Sanatorium???

I've been going through some documents that a family member sent to me.  There are letters that my Great Grandfather, William Adam Jackson Loyd, wrote to his wife, Ada Grant.  It didn't occur to me to even question why they were apart or where he was writing from.  But those questions occurred to me as I continued to read the letters.  I finally got to a post card that William sent to one of his daughters, with a picture of the State Sanatorium on the front.  What is a Sanatorium??  I had no idea what it was.  So I googled it.  Here is the information I found. Thank you Charlotte Brown for posting your family pictures!!  I guess my Great Grandfather was being treated for TB when he wrote these letters to my grandmother in 1947, about a year before he died.  

Me and my Great Grandfather

This is a four generation picture.  I'm the one in the green shirt, sitting next to my great grandfather, Joseph Vivian.  Next tohim is my grandmother, Donna Epperson.  Behind her is her daughter and my mother, Dianne Loyd.  Unfortunatly, I don't remember when this was taken, and sadly I don't remember this day at all.  But I am grateful for this picture that was taken so I could see that it happened.  

My pioneer family...

This is another section from Donna's personal history.  I've shared some of the research that I've found for this section previously.  Here is what I've been putting together with using that research.

Sarah and Donna Anna Hildebrand

The Hildebrand family was living in the Silver Creek Township, in Burke, North Carolina in the year 1900. Leander Portley and Sarah Hildebrand had five of their 14 children living at home at the time. There were three daughters and two sons; Donna, Wade, Henry, Jessie, and Dixie.

At this time North Carolina was a part of the Southern States Mission. The Hildebrand family met Jefferson George Hunt and Otto Lundberg, who were missionaries for the church. Jefferson Hunt was from Hobson, Hush County, Utah and was set apart for missionary work on August 16, 1899 to serve in the Southern States Mission and returned home on January 29, 1902. Otto Lundberg was from Logan, Hack Fe County, Utah and was set apart on June 14, 1899 also to serve in the Southern States Mission. He returned home on June 20, 1901.

While Jefferson Hunt and Otto Lundberg were missionary companions, Elder Hunt baptized Donna Anna on November 18, 1900, and she was confirmed by Elder Lundberg on the same day. Sarah and Martin Hildebrand were baptized and confirmed on the same day, probably by Elders Hunt and Lundberg also. Unfortunately, more of the details surrounding their conversion are unknown. After they joined the church, some of the Hildebrand's close friends, the Christenbury/Fox family, moved to Colorado in September 1901. Junie Ardella Fox was Donna Anna's best friend from Morganton, North Carolina. She wrote to Donna, “Donnie, get your family to come out here! There‟s a Church here!” The Hildebrands then moved to Denver in 1902. 

One reason that the Hildebrands moved from North Carolina was because of the persecution that they faced there. Since Sarah, Donna, and Martin were the only members of the church in their family at this time, family persecution might have been a factor but there are also reports of community persecution. There is an account of an experience two Elders in the Southern States Mission had before the Hildebrands joined the church:

Elders Cox and Blake were in Asheboro, North Carolina on the evening of January 29, 1895. They stopped at the Brookshire Hotel at about nine o‟clock. They were surprised by a masked mob of about twenty who forced them to leave the room. The mob then marched them along the railroad track for a mile and a half to Randleman and informed the Elders that if they ever came in Asheboro again they might expect harsh treatment. After warning them never to enter the town again the drunken mob returned to Ashboro. The night was cold, bleak, and stormy, and the Elders wandered through the woods, chilled by the cold. When morning dawned, they found themselves only three miles from Asheboro. Needless to say they were not long in increasing their distance.

The first permanent Branch of the Church was established in Denver on January 3, 1897, just three years prior to the Hildebrands move to Denver. Even though her husband never joined the church, and with the church being so new to her and in the area, she remained a faithful member of the church her whole life. In these early years, the church didn‟t have a building to meet in, so they met in homes and rented halls. In April 1901, President Joseph McRae, who was the mission president of the Colorado Mission, recognized the need for the expanding Church to have its own building. Two lots were purchased on the corner of 6th Avenue and South Water Street (now Galapago) in Denver for the sum of $1,600.

