Indiana Sisley Stem :: Show and Tell

The topic for the 55th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Show and Tell. "Show us and tell us about an heirloom, a special photo, a valuable document, or a significant person that is a very special part of your family history." Ever since it was announced, I've been mulling it over as to what I should highlight. I've already shown some of the things that are special to me and told you about them - family photographs, reunion ledgers, old letters, my grandmother's autobiography - but, thankfully, there are still a few more things left to write about ;-)

My grandmother, Hazlette Brubaker Phend, put together what I call her genealogy book. Included within its pages are the standard pedigree charts (sadly, they are not documented) and family photographs (even more sadly, glued firmly to the pages). They are all precious to me, but there is one page that is extra special.

There are four items on the page, the first two are the topic of this post:
1. A picture of Indiana (Sisley) Stem, my 4th great grandmother! It is a copy, not the original. The quality isn't all that great, but I think it speaks volumes. I'd love to know if it still exists and, if so, who has the original.
2. The calling card of Mrs. Indiana Stem.
3. A photograph of a man with a child sitting on his lap. This too appears to be a copy of the original image. Grandma didn't identify it, perhaps she didn't know who it was, but it's possible that it is Conrad Stem, Indiana's husband, and their son Lewis Austin Stem.
4. A third picture, of the children of Austin Stemm: Earl, Charles, Ben, Hooper, Cresco, Clara, and Fern.

Indiana Sisley was born on May 18, 1809 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. She was the eighth of ten children born to Margaret Ellis (1773-1870) and Lewis Sisley (1765-1826). I haven't found a marriage record yet for Indiana and Conrad Stem but when her father's estate was settled in 1834 they were named as "Conrad Stein and Indianee". (As an aside, the Stem surname has been difficult to research due primarily to bad penmanship and misinterpretation of that writing! Stem, Stemm, Stein, Stern, Stenn, etc. Their son, Lewis, adopted the Stemm spelling.)

About 1845, Conrad and Indiana had moved to Chester Township in Wayne County, Ohio. They were there only a few years, coming to Indiana about 1851 or early 1852. Their last child, Lewis, was born in Indiana in August 1852. They settled in the northern part of Whitley County, in Thorncreek Township, less than a mile from the southern border of Noble County. Their daughter and son-in-law, Malissa and Jacob Wise (my 3rd great grandparents) lived on the farm to the west.

From census records I know that Conrad Stem was a farmer. He died in Whitley County on July 25, 1882 at 5 1/2 pm, aged 78y 2m 9d (birth calculates to May 16, 1804 and matches the date on his tombstone).

No obituary has been found for either Conrad or Indiana. I really know very little about her. She was a farmer's wife. She was the mother of six children. Her first child, Malissa was born in 1833, followed by Amanda in 1837, Mary in 1841, Hester in 1844, Sarah in 1845, and, at the age of 43, her last child, Lewis was born in 1852. Her first grandchild, William P. Wise, was eight months old when Lewis was born. A child and grandchild born in the same year.

"Jarrad" studio was located at the "Cor. Berry & Calhoun Sts., Fort Wayne, Ind." A trip to Fort Wayne, 20 miles away, would have been a big deal back in those days, the 1880s. Was it a special occasion? Were pictures of other family members taken at the same time? I look in the mirror and see the "droopy" eyes and the cheek lines, though mine aren't quite as prominent. She looks a bit stern, but I see determination in her eyes.

The Calling Card with decorative embossing and fine lettering. To me, though worn and stained, it quite simply exudes style. Click on the image to view a larger version and you'll see exquisite details in the capital letters, including a stylized fish beneath the S in Stem. The sign of the fish, an ancient symbol of Christianity. Could that be a family bible she is holding in her portrait?

