevada with me. That is quite a story! 

   The Crawford Family Bible has now been digitally documented, and  it will finally make its way into an archival box for future generations. In my next several posts I will add more pictures of the records pages and share my  working tree for the Crawford family.  This family bible has started me on the way forward (or should I say backward)....possibly all the way to Scotland!

 Relationship Reference:

Me:--Margaret Hansen Boothby--Margaret Elizabeth Hayes Hansen--

The parents of Margaret Hayes Hansen were Emma Lavinia King Hayes VanDuzer  and Lester Franklin Hayes.

(they had three daughters: Dorothy, Francis and Margaret)

The parents of Lester Hayes were Sarah (Sallie) Elizabeth Crawford and Franklin Hayes

The parents of Sallie Crawford were John Washington Crawford and Sarah Byerly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, married in 1848. 

 

   

#52Ancestors52Weeks.... Week 1.......FAMILY LORE: Harold Hansen Hears a TommyKnocker....

 An image of a Cornish Tommyknocker generated by DALLE-E/ChatGPT by Amy Alden Bridges December 26, 2023

  Welcome family and friends to 2024!  This year I will be working on Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge once  again.  I am looking forward to writing and sharing new stories as well as  continuing with my research and discoveries. Let's get this year off and running....

  The theme for this week is Family Lore.   Grandpa's story is deeply entwined with rich oral stories,  traditions and cultural lore handed down by Cornish miners, and can't be told without a little background. When I found out my daughter didn't know what Tommyknockers were (gasp!), we did some research and she came up with the AI generated image above. It was a fun way to use AI and helped me delve a little bit into that unknown (to me) tool that is being used more and more.  When my mother saw the image, she commented that she remembered the miners in the community having hands looking very gnarled just as the Tommyknocker above. So far, so good! 

  Many cultures have some form of 'little people' i.e. pixies, brownies or leprechauns. They are called Knackers (Cornwall), Coblynau (Wales) or Tommyknockers (US).  Legend says they are only 2 feet tall and live underground.  They dress like miners and mischievously steal  unattended food or tools, or alert miners of impending danger by their "knocking".  Cornish mining was dangerous business, and belief in the knackers became folklore and legend to help explain the unexplainable (I wonder what they were  really hearing down in the mine? I'm sure there is a scientific explanation there somewhere...).  It was said that the Tommyknockers snuck into the luggage of the Cornishmen as they left for America and infiltrated the mines by hiding in the miners' lunch boxes (probably between the pasty and the saffron bun). 

  The lore of the  Tommyknockers became an important element of mining life.  Many Cornish miners refused to enter a mine until they knew that the Tommyknockers were present.  Tommyknockers were thought to work with the miners deep underground leading them to rich veins or warning of cave-ins, water leaks or falling rocks by their tapping.  Miners would leave a portion of their pasty behind at lunch as gratitude for the protection. Cornish miners' tales of being saved by a Tommyknocker were never to be taken lightly. 

    In the area I grew up in, Grass Valley California, Cornish miners were imported to work in the gold mines starting in the early to mid 1850's. They began to arrive in much larger numbers in the 1860's with many Cornish miners and their families settling in and around Grass Valley.  They brought with them their expertise and knowledge of tin and copper mining and revolutionized hard rock gold mining methods in California.  Around 75% of the population of Grass Valley was Cornish by birth at the turn of the century. Because of the Cornish contributions, this area became one of the richest of all California gold mining towns. This Cornish influence gave Grass Valley a very unique sense of place that it still retains to this day.  I can still remember hearing the Cornish accent in church growing up in the 60's and 70's, and I identify strongly with the Cornish culture, having Cornish family on my mother's maternal and paternal sides. 

  I wrote quite awhile back about my grandfather, Harold Hansen, and his life growing up in Grass Valley.  He was born in 1910 to a Norwegian father and what he thought was an Irish mother.  I don't think he ever saw himself as being of Cornish descent, but in fact, he was  descended from the Cornish Bluetts on his mother's maternal side of the family several generations back. There were many Bluetts who were miners. It is amazing to me what we loose in just a few generations.  He labeled himself as a "galvanized Cousin Jack" which was an expression that came to describe those who had appropriated Cornishness by marrying a Cornish descendant or by developing a sympathetic appreciation for Cornish heritage. Its original meaning may have been used to describe Cornish people who had become thoroughly Americanized. (From When Miners Sang by Gage McKinney Comstock Bonanza Press 2001 page 240). 

