Memorial Day 2010 – William Carr

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance which evokes the full range of sentiment in the American soul. There are some who just see it as another day off. It is time to officially kickoff the summer with picnics, cookouts, swimming and maybe amusement park fireworks. For others it is a solemn day to remember those who would, and did, sacrifice their lives to preserve America and the freedoms we usually take for granted. I'm afraid that Memorial Day is undervalued by a generation who, as a whole, do not appreciate the gift given to them.  But many of us do remember those who served, fought and died. No matter what the motives were for those who signed up to stand on the wall, we owe them our gratitude and our deference.

I want to write about one of these today.

In 1989 I collected some family history from my grandmother. She had names and dates which stretched back into the early 1800s. This was further back than I thought we had. But to me they were just names and dates on a paper. One of her lines is the Carr family of Clearfield Co., Pennsylvania. The Carr progenitors were an early family of Rhode Island and Connecticut. As that prestigious family grew, some members of the clan drifted west and south. These Carrs became trailblazers, loggers, sawyers and finally farmers. Asahel Carr arrived in Western Pennsylvania in the early 1800s when that area was still part of the frontier. He took a wife and they had four boys and two daughters. These children worked the land and grew to have families of their own. But this generation of Carrs stayed close to each other. They had settled.

All of this I found out later. When I got the information from grandma I only had the direct line of my ancestry with no further info. I knew that Grandmother's mother was Effie Mae Carr; her father was Emory G. Carr (b. 2 Feb 1857 d. 2 Nov 1944) and his father was William Carr (b. 4 Aug 1836 d. 1865). William was one of Asahel's sons.

One of the things I noticed was Emory's age when his father, William, died. The boy was 8 years old. That is much too young to be fatherless.  I wondered how William came to die so young? Sure, life was hard back then, but still, he was in the prime of his life.  Was it an accidental death or was it something more?  Most of the locations in the genealogy notes were Clearfield County towns and villages. Except for William – his place of death just said Andersonville. The date of death, 1865, and the place, Andersonville, looked very ominous to me. Could it be what it looked like? Did my ancestor die at the infamous Andersonville Prisoner of War camp in Georgia?

I checked to see if there was any place called Andersonville or anything close to it in Clearfield or its surroundings. I came up with a little logging camp called Ansonville. Could that be where he died? Was it just a careless entry?  I also wrote to the Historical Society at Andersonville National Historic Site to see if William Carr was listed as one of the union soldiers in the cemetery there. They wrote back that they had no William Carr on the roster as one of the dead, but they had numerous unknowns in the cemetery and they would welcome the information if I discovered that my ancestor was one of the unknowns.

Over the years I have gleaned little bits here and there. I found the names of Asahel's other sons and daughters and the names of some of their spouses and children. I learned who my aunts and uncles were, the children of William Carr and Mary Jane Luzier, and when they were born. I also learned how to access archives and records. I learned what a great tool the internet is for collaborating and dispensing family history information.

But what I really learned was that these people who went before are more than just names and dates. They are real people with real stories. They had triumph and tragedy and they struggled through their lives just as we do today. And sometimes they had to make choices that were hard. This is a brief synopsis of such a time in my family.

ASAHEL and CATHERINE CARR's four sons: Benjamin, Alexander, William and Richard served in the Civil War. Only one son, Richard returned home after being wounded during Seven Days Battle, captured at Glendale June 30, 1862, and confined as prisoner at Richmond, VA. He was discharged October 24, 1862. RICHARD later served as Captain in the Spanish American War 1898-1899.

ALEXANDER, age 27, and his youngest brother, RICHARD, age 18, enlisted in the Union Army at Clearfield, PA, with Co. 'C', 34th Regiment, 5th Reserves on May 15, 1861. Neither of the two brothers was married at the time of their enlistment. Alexander was wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862 and died December 31, 1862, New Year's Eve.

BENJAMIN, age 34, and WILLIAM, age 26, enlisted in the Union Army at Clearfield, PA with Co. 'E', 149th Regiment, on August 23, 1862.  The regiment was known as the "Bucktails" and each member wore a bucktail in his cap, a very Western Pennsylvanian symbol of home.  Benjamin left behind his wife, Elizabeth (nee Williams) and children: Mercy Jane age 11, Cyrus, age 8, William Sawyer age 5, Mary Savilla and John Richard, age 1. William left behind his wife Mary Jane (nee Luzier) and his children: Manlius, age 7, Emory, age 5, Ada, age 3, Amanda, age 1. A third son, William, was born 8 months following his father's enlistment. From records kept we know that Ben and Will served together the entire length of their enlistment.