A brick building was finished on March 13, 1904 and was the center for all mission and branch activity for the Church for 13 years. The ground floor contained four rooms used for offices, Sunday School classrooms, etc., and an auditorium with a seating capacity of about 200. On the second floor were nine rooms used for living apartments.24 Today this building is situated directly across the street from St. Joseph Catholic Church, and is on a street that is traveled by thousands as they enter Denver daily.

Donna attended her church meetings in this building on 622 West 6th Avenue, until a new building was built on 7th and Pearl because church membership had grown from 654 members in 1909 to over 4500 members in 1919.25 In the fall of 1918, the doors were opened to the new chapel. This chapel had the only baptismal font in the mission for years, and prospective members often traveled far distances to be baptized there. Unfortunately, the property was sold in1983, and the building was demolished to make room for an apartment building.

Donna was finally able to share the joy of the gospel with two of her younger sisters. Jessie Hill and Dixie Lee Hildebrand joined the church on May 8, 1917, most likely being baptized in the 7th and Pearl baptismal font. All of Donna‟s children were baptized as they were old enough. Her youngest daughter, Donna Marline Vivian, died when she was only eight months old.

Donna Anna loved the church and was an amazing example to her children and grandchildren of what it meant to be a Latter-day Saint. Even when her children chose not to be active in the church, she took her grandchildren with her. She was able to travel to the Salt Lake Temple in 1942 and receive her own endowment there, and it‟s not clear if she was able to make it back to the temple again. She was faithful to the church until her death in 1968.

Donna Epperson personal history Peak

I've been working on a rough draft of a personal history of my grandmother.  Here is a peak at the section I've been working on.

Growing Up

Mondays were laundry days in the Vivian household. Donna‟s grandmother would bring out the washing machine into the kitchen in front of the stove where it was warm. One of the fears that Donna and Donald had growing up was that they would get their hand caught in the electric wringer washer the family had, which was a real plausible fear. Some of the people they knew had that happen to them, and they did not want to have that experience themselves. They would was their clothes in order of whites, then coloreds, then darks because they would use the same water to wash all of their clothes. Since the fire had to be so hot to heat water for the laundry, Mondays were also the day that you would have the smell of fresh baked bread surround you. Just like the human nature in all of us, Donna always wanted some of the white store bought bread growing up.

Donald and Donna got along pretty well.14 Donald was an extremely thoughtful and caring person, but being two years older than Donna, he loved to tease his little sister. There was an area under their house that was their dirt cellar that was full of spiders. Donald would act like he had spiders in his hands and would act like he was going to throw them on her. She could hardly handle that, but she got right back at him. Donald was afraid of the dark, and she used that fear to her advantage. When they were playing together, they would run up and down allies in their bare feet. To get back at him, she would take him down the ally in the dark, and she would leave him there. Donna knew how to hold her own and take care of herself. Aside from picking on each other, they had a lot of fun together because they shared common friends.

During the 1930s and 1940s there were a lot of open fields and lots in the area that had not been developed yet. The neighborhood they lived in was a poor neighborhood where the houses all looked the same, but Donna loved it. It was a great neighborhood to grow up in. They lived about a block from a public service company, a huge building with all kinds of trucks and cars around it. On one side of the building they had a huge area that had grass on it. They would go there and play all kinds of games there. The company was very nice and let them play there. They loved it because it was one of the nicest playgrounds in the area. The railroad ran right by this field, and when the coal trains would go by, the cinders would rain down on them as they played.

They didn't go out to eat, or go to movies, instead they would do things like play kick the can and hide and seek out in these fields. On most days, Donna could hardly wait to get out of school and go play marbles in the dirt. Donna and her friends would ride bikes together. They usually had one bicycle for two of them, so they would put someone on the handlebars and ride together. She also liked to play softball with her friends. There weren't any organized activities, just a group of friends having fun, making up their own games. There was also a dump just west of their house where they would go to play. One time, Donald brought a cow home after he had been playing in the dump to give to his grandmother because she always wanted a cow for her own milk and butter. She had to take it back to where it belonged.

Donna loved to go and visit her Aunt Martie when she was growing up. Aunt Martie's house was a second home for Donna. When Donna was in Junior High School, she would pack her things up on Friday morning, hop on the street car after school and stay with her Aunt Martie and Uncle Tom for the weekend. While she was visiting on these weekends, Martie taught her lot of different things, including how to cook. Martie was always loving and caring and always treated Donna like she was one of her own.

