February 2020 – Bridging the Silences

Joe Sandford discusses his father ET Sandford

I’m getting ready to do a sequence of articles on the Sandford branch of the family, from grandfather EJ (Joe) Sandford all the way back to the first Sandfords to come to America in 1634. There is a lot of material and it will take some time. To get things started, here is an accountContinue reading “Joe Sandford discusses his father ET Sandford”

Mount Baldy

Joe: We used to hike clear up to the top of Baldy, Ontario Peak. Q. All the way to the top? Joe: Oh, yes. Margaret and I and two of our children were up there right after the Second World War was declared. We were clear on the top. It was a warm day, andContinue reading “Mount Baldy”

The Tragedy at Washington Square Park

Sunday April 14, 1907 was a beautiful early spring day in Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan, the park with the iconic grand arch. Late in the afternoon, hundreds of families were enjoying the last hours of their weekend. A minor jostle in a restroom quickly spiraled to a major altercation as a man namedContinue reading “The Tragedy at Washington Square Park”

The George Sechler Story

This year will mark the 123rd anniversary of the events surrounding George Mowrer Sechler of Danville PA, my great grandfather, and a brief interval in history where Danville, Manhattan, and Brooklyn were dramatically drawn together. I’ll tell the story in daily installments, corresponding to the days of that fateful week in April 1907. Along theContinue reading “The George Sechler Story”

Joe Sandford Living History Interview, 1973

And my father and family moved out to Corona, California, a little community across the valley, about 1897. I was a little boy then. We lived in corona for some ten years, perhaps twelve years. I went to grammar school there. Incidentally, Mrs. Sandford and I took two lovely people that lived there at thatContinue reading “Joe Sandford Living History Interview, 1973”

Eight Lives

We’re all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us. Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas The folder stares at me from the corner of the desk like a historical marker on a road near your house that you pass by several times a day. It’s been staring at me for 30 years. AContinue reading “Eight Lives”