William Seborn and Cassie Evans Cornelius

Here are photos of my great grandparents -- William S. and Cassie Evans Cornelius -- courtesy of my Uncle Eldon. The photo of my grandmother states it was taken in 1920. I assume the photo of my grandfather was taken around the same time.

William was a grandson of Henry Profitt Cornelius.

Just back from Nebraska

We returned late Tuesday afternoon from our trip to Nebraska. We met up with cousins Sarah and Amanda Johnson in Grand Island and then some genealogy work in the Ravenna area. We toured the two Ravenna cemeteries and found the Horak Cemetery, an old Czech cemetery located out in the country north of town. Sarah found her great great grandfather’s grave – John Helebrant.

We then moved on to North Platte and met up with Eldon and Jeanie and then on to the Madrid area. We saw a number of cousins (Kevin was a little overwhelmed with the size of his family!) and then found time to drive up towards Scottsbluff to meet Mack and Sandy.

Kevin said the highlight of his trip was seeing Chimney Rock (plus Scotts Bluff National Monument, Castle Rock, Courthouse and Jail Rocks).

We then started our trip back. First we laid some flowers on Dad’s grave (saw Rod’s wife Robin in the Grant flower shop).

We then drove back to Ravenna for a little more family detective work. Sarah and Amanda stayed on in Ravenna for a little bit and then they headed home.

On our way back, we stopped at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa.

Here’s a little picture tour of our trip. I’m adding more pictures as I sort through them.

It was great to see everyone again. Eldon gave me a lot of family pictures that I’ll be adding to this weblog.

Henry Profitt Cornelius

[Update: August 10, 2009] There seems to be some uncertainty regarding the correct spelling of Henry's middle name. The name is actually his mother's maiden name and her records show the spelling as Proffitt.  As I wrote below, one of Henry's sons was named Jesse with the same middle name. Today I found Jesse's gravesite and it also shows his middle name spelled as Proffitt. I am going to assume this spelling is the correct spelling as opposed to what Henry's record shows. Incidentally, I received photos of the gravesite of Henry's parents -- John and Patcey.

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I had a fun day today. I fulfilled a long-held desire to take a short trip back in time and visit the gravesite of my third great grandfather. His name was Henry Profitt Cornelius
Henry was born on March 16, 1806 in Christian County, Kentucky and was the oldest of eight children. He was first married to Mary Ann Quisenberry in 1828. They had ten children together with the eighth child being my second great grandfather, Jesse Profitt Cornelius. (“Profitt” was Henry’s mother’s maiden name and was used these two times as a middle name.) Mary Ann passed away in 1845 and is buried in the Hittle Grove Cemetery, Tazewell County, Illinois. Henry married Mary Ann’s cousin, Catherine Quisenberry, in 1847 and they had eight more children together. Thus, Henry fathered 18 children!
Henry passed away at the ripe old age of 89 on August 29, 1895. Catherine passed away in 1902. They are buried together in Mt. Hope Cemetery near Foosland, Illinois.
I became aware of Henry’s existence when I read about him in my Uncle Jay’s Roots and Shoots book. It became somewhat of an obsession for me to find Foosland and to find Henry’s grave. In fact, Dad and I talked a number of times about driving down to find the location, but his declining health made the trip unlikely.
I’m on a four-week sabbatical from work and I decided this morning to make the trip. I packed a cooler of water and energy drinks and made the trip to Foosland. Actually, it’s not a bad drive at all and certainly one we should have made years earlier. The town is “off the beaten path” and it took several turns before I found the county road leading to it. It took even more time to locate the cemetery. I had to ask some locals to point me in the right direction.
But I found it!
Foosland is located northwest of Champaign which is home to the University of Illinois. I thought my father’s hometown of Madrid was small, but I believe Foosland is even smaller. It’s accessible by county roads only.
The cemetery is very well maintained. It took me about an hour to find his tombstone. Since they both passed away over 100 years ago, I was fearful of not finding the grave at all or finding a tombstone that was weather-worn or in very poor condition. To my relief and surprise, their tombstone is in excellent condition.
Here are some photos that I took. I thought of Dad today as I was sitting at the tombstone.

Michael Jones

Found a photo of my stepson, Michael Jones, on the Internet today. Michael is currently serving in Iraq and is located “somewhere"" in Baghdad. He's a military policeman and will hopefully be coming home this September. Michael is on the far right.