From the picture and calling card we can infer that Indiana Stem was literate. She's holding a book (a bible, maybe?) in her hands. Those are the hands of a farmer's wife, the years and arthritis have taken their toll. I do wish more detail showed, but doesn't that appear to be a lace shawl covering her head and flowing down the front of her dress? I don't have a date for the photograph but Indiana Sisley Stem passed away on Christmas Day in 1888. She is buried beside her husband Conrad in the Hively Corners Cemetery (now called St. Matthews Church Cemetery) in Thorncreek Township, less than a mile from their home.

It wasn't until I moved to the Tri-Lakes area in 1997 that I discovered where Indiana and Conrad had lived. Our new home was less than two miles away. Every time I go into Columbia City, I pass by their place and the cemetery, and I say a silent hello.

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself, but this is a two-part post. In June of .. I was contacted by a descendant of Amberson Evans Sisley, brother of Indiana Sisley Stem. Please, click on through to discover the treasure I received from her. . .

This post was contributed to the 55th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Show and Tell

Cottontail Rabbit

I finally got a photo of the cottontail rabbit in our little patch of grass. I think this is the same rabbit wat that was in the other photo when it was hiding in the sand. I frequently see it eating grass but usually it hops away to go under the hay shed where I can't see it. It knows where it is safe. The grassy spot is right beside the hay shed. I think this may be a female rabbit as we always have a female that has her babies under the shed each summer. It couldn't have been the same rabbit all these years but I would think it might be a daughter or granddaughter. What I would really like to get is a photo of a rabbit eating hay with one of the horses. Again I see them doing it but I'm never close enought to get a photo or just don't have the camera with me.

It's Almost Here!

At 1 o'clock Wednesday afternoon I ordered a new scanner, the Fujitsu ScanSnap S300. If I had paid the extra $15 for express delivery it would already be here, but the "slow boat" delivery by ground is fine with me. It should show up on my doorstep Monday!


Denise Olson on her Family Matters blog has been extolling the virtues of the S300M (for Mac) that she purchased in July. After reading about her experience with it I started checking out Automatic Document Feed (ADF) scanners for Windows. I've got all those genea-documents that I want to scan and the idea of doing them with my flatbed scanner is more than a little disheartening.

After reading this November .. Review of the S300, I was hooked on the S300! Well, actually, Denise had me hooked, that review clinched the deal. There will still be some things that will have to be scanned using the flatbed, but I think much of what I have can be done by the S300.

So I am patiently waiting.

And trying to getting some things organized for phase two of my scanning project.

The durability of ice tool picks?

This is just an observation not a condemnation of any manufacturer's gear. I have a reputation of bitching on the blog about every one's gear. This is just a reality check. Ice climbing gear breaks and bends and fails. It is also a reality check on what is acceptable and what is not. This is the kind of stuff you expect to see from differing manufactures.



When you start measuring there is alwaysgoing to be someone who comes out on top. Fact of life.



I had a chance to visit with a lot of climbers and manufactures this winter both in NA and Europe.



I have made high quality picks for my own tools and BD tools in the recent past and still make the Petzl lwt weight hammers. My real job involves working in metal every day and making a "better" pick is no doubt the most difficult project I have taken on in that arena.



This isa commentary and photo essay of what does happen to picks.



Everyone, if you climb enough,will eventually have a pick failure. I have broken tools but never broken a pick. I have how ever bent any number of them, starting with the Terrordactys.





Photo credt to: Eric Dumerac photo from Grav Sports of BD picks going back several generations and a decade or so. BD seems ot have solved that problem with a redesign of the picks last winter

('09/'10)



Then my partners started bending Grivel picks as they switched from BD tools to Grivels five years ago or so. And finally I bent the last generation Petzl picks on this trip.



That was a new one to me. But then I have never really put any effort into dry tooling either.

Come on I still have an adversion to putting good steel on rock instead of ice. Old habits die hard :)



I had heard of it happening but never thought I'd actually see it in person.



The pictures below come from Jon @ http://climbs2high.blogspot.com/ Pretty much what mine looked like though before I took a hammer to them in the tunnel on the Midi. They (Jon and crew) generally bend them by doing figure 4s off the first couple of teethwhile on full body weight upside down.I try to never to get upside down! I did the same by pulling full weight (200+#s ) on my Nomics in some knife bladecrack in the alpine.. Having a hammer is critical to straightening these guys out. But easy enough to do even in the field. Blade is never going to be the same again though. My bent ones are now straight but used only for dry tooling at road side crags

.