  

Harold Hansen as a young man with Laddie the dog,  on the ranch, not far from the Idaho-Maryland Mine, Grass Valley, California. 

  This tale is part of his "life story" which he recorded in 1991, at a time when he was having difficulty with his memory.  My Auntie Claire transcribed the tapes and I shared them in several posts from 2020.  Essential parts of the story may have been left out, but you still get a feel of his encounter with the Tommyknocker.  This story took place right after his trip to Norway in 1930 and after his love Louise married someone else while he was away..... 

   "The young lady that I thought I was in love with had gotten married while I was gone.  I lost interest in being a sailor, as it was hard work and not as exciting as I had expected.  So, I went to work at the Idaho-Maryland Mine."

  "There I worked as a rock crusher that prepared rocks for the stamp mill, for $2.88 per hour.  In a couple of months I went to work as a 'mucker' underground with partners Jack Dunavan, Ernie Angove and Homer Simon at the 850 foot level.  That's where (we had) a close call down there.  In the process of running a drift we had to drill a new piece of ground.  At the end of the drift was a pile of muck blasted down the day before.  Jack and I were shoveling out the pile of muck into the shoot.  We went to eat lunch when there was a drip where we were sitting.  We heard the tommy knocker warn us to get out of the way.  When that happened underground, we were thankful for the warning.  Another time I turned up a whole stick of  powder with the blasting cap still there.  The cap was on the end of my pick."

 Harold Hansen's helmet lantern used in the Idaho-Maryland Mine. 

    Even though he didn't  go into a lot of detail of what exactly happened, he certainly heard something that gave him a warning!  His story adds to the lore of the Tommyknocker.   Grandpa worked at the Idaho-Maryland Mine at several time periods during his life.   He also worked in the Brunswick Mine a few miles away and ran the underground railroad there for a time (When Miners Sang, pg. 240).   His father, even though a Norwegian by birth, spent a great deal of time in the mines both in Grass Valley (both the Empire and the Idaho-Maryland mines) and in El Salvador as a mine supervisor, and was a "galvanized Cousin Jack" as well.   Living in the community he did I'm sure Grandpa heard the tales  of Knockers and how they miraculously saved many a miner from danger down in the mines.  And perhaps his real Cornish heritage played some part in it as well! 

 

Vertical man skip at the Idaho Shaft in the Idaho Maryland Mine in Grass Valley, Calif.

Nevada County Historical Society 1937

 The Grass Valley Cornish Carol Choir originated with the early Cornish miners imported from England to work the underground quartz mines, and their singing has been a tradition ever since.  For many years the choir sang in San Francisco and other California towns. Here the group is shown singing from the 2000 foot level of the Idaho-Maryland mine in a nationwide broadcast on Christmas Day, 1940. (Gold Mines of California by Jack R. Wagner Howell North Books Berkeley California page 165).

My grandfather, Harold Hansen, is third from the left lending his tenor voice to the choir. 

  Belief in the Tommyknockers lasted well into the 20th Century.  When the Empire Mine in Grass Valley closed in 1956 the owners sealed the entrance.  Fourth, fifth and sixth generation Cousin Jacks circulated a petition calling on the mine owners to set the Knockers free so that they could move on to other mines.  The owners complied. (Wikipedia: Knocker (folklore).

  I hope the lore of the Tommyknocker and my grandfather's story can be passed down a few more generations!

Relationship Reference:  Me->Margaret Hansen Boothby->Harold L. Hansen->John H. Hansen m. Clara Vere Burrows

Additional resources:  

westernmininghistory.com

northvalleymagazine.com March 28, 2016 Cornish Miners and Tommyknockers

deanza.edu The Californian Volume 9 Number 3 The Cornish Miners

The Union Nov. 2, 2015 Gary Noy: Ghoulies, Ghosties and Tommyknockers

For more posts on my grandfather, go to the link Harold Hansen on the right. 

A Visit to the House on Jackson Street ....... October 4, 2023

Photograph taken by Lester Hayes in 1907. From the King Album.

 

The exterior of the Jackson Street home. Pictures taken October 4, 2023 by Patti Alden.

