Georgie Digs!
Some of those who read my Georgie Digs articles say it is obvious that I like history, especially family histories. I think that it is only natural that I have often mentioned Aravaipa Creek because I had lived there for many years and did learn quite a bit of its history and the people who had earlier lived there. I believe that much history is lost because of not being passed on to later generations via letters, memoirs, or the media.
I wonder if there are many large family reunions anymore. On Jan. 12, 2013, I, with my daughter, Frances (Wood) Meyer, who we call Francie, and with her cousin, Lynn Wood, son of my husband Cliff Wood’s brother, Fred Wood, attended a Chisholm Family Reunion at the impressive San Marcos Golf Resort in Chandler, Arizona. This reunion was not about Jesse Chisholm who has been stated to be the one that the Chisholm Trail was attributed to. My husband Cliff Wood’s mother, Frankie Belle (Middleton) Wood, was a great-granddaughter to Richard H. Chisholm whose history in Texas is included in Zenna Chisholm Snowden’s book that was available at that reunion. It was stated that Richard H. Chisholm had started the town of Clinton, Texas.
Also included in that book are many pictures of descendants of Richard H. Chisholm and their families. The book listed the four children born to Richard H. Chisholm and his wife, Hardenia Taylor, and the oldest was Glenn Thornton Chisholm who was married at the age of 21 years to 15 years old Jane P. (Jennie) Fore. In March of 1868 on one of his freighting trips, Glenn Thornton was killed at the age of 37 during a wagon accident. Of the nine children who had been born to he and his wife, the fourth born was Cora Ellsworth Chisholm, the mother to Frankie Belle, my husband Cliff Wood’s mother. I may at another time add more about Cora’s life, although it was not all good.
I was impressed that in one photo of Glenn Thornton’s wife, Jane, she looked so much like her granddaughter, Frankie Belle. Well, all of us are the results of the genes of so many ancestors that there is no telling what one child will look like. I know my three children, Ann, Francie, and Neal, do not resemble each other, and I enjoy trying to figure out where they got their good looks! It sure wasn’t me!