Will was captured on May 5, 1864 and Ben was captured the next day, May 6, 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia. They were imprisoned at the infamous Andersonville Prison in Georgia, where they suffered from diseases of scurvy and dysentery brought about by unsanitary conditions.  They also suffered malnutrition, and exposure to the elements. Both were paroled on or about Feb. 27, or 28, 1865 and delivered to Wilmington, NC. At Cape Fear they boarded a steamer to Annapolis, MD. Ben died at the military hospital in Annapolis March 11, 1865. Will was last seen struggling to climb the gang plank to the steamer that would have carried him towards home. He is officially listed as missing, but his cause of death is maltreatment at Andersonville Prison, GA.

The sacrifice isn't just made by the fallen. I think of Asahel and Catherine during those long nights when sleep flees due to anxiety and worry for loved ones. I imagine that terrible moment when the dreaded but anticipated news comes realizing darkest fears. I think of the wives and the children, left without husbands and fathers, forced to face the future without the companionship of their God-given but war-taken patres familias. I am moved and I am thankful for nobility, courage and determination in the human character. Yes, we do get it wrong sometimes. But we are capable of getting it, oh, so right. Sacrifice is often forgotten and reduced to a year and a place on a piece of paper. But God grant that we always retain the grace to have the humility to pause and give thanks for those who went before. Memorial Day is the day to reflect what we owe to those who gave that we might have.

SOURCE MATERIALS:
Military Records, National Archives, Washington, D.C., researched by Dena Hallock Murphy;
Personal Letters of Will and Ben Carr;
Family History Notes; Genealogical research by Dorothy Howorth
Family History Notes; Genealogical research by Shirley Hallock Evans.

Chicago Couple Found Buried Alive Under Mounds of Trash

Police found the couple in critical condition
Aggregate Sources

CHICAGO — Fire crews investigating a mysterious stench found an elderly couple buried alive under mounds of garbage in their Chicago home, authorities said Tuesday. Police declined to identify the couple.

The couple, a 75-year-old woman and her 76-year-old husband, who police described as hoarders, was discovered Monday during a forced-entry well-being check requested by a neighbor. The fire department team forced in the door of the South Side home and found an overpowering smell, piles of food waste and trash. Personnel had to wear hazardous-materials suits to deal with the debris, as the odor was overpowering. Police Lt. Dale Kingsley said that the residence "was packed from floor to ceiling."

Police had initially been called to the two-flat apartment building by neighbors who had not seen the couple in some time and wondered about their welfare. No one had heard from the couple in three weeks. Police called in the fire department because of the stench and the team that entered wore hazardous materials suits.

The Tribune reported that the woman appeared to have suffered rat bites, and the couple was taken to the hospital in critical condition. A spokesman for Jackson Park Hospital, Margo Brooks, said the two were admitted and remained listed in critical condition at noon Tuesday, but that their conditions have improved.
The woman may have fallen through the trash first and become trapped. Her husband may have tried to help her and seemed to have become trapped as well.

An 83-year-old neighbor, Hattie Fields, said the couple had lived in the building for years. "I've been here since 1965 and I can't remember if they were here then or not," she said.

She said that she used to see the woman sitting on the front porch as she walked by but no longer could because the hedges had not been trimmed for years and had grown level with the second floor of the building, obscuring the view.

She said she was fairly certain that no one else lived in the building, although there were unoccupied apartments on the first floor and in the basement. She said signs of neglect were obvious. "The back yard is also full of debris," she said. She said she used to see the man going out and getting in his truck to go to work in the morning, although not lately.

A neighbor, Cleopatra Ingram, said, "I thought it was an abandoned building actually. Someone should have checked on them. You'd walk past and there was no one there at all."

City building inspector Lauren Mosley photographs the kitchen of a house where a couple in their 70s was found buried under mounds of trash on Chicago's South Side. Police Lt. Dale Kingsley said their home was "packed from floor to ceiling" with garbage and may have to be condemned.

