Great-Great Grandpa Michael Ryman

     I recently came across two short newspaper articles from the Aberdeen Daily News in May of 1915 about the death and funeral of my Grandma Wilkins’ grandfather, whose name was Michael Ryman. He died in Warner Township, Brown County, South Dakota, where he had settled in 1885.  He was called one of the pioneers and early settlers of the county.  It is  the same county where Grandma Wilkins was born and not far from where Mom was born. 

     He’d been born in Switzerland in August of 1835.  His name before coming to the United States was Melchior Reimann, but that was anglicized once he got here.  In Switzerland he married Magdalena Bossely in 1861 and then two years later came to the United States.  The first place he lived was in Sullivan County, New York and then moved on to South Dakota in 1885.

     The newspaper headline was "Apoplexy Cause of Pioneer's Death."  He had eleven children (nine of whom were still alive at his death), thirty-five grandchildren and, at that point in time, four great grandchildren. His son Will Ryman was Grandma Wilkins’ father.  This was the first information I’ve come across about Michael Ryman, other than a few dates, so I thought it was interesting to find out.  If anyone happens to know more about him, please make a comment.

Reflecting, on Mom's Birthday

The older I get the more I become convinced that who we are is shaped by the forces of the environments into which we are born  As I think about Mom on her birthday, her life only underscores that point for me. Being part of – as Lora puts – the next generation to go,  I think that I can still relate to some extent to the world Mom grew up in, but I wonder about my grandchildren.  For Liam, Andrew or Owen to understand what the world was like for Mom is like asking me to understand what it was like to be born at the time of the Civil War.   The world was so other that it seems almost impossible.

     The world Mom grew up in was one in which, for women in particular, you were asked to accept authority without questioning and do what you had to do.  Parents weren’t there to nurture; they were there to be obeyed.   A world where women’s roles were defined by being a wife and mother, where as a military wife you were simply an appendage to your husband, where the Church decided the size of your family, where a bank account couldn’t be in a married woman’s name and where the word “obey” was still part of a woman’s wedding vow.   Thankfully, my granddaughter Amelia does not have to grow up under the weight of such social norms, but at the same time it also makes me wonder how it would be possible for any of us that follow Mom to know what it was like to be her and to make the choices (to the extent that they were choices) that she made.

      When Mom was born in 1921, most people did not have cars or telephones, let alone televisions, computers or ATM cards.  Where Mom grew up in Northville, Spink County, South Dakota they did not have indoor plumbing or electricity.  Her family's bathroom was an outhouse some distance from the house with corn sheaths for toilet paper.  I have to laugh when I try to imagine how some of my children who won’t even use a roadside Porta Potty in an emergency would handle that.  In the South Dakota winters, they would have to bring the pigs inside and let them sleep by the stove to keep them warm.  Something I doubt any of the rest of us have ever had to do.  Since my grandpa Wilkins’ first five children were boys and he had rheumatoid arthritis,  Mom and her oldest sister Lucille were the “boys” in the family, doing all the male chores.  We always talk about Mom having perseverance, about how for all her talking about it, she would do whatever she had to do to survive in a situation and I’m wondering how much of her early character was formed back in that Dakota farm cold.

         We all like to pontificate about life being the choices we make, but how much choice does a person growing up in Mom’s time and under Mom’s circumstances have.  I think specifically of how she was told to quit high school and go to work as a nanny by her father so that she could give the family the money she earned.  I can’t even envision my son Eli making that kind of choice for Maggie. 

         And we all know the story of how when she was finally old enough to move out on her own and moved up to San Francisco, her father sent her brothers-in-law up there to haul her back home.  Mom talked about that so many times that it is clear it left a deep imprint upon her.  Would any of our adult children allow us to do that to them these days, and would we even consider it short of a life-threatening situation?

         Mom had the bad luck to be married at a period in history when virtually all able-bodied American men were in the military, and that, too, profoundly set the course of her life.  I don’t know how many total times she had to move, but I know that prior to college I attended at least ten different schools. 