Agnes Rogers Kostal

A photo of my maternal grandmother, Agnes Rogers Kostal, with two of her brothers -- Clarence Rogers (on the left) and Edward. My grandmother was born in 1898 (and passed away in 1987). We think this photo was taken sometime in 1901 when she was three years old. She was the second-youngest in the family. My Aunt Veronica (Babe), who was the youngest child, was born in 1902.

Another sod house photo

Here is another photo of the sod house near Madrid where my grandmother, May Chamberlain Cornelius, was born. I originally wrote about this sod house back in October 2004. This photo was discovered among other photos while we were packing up my mother's belongings. I have not yet gone through all the other photos yet. What makes this photo special is what my grandmother wrote on the back of the photo:

Pioneer sod house built in 1886 southeast of Madrid, Nebraska...by my father, George Chamberlain. I was born here in 1900. Soon after this picture was taken, the house was destroyed and replaced by a frame house.

This little sod house served as the family home from 1886 - 1904. My two sisters and three brothers were also born here.

So now we have the exact dates of the house.

Another Mom update

Just a brief update for family members who come across this blog. My mother returned home today. She had been in a nursing home for over three weeks rehabilitating her broken hip. She made pretty good progress while in the nursing home and now she needs to build on that progress.

Christmas 1963

This photo was part of our 1963 Christmas card. I found it as I was cleaning out my mother's house.

Me

I guess I've posted enough photos of my family members so I thought I would post one of me. This is a photo taken by a professional photographer that we are using for our upcoming annual report. There was some time between photo shoots so he took some employee photos. He said this one makes me look like an Irish writer. I suppose there are worst things I could be called! I added a sepia tint in Photoshop to keep with the spirit of this blog.

Update on my mom

It's been several weeks (or more) since I've posted anything meaningful here. I do know that several of my family members check this humble blog out so I thought it would be easier to bring everyone up to date through this medium.

After 52 years of living in her home in Northbrook, Mom sold her house and moved in with us on February 15. When you consider the brutal market conditions, the sale of the house went pretty smoothly. She put the house on the market in August and immediately received interest from a number of parties. After a bit of negotiation, she accepted an offer around Thanksgiving and began plans to move.

The packing, cleaning and sorting was the most difficult part of the move. Mom's a "pack rack" and when you combine the need to save everything with a 52-year history in the same house, it was a recipe for disaster. After spending many weekends packing boxes and moving them to my house, we finally rented a dumpster and filled it to the top with "stuff." Her really good stuff was moved several years ago and was divided between my sister's house and my house. Thanks to her neighbors and friends, the house was finally cleaned up and the last box was loaded into my van.

Mom then attempted to settle into her new life in Elgin. She gave up her car when she moved out so she relied on me taking her to the store (which also served as her social release!). February was a brutal weather month in Chicago and Mom did not venture out of the house until the third week she lived with us.

Unfortunately, her fourth week was not a good week. On Saturday, March 8th, while she was getting ready to do her weekend shopping, Mom fell in her bedroom. I was in the kitchen and heard her fall, but the sound was very slight. When I ran into the room, she was already on all fours trying to get up. We eventually got her off the floor and had her sit on her bed. She felt no real pain and there was no bruising, swelling or discoloration. She did feel some pain when she tried to walk with our aid, but nothing that caused any alarm. She spent a quiet Saturday, but Sunday morning revealed that she was still having problems walking. I called the paramedics to take her to the hospital where X-rays revealed that she had broken her hip!

On Monday she had surgery where three pins were inserted into her hip. The actual incision was only 2-3 inches in length and the surgery lasted just over an hour. By Tuesday, they had her taking small, measured steps in her hospital room.

Last Wednesday she was moved to a rest home (they refer to it as a "transitional center") for physical therapy. That's where she is right now. She hates it and is itching to get out! Although she wants to be out for Easter, she will probably need to stay there for another week. She's making good progress, but needs to regain her strength and balance in order to move back to the house. With Lisa and me working all day, she will be by herself for several hours and needs to be able to walk to and from the bathroom and to and from the kitchen.

Once Mom does move back, the weather will hopefully be warmer making her feel more "at home" in her new home.