McDowell High School Prom 2010

Jessica and her boyfriend, Anthony Johnston

Stephanie and her date, James McDonald

Prom Dress Swindle: BuyQuinceanaraDress.com

David Hannum said of P.T. Barnum's patrons, "There's a sucker born every second."  Ironically, Hannum was the real sucker.  He got swindled into buying a hoax because he really wanted to believe in it. That's when we are the most vulnerable, when we really want to believe something is real.  Con-artists know this.  The desperate are the best, and easiest, marks. 

Evey spring there is a new crop of marks just waiting to be bilked.  There is a ready-made societal-pressured army of desperate teenage girls just trying to fulfill their perfect prom night fantasies.  These are the ready-made suckers primed and perfect to be conned and defrauded. 

This is the dress Jessica wanted so badly.  She had seen it on the internet, but it was priced well over any possibility of buying it.  So she search engined the photo and checked everywhere for it.  She was simply ecstatic when she came across it for less than half of what the other dress shop wanted for it.  This is the site where she found her dress:  http://www.buyquinceaneradress.com/.

It was a real deal at $239.  The site was setup to use paypal, which made me feel better.  There was less than a month to the prom, so we paid the extra $30 to insure it got here on time. Jessica gave the company all her measurements to have the dress altered before it was shipped.  She was on Cloud 9.  The dress was paid for using a debit card.  Jessica printed the receipt and made arrangements for her boyfriend to come up from South Carolina for a wonderful night, complete with extended limo service and a fancy dinner.

As the day drew near, my wife attempted to check on the progress of the dress.  After several broken english communications with someone called Molly Lee (who can be contacted at ordersorder@gmail.com , not that I'm saying to do that.  But if you feel like it, you can do so at the above email address) it was becoming clear that Jessica had been scammed.  And we had been ripped off.  Gailyn's inquiries were responded to with two basic standard replies.  "Molly Lee" didn't even try to answer the emails, we simply got the following non-responses.  The first one we received 3 times.   

Dear,

your dress is well in process.

we will try our best to let you get the dress earlier.

Can you give us several days more?

Thanks ,much !

Dear,

Thanks for favoring our company.

your dress is well in process.

since we are really busy in this hot season,

we'd appreciate that you can give us more time.

Hoping against hope that we weren't going to be stood up, my wife went into serious stress mode and her and Jess began scouring the local stores for a replacement.  All the secondhand shops had been stripped bare of any treasure already.  I mean, who waits until the week of prom to go looking for dresses.  The wedding boutiques and formal stores were outrageously priced, but that is the last resort of the desperate.

Jessica found a comparable dress.  It was one of the last ones left.  We paid the sucker's penalty of full price; almost $500.  But she was happy with it, though there was not time to get it altered correctly to her figure.  She spent the night holding her back erect so the front of the dress didn't collapse.  But she went and had a good time.  Which is good.  She graduates next month and it would have been a shame if the night was a total disaster for her. 

After Saturday, I settled down to get a refund.  We had paid using paypal and I would dispute the transaction, claim that we never received the goods and get our money back.  I went to the paypal site, entered the transaction number and nothing came up.  I searched all transactions.  Buy Quinceanera dress was not listed.  To make a long story short.  The paypal option on the site is a fraud.  We fell for it.  Worse, they now have a valid credit card number.  To date the only charge on the card is for the original $269 order.  We are moving today to make sure that is all that will ever be charged on that card again.

BuyQuinceaneraDress.com is registered with GoDaddy.com out of Scottsdale, Arizona.  Where the perpetrators of this fraud are located is still a mystery.  I have found this same website, layout and information, in other languages, so they could be anywhere.  The world is ripe for the plucking in this digital age. 

My little website doesn't draw enough attention or traffic to make any difference in stopping this particular piece of disgusting *censored*.  But if you happen to come across my little page here - please pass this info on.  I really would like this to be Molly Lee's last profitable season.  

Borders

US Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Federal government may go to court to challenge the Arizona Immigration law. (Even though he hasn't even read it as of this posting.)

My question is: Since the Arizona law mirrors the U.S. Federal Statutes, does that mean throwing out Arizona's law would throw out the federal laws? I mean, it's not like the Feds (the guys on top, not the agents) are interested in enforcement anyway. Is this seen as an opportunity - not to protect innocent brown people from peacefully enjoying an outing for ice cream, but a way to open up the great untapped masses for democratic constituency? Man, have I become politically jaded! And understandably so. It's where you end up when news organizations actually report Arizona Law makes it a crime to be in the country illegally. Well, duh? Is this a new legal concept?