          No one meeting Mom would ever, without getting to know her better, suspect all that she went through, all the forces that shaped her.  She had a great sense of humor, loved to talk or tell stories, and when her voice allowed her, was always singing.  Perhaps that was due to an inherent part of her nature that helped her to withstand so much of what life threw at her.  I wonder if she had been born here in the twenty-first century with its greater (if still imperfect) opportunities, what life would have been like for her, what she would have been able to accomplish.   The fact that we may feel ourselves more successful or prosperous or educated or enlightened has less to do with merit on our part than with the circumstances that shaped our lives allowing us to become what we are.

Northin Virginia

In preparing for an American history class that I am teaching, I was reading through material about the founding of Jamestown in 1608 and the early Virginia colony. It was around 1634 or so that Virginia started being an exporter of tobacco. This got me thinking about our family history and what they were doing at that time. I knew that my ancestor John Northin had come over in the first half of the 1600’s and so tried to match some things up. John Northin was born in England in 1613, but he married Elizabeth Clarke and they had a son, Edmund Northen born in York County, Virginia in 1653. Edmund died in Richmond Country, Virginia in the early 1700s. Curious about the geography, I saw found out that York County was originally called Charles County Shire and was one of eight original shires set up when the Dominion and Colony of Virginia was founded. It actually backs up to the county that now holds Jamestown. The name was changed to York County and the river to the York River in 1634. The settlers there almost all came in, to raise tobacco and York County seemed to be the center of activity. Two things strike me as interesting. One is that most men came over single with a ratio of men to women of about 7:1. Also many died the first summer they came over in what they called a ‘season processing’ which generally meant surviving bouts of malaria. Since John Northin married, he was one of the lucky ones. The other things is that many men came in under the headright system in which men who could pay their way over were given fifty acres to farm. Since we don’t know whether he was married when he came over, we could also speculate that he might also have come over as an indentured servant. That is possible since most men came over single and in their early 20’s. John Northin could have easily fit that profile. The other interesting fact, according to the text was that most men did not live to be much past fifty whereas John Northin died in the 1693’s, so his life may not have been as rough as some. He may have own some land. Though John probably died in York, his son move up to Richmond County, probably in the area that is now the town of Warsaw. It is farther up the neck in Virginia and, at least my chain of the family, stayed in that area up until my grandfather moved down to Wicomico Church. Not that it changes anything, but it is sort of neat to think that one of our relatives was in on the ground floor of the American history we all learned about in our textbooks.

Gwendolyn Adora

Congratulations to Sydney on the birth of her daughter, Gwendolyn Adora. Gwen was born on May 25 at 5:32 PM. She is 19 inches long and weighs 7 lbs, 4 ounces. Sydney is feeling fine - just relaxing and enjoying her new daughter (as she should be!) For a picture of Gwen, click here.

New Year, New News

With the New Year beginning (in Argentina for some of us) new things are happening already. Here are few.

Melissa, John and crew have return from their trek to California. Despite the rain, they were able to stop for visit with Grandma Northen and to visit friends in Joshua Tree. Click on the link to their website on the right to see the latest pictures.

Eli passed his LEED exam last week - not an easy task. He is now certified to be an architect on sites which require environmentally friendly construction. This includes work on government sponsored and sustainable projects.

My poem "Teaching Plato at a School in Camden" was just published English Journal, a national magazine called available in most school libraries. It is a little ironic that it is such an old poem, but I'll takes success where I can get it.

If you have any family news, please add it.

Argentina

On Christmas Day Eli, Mary Beth, Maya, Ryan Lora and I left for Argentina. It was the first trip for any of us to South America, and I think, except for Ed, for any of the Northen family, so I thought it might be interesting to describe our travels a bit. We hit three places in Argentina: Buenos Aires, Iguazú Falls and Mendoza. It was all arranged by Maya through her company, Chimera Travel.

Buenos Aires is said to be the most European of all South American cities, and it is certainly true that if one suddenly found themselves in the city without knowing where they were, aside from the signs in Spanish, they would probably feel that they were still in the United States. One thing we found out quickly, though, is that without knowing a little Spanish, you sometimes find yourself in an awkward situation even in restaurants or hotels since you can not assume that the staff will understand any more English than we did Spanish.