Joseph Vivian

This is a picture of my great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Vivian.  I'm not sure where it was taken, but I'm guessing either Michigan or Colorado.  He is the one on the left without the coat on.  It was taken probably about the 1900s.  Here is some information on him that I collected and put together for a personal history that I am writting for my grandmother, Donna Vivian Epperson:

Her father's 

family was originally from Gwennap, Cornwall, England where they lived on Goon Gumpus Street.  Her great great grandfather father, Alexander Vivian, died in 1853 when he was about 55 years old, leaving behind his wife of almost 10 years, Frances Richards Vivian, and seven children all under the age of 10.  Perhaps as a result of the widow needing to provide for her children, three of her sons, Alfred (23 years old), Joseph (17 years old), and John (21 years old) immigrated to the United States where they could use their occupations as minors to make a living. 

They left Liverpool, England in 1870 on a ship called City of Paris with a steerage class ticket that cost eight shillings each.  The City of Paris was a part of the Inman Steamship Company and was in service from 1866-1884.  It was a 346 foot long and 40 foot wide steamship, with one black smoke stack that had a white band near the top, a clipper bow, and an iron hull.  Three masts surrounded the smoke stack, one in the front, and two behind.   It was built by Tod & McGregor, from Glasgow, Scotland and weighed 2,651 tons.  It had one propeller and could reach a top speed of about 13 ½ knots.  The City of Paris maiden voyage was on March 21, 1866 out of Liverpool, England sailing to New York.

The Inman Line operated from 1850 until 1893, when it was absorbed into American Line.  It was one of the three largest nineteenth century British passenger shipping companies on the North Atlantic.  Inman lead the drive to replace wood-hulled paddle steamers with iron-hulled ships equipped with screw propulsion.  In 1852, Inman also established that steerage passengers could be transported in steamships.  By 1870, Inman landed more passengers in New York than any other line.  The City of Paris was the first screw liner to match the speed of the paddlers on the Atlantic crossing.  After four years of service it was lengthened to 397 feet and her capacity was increased to 150 cabins and 400 steerage.  City of Paris was sold in 1884 to French owners who converted her to the cargo ship Tonquin.  In March 1885, she sank off of Malaga after a collision in the fog.       

The City of Paris arrived in the New York with the Vivians onboard on May 24, 1870.  When the Vivians came to the United States through New York Donna’s Great Grandfather, Joseph Vivian, eventually settled in Champion, Marquette, Michigan.  He married Mary Jane Irving, from Hancock, Berks, Pennsylvania, about 1871.  They had four children; James H. Vivian, Francis Vivian, Laura Vivian, and Donna’s grandfather Joseph Vivian.  They lived in Michigan until about 1900 when they moved to Colorado.  Joseph Vivian married Donna Anna Hildebrand from North Carolina in 1904.  The Vivians stayed in Colorado until Donna was born in 1932.

Church History Library

I've been working on writing a personal history on my grandma, Donna Jean Vivian.  In the process of gathering information for this history I found out that my grandma wasn't the first member of the church in our family, like I thought she was.  It turns out that her grandmother, Donna Anna Hildebrand joined the church 18 Nov 1900 in North Carolina.  As I was trying to find sources to verify this information I wasn't sure if she really joined the church in North Carolina or if she joined the church when she moved to Denver.  I checked the Burke County, North Carolina 1900 census to see if I could find out where she was living at the time.  I searched for her in that census for what seemed like FOREVER, until I finally found her listed as Donnie Hilderbrand, living with her parents and siblings.  So, in June of 1900 she was still living in North Carolina.  There was a good possibility that she was baptized while she was living there.  So then I searched the church records that the Harold B Lee Library at BYU has for North Carolina, and couldn't find her listed anywhere.  Then I searched the Denver church records for the Denver District and found the records for her and her children.  They didn't say where she was baptized though, only when and by who.  She was baptized by Otto Lundberg and Jefferson George Hunt.  So I made a trip to the Church History Library located in the East wing of the church office building to see what information I could find there before they close to move to the new building in April.  I stopped in at the membership records office to see if her baptismal place was recorded on their records, but they informed me that it wasn't.  But the lady that helped me was able to tell me that her mother and brother were both baptized on the same day, and that her two youngest sisters joined the church in 1917!  That was exciting news to find out.  So I went to the Church History Library and searched the Missionary Indexes to see if Otto and Jefferson were missionaries.  It turns out that they were!  They served in the southern states mission. Jefferson Hunt was from Hobson, Hush, Utah, and was set apart for missionary work on 16 Aug 1899 and returned home on 29 Jan 1902.  Otto Lundberg was from Logan, Hack Fe, Utah and was set apart on 14 Jun 1899 and returned home on 20 Jun 1901.  Take advantage of the Church History Library now, before their records are unavailable for a few months this year!!   