   Way back on August 15, 2021 I posted several pictures of a home that my Great Great Grandfather Charles J. King built in San Francisco in 1907.  The photographs were in a family album embossed with the name Mrs. C.J. King.  You can read about the journey to find the home and its location by clicking the link Jackson Street House on the right.  Since then I have been in contact with the new owner of the home off and on, waiting for an exterior renovation to be completed so that we could visit the home in person.  That day came in early October of this year! The weather was a beautiful 84 degrees in San Francisco and the sun was shining.  It was a great day for a quick trip to the coast. 

   

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge!

     A  little visual history first.....

The home in 1907 during the initial construction.  You can see the three stories with the top window framed in and the large bay window underneath that had been started.  The home was built as two separate family dwellings with access to the top two stories via a staircase that ran up the right side of the home. 

A 2021 Google Image.  At an unknown date the exterior of the home was simplified and many decorative details were left off after a thick layer of stucco was added.  A garage was also added underneath the bottom story some time ago when the street levels were lowered. 

   The Jackson Street House after exterior renovations by the current owners.  Note the exterior lighting and new landscaping.  It has a fresh, modern look that is well balanced with the addition of molding that mimics the original. The roof railing at the top was not added back as a part of the renovation, primarily due to the additional cost. The next door neighbors look like they are in the middle of exterior renovations also. Shared by the owner September of 2022.

  The home on the left was there when C.J. King built this home. 

 

 You can see the back portion of the home. 

    The beautiful bay windows. They are exquisite!

Looking up! The smooth texture of the stucco gives the home a modern look.  This looks very similar to the finish that was on the original home. 

The staircase and stairwell leading up to the top floor apartment.  There is also access to the second story apartment from here. The owners also added a small elevator to the home.  The first floor apartment is accessed by the second front door, and is currently being  rented out and was not available to look at. 

A closeup of the lattice on the landing. The owner believes it is original to the home.

I had shared a digital copy of our original photograph with the owner several months ago.  Their print is proudly displayed at the top of the stairs to tell the story of the home. 

The owner of the home led us up to her top story apartment and balcony.  This is the view from the balcony.  We have driven over the Golden Gate Bridge many, many times not even knowing that we could see this house from there!

Mom (Margaret) enjoying the view from the top floor balcony. Of course, her Great Grandfather would not have had this view of the bridge as it wasn't completed until 1937. Solar panels were a thing of the future too!  The owners installed solar panels on this home, and drive an electric car that is charged with the electricity generated by the solar panels.  As an engineer, I think Charles would find it all very fascinating!

An interior archway in the upstairs apartment.  At the time the home was built, the family servant may have lived up here.  The space has since been renovated with an updated kitchen, bath and laundry area  as well as extra living space extending out onto a new balcony.  You can still find original details here and there!

A close up of the archway molding detail. 

The curved vestibule leading to two similar bedrooms.  The floor is original. 

 Closeups of the floor and curving floor molding.  

Detail of the hallway molding....

Original windows in the small  hallway leading to the back portion of the apartment. There was lots of storage space in this section of the top story, and may have been where the household helpers kept the family linens or other items.  There is now a large updated bathroom at the end of this walk thru that serves as the master bathroom.  

Down on the second level is the owner's son's apartment and living quarters.  We were able to take a peak at some of the original elements in the rooms.  This room may have been a dining room at one point, but has been remade as a master bedroom.  The ceiling molding is absolutely beautiful!

Close up of the beautiful plaster work.

Mom (Margaret) admiring the plaster work ceiling molding in this bedroom.  

   Before we left, the owner showed us down to the basement/ garage area (we used the elevator!) and showed us where the little Airbnb apartment was in the back (yes, you can rent it out!!).  It was an amazing tour and we were so appreciative of the time she took to show us around her home and share her family's story.  She and her family have kept the look and feel of the original home while adding modern updates as most older homes in the area have done.  They have been a part of  preserving the valuable history of this beautiful city.  We certainly felt a tangible and physical connection to the past in this home, and a connection to Charles King especially.  He was known as a master carpenter and woodworker and we could see the craftsmanship and attention to detail in this home.   I am so thankful that his work has been preserved for many more generations to come. 

Margaret (Hansen) Boothby, Stephanie (Boothby) Efstratis, Patti (Boothby) Alden October 4 2023.

Jackson Street House, front steps. 

Heading home across the Golden Gate Bridge......

  Relationship Reference:  Me->Margaret Hansen Boothby->Margaret Elizabeth Hayes Hansen->Emma King Hayes Van Duzer->Charles and Anna King from St. Austell, Cornwall, England.