Buenos Aires is a huge, busy city. It is filled with parks, plazas and subtropical vegetation, but I doubt that any street in North America is busier or more crowded than Florida Street, a pedestrian walkway about six blocks long, that angled up to our hotel. Buenos Aires also contains the widest street in South America, Avenida 9 de Julio. We counted about 18 lanes across with three medians. We stayed at the Marriott Plaza, a grand, old hotel that overlooks San Martin Park. Even more than Philadelphia, Buenos Aires is a city of neighborhoods and we explored a number of them. Our hotel was located in Micocentro, the downtown, but we also ventured out to Palermo, San Telmo, Puerto Madero and Recoleta – all areas with their own particular color or character. Buenos Aires is a city of restaurants and they are basically of two kinds – parillas and pasta. Argentina is a country of beef and the parillas are the restaurants that serve up meat in Argentine style. Because of its huge Italian population, there are many pasta places as well. If you are vegetarian in Argentina, you’d better like pasta because that is about all you’ll find to eat.

Naturally we did some very touristy things such as visit Eva Perón’s (“Evita’s”) grave at the huge graveyard in Recoleta and spend an evening watching tango in San Telmo. In Palermo we hung out at the plaza’s where artists sell their works, and, of course, we sampled Quilmes, the local Bud lite. But mostly we walked. Our New Year’s Eve was spent at a wonderful restaurant named Marcelo’s in the Puerto Madero section of the city which is renovated warehouses built up along a canal. At midnight there were fireworks in the air over the water and people dancing to Spanish beats on the walkways next to the canals.

Sandwiched between our arrival and New Years we spent two days up at Iguazú Falls near the Brazilian border. Picture an elaborate resort for hunters in the African Serengeti and you’ll have a fair idea of what the Sheraton Hotel (the only hotel on the Argentine side of the falls) was like. The falls themselves have to be seen to be believed. Though technically pouring out less water than Niagara Falls, they indescribably more beautiful. One day I hiked with Eli and Mary Beth up to Devil’s throat which gives the most magnificent, spray-filled views. We saw monkeys, lizards and dozens of varieties of butterflies along the way. The next morning Maya, Ryan and I hiked to a bit more remote spot at the base of one of the falls which was truly elegant in its beauty.

After New Years, Eli and Mary Beth departed for the states, but the rest of headed on to Mendoza, the center of the wine country, which is located in the western part of Argentina almost to the Chilean border. Mendoza is not a small city (the population is a million), but it is a bit like stepping back in time. Surrounded by desert, it is supported by the snow from the Andes mountains which runs down into a maze of small irrigation canals throughout the city. Full of plazas, the vegetation is much like southern California – eucalyptus, palm trees, oleander and sycamore trees all over. We went on a wine tour sampling the local wines, principally malbec, for which the region is famous. Our hotel, the Park Hyatt, was the most impressive I have ever been in. Looking colonial on the outside, it was sleek and modern on the inside – a marvel of aesthetics.

These few words cannot do justice to the whole trip, but they give you an idea. By the way, if you do go to Argentina, don’t miss the ubiquitous taxi rides. They are more fun than Disneyland. Lora rode in one where the driver was playing a harmonica while steering with his knees and weaving in and out of traffic. Que bueno!

-Mike

Cotters in California

The day after Christmas John, Melissa, Jack and Amelia will be heading down the Pacific coast to California. They are putting their new '85 Volvo camper out for a test run, camping along the way, planning to head down the coast once they get to San Jose and meet friends in Joshua tree. Ironically, they also have a friend to visit who lives in Orange - about four miles from Mom - so they are planning to let Jack and Amelia meet great-grandma. No doubt there will be pictures on their sight in a few weeks, so check the link.

Carly Elizabeth Jarosz

There is another addition to the clan. Here in Judi's own words:

Well we finally have a new granddaughter. I took Dawn to the doctor Monday morning for her check up and they were going to induce her on Thursday but later that afternoon she was having bad contraction and the doctor told her to come to his office to be checked. She was in labor but there were no rooms available at Baptist hospital so they took her to another one close by. She had the baby at 10:22 PM on the 19th. She weigh 8 lbs and was 19 in long. She has dark hair and is just beautiful. Both mom and baby our doing fine. I think they will come home this morning so I am going to go take care of the other two while Mike picks her up. Her name is Carly Elizabeth Jarosz.

Sounds like say congratulations are in order.

Birthdays

Eli suggested that I post the family birthdays on the log. That sounds like a good idea to me. I'll just list them all out here so that everyone can look them over and check for mistakes. What other birthdays do you want added? Let me know by clicking on the comment section listing the additions or corrections you want. After the blog has been up a while, I will put a link on the side so that you can just click on it whenever you need it.