So it happens, failure, on some level, to all of them.



I've included some photos of the wear you can expect tosee climbingmixed.





Petzl....





Old and new BD C/Ts from Chamonix..









Current BD from last year on Mt. Bradley http://huntingtonsouthface.blogspot.com/





Old and new BD Aermet off the Cassin







The two used picks above were new 2 short Chamonix mixed climbs earlier. Granite and a foot of new snow is like taking a grinder to a set of picks...any pick. No file used on these two and "good" by some of the standards I saw in Europe as "usable picks". Set is compared to a new Cascade Petzl pick in this picture . Trust me...picks in that condition really suck on ice. And now I ama beginning to understand why no one wants to bring a file on route. Why bother?

A well worn Nomic with an old QuarkQuad pickinstalled. Theolder 4mm Quark Quad mixed picks have some distinct advantages on alpinemixed ground.



The wear on C/T (top)and BD Aermet (bottom) from one trip up the Cassin. New picks in profile under the used picks.

If you happen to have some good pictures of well worn dry tool picks send them along and I'll post them in this thread with what ever credit you'd like tosee along with them.

Talks on the Beach

We try to get out and do a beach walk just about every day. They could just as easily be called beach talks though because something about the walking and the environment seems to lend to much talking too. This little cutie must have experienced the same thing because she talked non-stop the entire time we were there together.



Living the life in OBX!

On The Road Again, Again!

Monday, May 2nd - - After 12 days back home in Indiana, I'm on the move, heading west. I traveled 350 miles today, through Indiana and most of Illinois, and not even one of those miles was on the Interstates!



I think we only had two days of sunshine the entire time I was home, and today was more of the same cloudy, overcast skies. It was raining when I left Columbia City but it quit shortly thereafter. My stopping place for the night was Argyle Lake State Park, about 15 miles southwest of Macomb off of US Route 136 in western Illinois. It was late afternoon, and as so often happens at that time of day, the clouds began to move off and the sun finally made a most-welcome appearance.



After a quick bite to eat, I went for a short walk – on the paved, level road through the campground then down to the lake. Just taking it easy but getting a little exercise to get the old legs moving again. And trying not to do whatever it was that I did before to cause the pain!





Lots of these pretty blue wild-flowers were near the edge of the woods alongside the campground. Each flower in the cluster was about an inch in diameter.







I opted to not attempt these stairs leading down to the lake – they didn't look very sturdy and they were much steeper than they appear.





There was no clear view of the setting sun, which was blocked by the forest on the other side of the meadow.





As the sun set further, the sky filled with color.



A very nice ending, to my first day on the road again, again!

Into the Swing of Things

Over the course of last year I made considerable progress on the bike as far as endurance and handling skills. But what I found most rewarding was having gotten to the point where long and strenuous rides over challenging terrain began to feel normal, with the physical aspects of the riding itself fading into the background and the adventures the riding was enabling taking over. Having gotten a taste of this made it clear how much I valued and wanted it.



This made the start of this season all the more frustrating. Not riding takes its toll, we all know that. And the only fix is to start riding again - it will come back quicker than the previous year. We all know that too. But even experienced cyclists can feel deflated when, having emerged out of hibernation, they find themselves exhausted and with a sore butt after a ridiculously short ride. In response toa post earlier this week, I've heard from several local riders telling me just that. Strong, experienced guys who dohilly Centuries on gravel for fun, frustrated that they've lost their cycling mojo after a bad winter.



So here is something to cheer you up: A true story. I got my groove back after just 3 - count them, 3 - rides, and you can too!



The Damage...

Okay, I will try to be honest here. Between the snow and the weeks of being sick and the snow again, I had not been on a roadbike for close to 2 months, not counting a handful of sporadic short rides. I had also gained about 15lb in "winter weight." So that was my starting point.