My Awesome Brother!

So, this isn't as far back in my genealogy as my other posts have been, but I think it's pretty dang awesome. I'm not very familiar with military vocabulary, so I hope that I explain this correctly. My brother is currently attending Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, studying nursing. He's always had a love of guns and knives, and anything like that. So, as he is studying nursing, he's been involved in the ROTC. He graduates this May, and is going to be heading out to his first station in Texas. Mike is the kind of guy that tries to do the best he can, but has a way of standing out because he's so great! We just found out this last week that he was unanimously voted to receive an award from the NRA for his outstanding work. I don't know all of the specifics of the award, and I will find them out and update this entry, but I do know that he's receiving some presents from the NRA. He gets to go to a fancy dinner where he will be receiving this award. Here is a website that he told me to look at. I think they are giving him this award because they believe he is this type of soldier: http://www.army.mil/warriorethos/. I think he's amazing!

Four Generations!

This is a picture of my great great grandmother Donna Anna Hildebrand, her son Joseph Murl Vivian, his son, Donald Murl Vivian, and his son Richard Vivian.  Donna Hildebrand was the first member of the church in my family.  As far as I know, she joined the church in North Carolina in 1900, when she was about 19 years old.  Her mother, and three of her sisters also joined the church.  Whether it was at the same time or not, I'm not sure of.  One of her friends who moved to Denver, contacted her and told her to come to Denver because the church was here and there wasn't persecution here.  I'm not sure if she meant family persecution, or community persecution, but I'm still trying to figure out all of the details.  Until two weeks ago, I thought my grandma and grandpa were the first members in my family.  There is still so much to figure out.  But these are the beginning stages.  I've never had to look through church records, but I am excited to get into them and do some research!  

Family Sources

I flew home to Denver this weekend to collect as many family sources that I possibly could. When I began researching my grandmother's family, I didn't think that my family had many records at all. Boy was I wrong! I was able to collect death and birth certificates for many of the people that I am currently working on. It was a lot of fun. Also, I was able to interview my grandmother and preserve bits and pieces of her life. It was a definite eye opener to the value of asking your family members, immediate or extended, for any information that they might have on the lines you are working on. You will find that your family has a lot of things that you didn't even know existed. A lot of time will be saved from doing unnecessary research. Plus you can't underestimate the value of preserving a person's experiences, told by the person who lived them. One of the treasures that I found this week was the only wedding picture that we have of my parents, Randy Loyd and Dianne Epperson. Aren't they cute?!

William Adam Jackson Loyd and Ader Grant

This is a picture of my great grandparents William Adam Jackson Loyd and Ader Grant.  They had ten children, of which my grandfather, Carl Loyd, was number seven.  William and Ader were married on 6 Jan 1910 in Clinton, Van Buren, Arkansas.  In this picture, taken about 1938-1940,  from left to right is William Adam Jackson Loyd, Harlan W Loyd, Ader Grant, an unknown little girl, and Sybil Loyd.  The unknown girl is most likely a relative but we don't know her name.  Harlan and Sybil are my grandfather's youngest siblings.  I love this picture not only because of the people in it, but because of what is seen in the background.  It gives me a little peek into the things that surrounded their world.  And I love that Harlan is dressed up as a police officer with his handcuffs.  This is my family!

Search Google!

Google.com is amazing for genealogy research!  I did a google search for my Loyd family in Arkansas and viewed a hit for the Ancestry.com message board for the surname "Loyd".  There was a conversation from a few years ago concerning my direct ancestors.  I emailed the poster and was pleasantly surprised to find that, first of all, the email address was still good, and secondly, that the owner of the email address was actually my Father's cousin.  We've been able to exchange information, and he's been generous enough to share with me some treasures...my Great Grandmother's pictures of the family! Pictures like this one of my Great Great Great Grandfather and Grandmother, David Loyd and Sarah Hartwick.  It has been amazing.  Thank you Google!  Don't overlook this tool for researching your family!