BIRTHDAYS

January
30 – Patrick Mark Northen

February
19 – Lora Northen
20 – Trent Northen
23 – Elijah Northen
28 – Melissa Cotter

March
13 – Mary Beth Burdette

April
27 - Grandma Northen

May
2 – Michael Northen
22 – Maura Northen
30 – Rita Northen

June
6 – Ryan McGee
20 – Jack Cotter
21 – Andrew Northen

July
1 – Sydney Northen

August
20 – Amber Frensley
21 – David Northen

September
13 – John Cotter
14 – Judi Frensley
16 – Stephen Northen
22 – Lindsey Northen
23 – Maya McGee
29 – Mary Anne Northen

October
6 – Amelia Cotter
10 – Carmen Northen
11 – Brandi McLemore
25 – Edward Northen


November
5 – Connor Northen

December
12 – Dawn Frensley
17 – Grandma Ventura
20 – Patrick Michael Northen
Pat Frensley

Northen News Resumes

It has been a while since this blog has seen an entry, so I am going to try to jump start it with a few news items since the last entry. Two new links have been added over on the left and you probably want to check them out. One is Eli’s Architecture site which displays a variety of his drawings and other. The other is Eli and MB’s Engagement Page set up by Mary Beth. She has put together all of the information you might be interested in knowing about their wedding in July.

As some of you know I have been working on the proposal for my doctoral dissertation. This semester I had to turn in the proposal and finally finished it on Friday. My topic is Disability and Literature. The whole proposal is about sixty pages, but if you are interested in, here is a one page abstract.

In just one week – Christmas Eve – Lora, Maya, Ryan, Eli, Mary Beth and I will be taking off for Argentina. It’s hard to believe. We’ll be spending most of our time in Buenos Aires – especially New Years, but we will also spend a couple of days up at Iguazu Falls near the Brazilian border and a couple more in the Mendoza wine country in western Argentina. It should be a lot of fun.

Grandbaby

Just wanted to let everyone know that Dawn found out that she is having a Girl. She is due the first of Jan.
Judi Frensley

Another Grandbaby coming

Just wanted to let you all know that my daughter Dawn is expecting again. This came as a surprise to us but Dawn and her Husband are very excited about having another baby. This will make their third. Chance is now five and will be starting kindergarden in August. Kennedy is now three and thinks she is the princess of the family. Needless to say she is hoping for another brother so she can remain the princess. With Pat and Rita just having another boy I couldn't let Mike get ahead of me in Grand Children. Just kidding. Love Judi Frensley

ANDREW IS HERE!

Andrew Joseph Northen was born today - way ahead of schedule - at 8:11 AM in Paoli Hospital. He weighed in at four pounds, fourteen ounces and is nineteen inches long. Despite his small size, he is healthy and doing fine. Though he was not expected until mid-July, Rita was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia last week and the doctor decided that for the health of both mother and baby, Rita should be induced this morning. Though not ready to run a marathon just after childbirth, Rita was feeling reasonably well considering all she has been through these last few month pregnancy. Rita and Andrew plan to stay at the hospital for about three days. Meanwhile, Pat is making the rounds on the telephone to let everyone know the good news and convincing Connor that it is just about time for him to move into his new bedroom.

Poetry Contest Winner

Some say that late is better than never, so congratulations to Ed in being one of the winners in the annual Triton College Poetry Contest. Each spring Triton College in River Grove, Illinois sponsors a poetry contest in which three topics for poems are announced. The best poems on each topic are picked as winners and appear the next year in Ariel , the literary magazine that the college puts out. Ed entered his poems in March and found out at the beginning of May that one of his poems, “A Portent of Passing” was chosen. Here are the first few lines from the poem:

Standing in the doorway
My mother's body is thin
Frail as rice paper

Weakened by pneumonia
And eighty years of hardship
She survives her pilgrimage on faith

The entire poem will appear in Ariel XXIII which will appear in spring of 2006.

Race for the Cure

The Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure is a run that takes place annually in many major cities around the United States to raise money for breast cancer. It is widely participated in by women who are breast cancer survivors as well as those just trying to help raise money for the cause. In May of this year thousands in Philadelphia gathered around the famous art museum in rainy winter, many wearing the emblematic pink ribbons.

