Great grandfather Edward Thomas Sandford served as United States Consul to CheeFoo China for more than three years, beginning March, 1865. In the Spring of 1868, Edward was granted a leave-of-absence from the post due to the bad health of his wife, Sarah. He officially notified William Seward of his plans in a letter datedContinue reading “Edward Sandford finds his true calling”
Monthly Archives: July 2020
Prosperity, Service and High Esteem in the Model Colony
By 1903, our great grandparents Henry and Mabel Tuttle Swan had permanently moved from Mankato, Minnesota to Ontario, California. Henry was 40 years old, Mabel 37. Their daughter Margaret, our grandmother, was 8. The population of Ontario, the Model Colony, grew from around 700 in 1900 to over 4,000 by 1910 and 8,000 by theContinue reading “Prosperity, Service and High Esteem in the Model Colony”
The Gordon and Hynes families of Newburgh
We know that great grandmother Bessie Gordon was born in Newburgh, New York in 1873, a year after after her parents were married in Essex County New Jersey. We know that great grandfather James Louis Hynes came to Newburgh from Newfoundland with his family around 1895 (age 11). James and Bessie would live in parallelContinue reading “The Gordon and Hynes families of Newburgh”
Justice for George Sechler and Alfred Selleck
In the aftermath of the murders of our great grandfather George Sechler and Alfred Selleck, the trial of Salvatore Governale proceeded at lightning speed by today’s standards. The indictment was dated Monday, April 29, 1907, two weeks and one day after the murders. The trial in a Manhattan courtroom began a week later on Tuesday,Continue reading “Justice for George Sechler and Alfred Selleck”
The General Sherman Incident
On August 6, 1866, the General Sherman, an armored and armed side-wheel steamer schooner left Cheefoo, China on a trading mission to Korea, carrying a cargo of cotton, tin and glass. The ship sailed under the United States flag although the venture was undertaken by a British company, Meadows and Co, based in China, andContinue reading “The General Sherman Incident”
William Wright, the Engineer from Newburgh
In our recent examination of the extended ancestry of great grandfather George Sechler we skipped over a small but interesting detail. Six generations above George, in his mother’s mother’s quadrant of his family tree is his fourth great grandmother Hannah Wright (1692-1768) and her father Jonathan Wright (1635-1689), from Flushing, Queens, New York. This getsContinue reading “William Wright, the Engineer from Newburgh”
Bridging the Silences 