I don't know what a "demorat" is - but I get the gist of the text.

Want a laugh? Check out McCain's new strategy to get re-elected. John McCain is now Mr. Border Enforcement Candidate. During the Presidential campaign he begrudgingly promised to build the "damn fence" if the american people insisted on it. Basically that was just a way to get out of building the fence, because a McCain administration would claim lack of public interest in it. 80% just isn't high enough a percentage.

"Fight with me, my friends. Fight with me."
Los Angeles and Washington DC and a bunch of other bastions of liberal-thinking looniness are throwing "boycott" threats around. Like that's going to work. As usual the boycott will hurt those who don't like the law or those who work the low wage tourism and convention jobs. The people who support the Arizona law (all 80% of the population - including 2/3 of Latinos) will pretty much just say, "Good, we don't want that kind here anyway." "That kind" being the barking moonbats who try to make themselves important by making loud noises over any current leftist cause celebre. These boycotts never work. A few organizers get some publicity and a few gronala crunchers feel good about themselves but it never changes anything. One idiot organizer wants the LA Lakers to pack their own food when they go to Phoenix for the NBA Semifinals. That way they won't support the Arizona economy by buying food locally. I want to ask why aren't they boycotting the federal government? I repeat, the laws mirror each other. Oh yeah, federal entitlement money...forget I asked.

But the dumbest piece of news about the immigration law so far comes to us courtesy of Highland Park High School. The Superin-leftenat of Illinois High School District 113, Suzan Hebson, has cancelled the trip for the girls varsity basketball team to a tournament in Arizona next December. Supposedly the safety of the team was the major concern - yeah, right! Hebson also admitted that a trip to Arizona at this time "would not be aligned with our beliefs and values." In other words, Hebson's beliefs and Hebson's values. Hebson's political activism is running away with her sense of decency and fairness to the girls who have worked and fund-raised themselves right into a great experience for the varsity girls B-ball squad. Parents are ticked, the team is crushed and the country is shaking their heads over another liberal ideologue unilaterally inserting her own agenda in someone else's life. Hebson has made a career out of her political activism invading the school's cirriculum and policy. Several times she has made the students sign confidentiality agreements preventing them from speaking to their parents about the seminars and discussion groups the students were required to attend.

The Arizona law mirrors the U.S. immigration law. Arizona law enforcement officers have no powers above nor greater than the federal law enforcement officers. There is no new nazism here. You cannot stop and check someone's "papers, please" unless they do the same kind of crap that lets the cops check all of our papers. Crap like jaywalking, speeding, murder, that kind of stuff. Nobody has to carry a passport or a birth certificate. That's just exaggerated heated political rhetoric designed to evoke emotional kneejerk responses. If I was stopped for a crime and did not produce ID then I would be arrested until they could establish my identity. If there are warrants or other charges pending against me then the authorities would find out. It is the same here. But now if they arrest someone who turns out to be in the country illegally or undocumented or whatever term you like, then the Arizona police must act on it. They can't ignore it - like the federal government has for the longest time. There is nothing new here but the extension of requirement of enforcement to the officials who actually deal with the problem. Hebson's objections obviously aren't about the law, but rather the enforcement of current law. If Hebson was a straight shooter then her varsity girls shouldn't be able to participate in any tournament in this whole "rascist" country.

Wait! Forget I said that. I wouldn't want to give Hebson any new ideas. Or maybe she can sneak the Varsity Girls over into Mexico to play a tournament. They should be real safe there - especially when the government finds out they are there illegally.

UPDATE JUNE 11, 2010

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty (excerpt):
Arizona's tough new immigration law doesn't even go into effect for another seven weeks, but lots of the state's 460,000 illegal aliens are leaving now.
USA Today reports that records from schools, businesses and individuals suggest that many worried legal and illegal Latinos are fleeing Arizona.
Schools in Latino neighborhoods show big drops in enrollment.
In one elementary school, 70 kids have been pulled out by their parents in just the last month... that's compared to seven students who left the school in the same period last year.
The superintendent says "they're leaving to another state where they feel more welcome."