The First Ride...

I rode a cyclocross bike with mixed terrain tires. I rode solo, for just 25 miles with a 15 minute break in the middle. It was an extremely cold and windy day, making me feel even more sluggish than I already did. By the end of the ride I was tired, and the next morning I felt shockingly bad. The muscles in my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my abdominal muscles hurt, my butt was sore, the works. Hard to believe that this was the same body that did all that cool stuff last year. Discouraged and in a bad mood afterward, I knitted furiously to dull the pain.







The Second Ride...

The very next day, I aimed to repeat the 25 mile route and again went solo. I had a hard time on this ride, because my butt was still sore from the day before. Again, it was cold and windy. After the ride I felt tired and achy again. In the evening, I tried not to dwell on how out of shape I was, knitting instead.



The Rest Day...

The following day I rode my city bike around town as usual, but not my roadbike. I was still a little tired from the previous two rides, but my butt was finally recovering.





The Third Ride...

This time I had plans to ride with Emily "Fixed Gear Randonneuse" O'Brien. I warned Emily about my sorry state, but she was undeterred, and so we set off. For the first few miles I was out of breath, struggling to hold a conversation while riding at a reasonable pace, so much so that I questioned the wisdom of continuing. Then we headed uphill, and I braced myself for the painful struggle. Oddly it never came. I wasn't fast, but I had low gears and the hill was okay. Then came the downhill, and some more riding, and some miles later - boom! I remember when it happened: We were passing the Air Base, and just like that, I could tell: I got my groove back. The sluggishness, the cobwebs, gone. The achinessgone. Between riding with Emily and on my own, it was a 40 mile day. Today I rode again, and the groove is indeed back: I feel like my old self again.And, as a bonus, I have a new skirt for Spring.



Without a doubt, I need more time in the saddle before a 100 mile ride, or even a non-stop 100K. But it's attainable.



Three rides to get into the swing of things after the winter we've had ain't bad at all. Cheer up, New Englanders and let's ride!

Ingalls Lake and Ingalls Peak

A big group ready to hit the trail to Ingalls Lake and the South Summit of Ingalls Peak.

Ingalls Lake on a beautiful fall day.

Dave, Pete and Jim on the South Summit. Mt. Stuart in the background.

Autumn Rolls In...

Autumn started last week with a heat wave. High freezing levels and cloudless skies brought the temps up and the climbers out. Plenty of guided parties and independent climbers summitted last week. As the snow continues to melt, interesting objects around the mountain have been appearing. Climbing Ranger Cliff came upon some old aviation wreckage on his patrol last week.

The conditions are still okay for late September. Approaches to the standard routes (Disappointment Cleaver and Emmons/Winthrop) are icy and have crevasses, but are definitely passable. Wintry weather can change climbing conditions quickly. The National Weather Service forecast read "The first storm of Autumn will begin to affect the region late Monday with cool and damp weather lingering through most of the week." Hopefully a week of stormy weather will bring decent skiing conditions.

Sunday, September 27th is the last day the Climbing Information Center will be open for the season. Self-Registration in Paradise will be open through the winter.

High Wheel in Somerville

This cool Penny Farthing is often left locked up outside a local bike shop, and a couple of days ago we had a chance to investigate it. I was surprised at how large this thing is - nearly the same height as the Co-Habitant.

We debated whether it was antique or a replica, and it turned out to be a replica, made by Rideable Bicycle Replicas in California. It's funny that the bike is locked to an outside rack with a u-lock; that makes it seem as if at any moment somebody will come out, unlock it and pedal it away down the streets of Somerville.

But as you can see, no one is riding this thing anywhere - the tires are broken into pieces, and other components look aged and weathered, most likely from keeping the bicycle outdoors during the cold seasons.

Penny Farthings are fascinating, because they are so distinct and old-fashioned looking. They are direct drive, and I imagine that riding one is quite challenging. I am not even sure how to get on and off it - let alone how the ladies used to ride these wearing skirts. But they would definitely provide great visibility in traffic!