On June 4, Maura participated in Seattle incarnation of the race along with friends and co-workers. Though her picture does not appear among the race winners, she was able to raise over $100 for the cause. The Seattle race is reputed to be one of the tougher courses. It is great to have a family member represent us in such an important event. Thanks, Maura.

Trout Unlimited

Carmen and I recently attended a Idaho State council meeting for Trout Unlimited and she was elected Vice President for the State of Idaho. She has been president of the local chapter [Hemingway] for the last year so needless to say she is getting well entrenched in the conservation efforts.

Guide season has just opened so Carmen will be doing some guiding. The river is still quite high so it will be a fee weeks before Carmen gets any trips. The true season usually starts about July 1st.

-Ed

December in Argentina

Past Northen family vacations have been in Central Europe and the British Isles in the heat of August. This year’s will not only be in during the cooler part of the year but in South America. We are in the process of planning our next family vacation and it looks as though it will be to Argentina over Christmas vacation.

Maya is doing all of the research and contact work, but it looks as though we will probably be leaving Christmas night. First, we will be hitting the big city, Buenos Aires, and staying at the Marriott Hotel . Buenos Aires is both the capital and largest city in Argentina and it is also located in the east part of the country right across the bay from Uruguay for those who want to take a side trip. Next, we will be making a complete change of venue and go up to one of the most spectacular sites in Argentina – Cataratas del Iguazú or Iguazú Falls. Reported to make Niagara Falls look like it is standing still, Iguazú Falls is located in the tropical rain forest at the extreme north of Argentina, almost bordering on Paraguay and Brazil. There we will be staying at the Sheraton. We’ll be returning to Buenos Aires for New Years and then going on to a third and very different part of Argentina. This is the Mendoza in the famous wine country located in the far west of Argentina almost to the Andes and Chile. Here our hotel will be the Park Hyatt.

It should be an exciting trip. Maya is setting this up through Chimera Travel, so if you have any ideas, let her know.

Bronchitis Blues

Poor Rita can't catch a break. On top of an injured leg and pregnancy (with all its attendant discomforts), she had bronchitis over the Memorial Day weekend. Not only did she spend the holiday in bed but her birthday as well! Suffice it to say, a doctor was not be sound. Luckily, for Rita, she is due mid-July, so she won't have to wait much longer or go through the hottest part of the summer pregnant. For those who haven't heard, Pat and Rita will be having a boy and have already picked out a name - Andrew.

Memorial Day Weekend

On Memorial weekend, Lora, Maya, Ryan, Eli, Mary Beth and Mike trekked up to Buffalo. They had a mini-family reunion with their relatives on the Ventura side of the family. Maya and Eli also visited their Grandma Ventura in the nursing home. Eli took Mary Beth to Niagara Falls for her first time ever and – Memorial Day or not – they got hailed on. We also met up with the Cotter wing of the family: John, Melissa, Amelia and Jack. Melissa and John had gone up to Toronto for their anniversary, and they were all headed up to Niagara-on-the-Lake to go out on a boat. Jack is not only learning to walk, but to throw spoons off his high chair and chomp on toast. Naturally, we all had to sample the Buffalo cuisine - Buffalo wings, Mike’s subs and dinner at Shanghai Red’s overlooking the marina at sunset.

Family Links

Though you can easily click the on the links for yourself for yourself, maybe you'll be enticed to look if a bit further if a short description of the links is set out. Here we go then:

Cotter Family contains photographs and video clips that center around – who else – Amelia and Jack. There’s a great one of Jack in his bath and, my personal favorite, Amelia singing happy birthday to Grandpa Northen.

Chimera Travel is the site for Maya’s travel consulting business. It has a great new article on Malaysia as well as a vintage one on Seattle (for those of you planning to visit Maura or the Cotters).

Northen Family Tree is an online genealogy of the Northen family. Though the modern Northen’s listed are all the Tennessee branch, it traces our family back to John Northin – the first Northen in America.

Dispoet is Mike’s forum for discussing disability and writing. Yes, I know it sounds boring but check it out. You never know…

Carmen’s Flyfishing shows some professional flyfishing photos that Carmen has for sale on line. Go ahead – take a guess who the fisherman is.