80

Nothing much has been happening. Work, work, work. Hot, hot, hot. Dry, dry, dry. That's about it.



We went to Mom's over the weekend. While everyone else worked on birthday-present-oddjobs, I played with my nieces.



It was of course very borrrrring for children to be stuck in a house full of old people and no computers.



My old Johnny West horses.



Ye olde styrofoam watering hole.



Elvis thought it was all very childish.

cat owners?

Jo left a comment "I have found it to be true that you can never own a cat...they own you." And this is so very, very true. Here is a photo of Murphy, on the left and Jade, on the right. It is a rare sight to see them together but they do it once in a while. Right now Jade is in my lap helping me type.

Camafloged Cats

Our 3 black cats hiding out on the couch taking a nap.

Pining for Panniers

My Pashley Princess is undergoing a little make-over and, among other things, she will be getting panniers for her rear rack. My criteria for the panniers, are that they be of a classic design and colour, water resistant, connected at the top so that they hang over the rack (rather than two separate bags connected to each side of the rack), easy to open, fairly compact, and fit my 13" Macbook (sideways is fine). I have narrowed it down to the following:



[image via bikebarn]

Brooks "Brick Lane" roll-up panniers. I have been eying these since before I bought my Pashley last year, but haven't been able to afford them. The panniers are waxed canvas. They roll up tidily when unused and expand when needed. They look gorgeous and come in a "moss" colour that makes me weep. I have read reviews describing them as the best panniers ever, and I have read reviews describing them as impractical and too small. Retail price seems to be around $250.



[image via Basil]

Basil "D'azur" double-bag. Less than half the price of the Brooks roll-ups (around $100 retail), these look classic, practical and low-key. They are not compact and will stay 3-D even when empty. I have not found any reviews of these; they may be new.



[image via Rivendell]

Rivendell "TourSacks" rear rack panniers. I was so excited when Rivendell announced their plans to manufacture these, and now they are finally available to order. These don't roll up, but they will stay flat when empty. The price is around $200.



[image via Wald]



An alternative to the panniers are these Wald folding baskets for $40 per pair. But I am just not sure that these will suit the Pashley. I was hoping to try them at a local bike shop, but no one seems to have them in stock this summer.



So, what do you think? If anybody owns either of these and has any words of wisdom from experience, please chime in. Also, if there are other panniers out there I've missed that you can recommend (given my criteria), please let me know. I don't want to buy a set of panniers just for the looks, and it's so hard to know what's what based on pictures and online descriptions alone.

Don Garlits Classic Car Museum

I am late in sharing these pictures from our Labor Day trip, but better late than never! This is the second part to the Don Garlits museums. There are two separate museums, the first being the drag racing and this is the second one: the Classic Car Museum. Both were fabulous. A fellow classic car lover told me that he'd been there five years ago and that the collection had really grown since then.



I was very impressed with what was there. I could have spent much longer in this museum than we did!



I was amused at some point to overhear a couple discussing a particular car. The guy was sharing what kind of a car it was. The lady said she knew, her dad had one. He asked her if she really knew about it? She told him again that her dad had one. He nodded and dropped it. I'm guessing he might have thought that meant she did know about it in the way a guy would want to know about it. I would suspect it is more likely that she was simply saying she knew as much as she ever wanted to and more just by having a dad that owned one. Which means she probably hardly knew a thing about it in guy world.



We demonstrated this same man/woman dynamic with me trying to take hundreds of pictures of the pretty cars while Nathan gave me in depth lessons on engines and exhaust systems. I can now tell you which kind of engine our truck has and how exactly it operates. That will come in handy because the last time some guy asked me about it I told him the only thing I knew about the engine of our truck was that it was really big and loud. He couldn't tell if I was an idiot or joking so he politely just walked away. I hope I run into him again so I can let him know that a trip to the car museum fixed all of that!



Living the life in interesting Florida!