The Chosen

"The Chosen"
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes.

Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do.

In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us."

How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am, and why I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying - I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.

It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family.

It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.

That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before."

by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943."

A blessed find

For years I have been researching my Callery family line. It has been a mystery for so long. My grandfather had 8 sisters of whom I knew nothing. Recently I have found some very surprising information.

My great aunt Josephine was in a convent and left after her sister sewed money into the hem of a skirt and sent it to her! Their parents were quite unhappy and blamed Josephine by not having anything else to do with her. Source was her granddaughter with whom I had a convo.

In 1895, my great aunt Julia Callery Toohey, was a young married woman living in Duncombe Iowa. As she set about her daily chores she was overwhelmed by a fire and was burned so badly she died from her injuries, 3 Jan 1895. How sad to think she was alone when this happened. Source Webster County Bio of James Toohey.

I am still searching for information but just having some insights to the lives of my family helps me with my daily life.

Edward F. Callery, My grandfather

Laura Ely Callery, my grandmother

Lilah Gordon

Lilah Holiday Gordon wife of Leo L. Gordon

Obit
Lilah Holliday

FUNERAL FOR MRS. LILAH GORDON Dies at home of brother after fight to regain health. Funeral services for Mrs. Lilah M. Gordon, who died at the home of her brother, Frank Holliday, Sat. 2 Jun 1923 were held Friday afternoon at the Presbyterian Church here (Greenfield, Adair Co. Iowa) at 2 p.m. The services were in charge of the Rev. F. C. McCallon of Lenox. Burial took place at the Greenfield Cemetery. Lilah M. Holliday was born in Adair County, Iowa 8 Aug 1888 and was 34 years of age at the time of her death. She was married to Leo L. Gordon, 8 Nov 1909, and to this union 2 daughters, Etha, seven years of age, and Doris age four. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to Pier, Alberta, Canada. Some 2 months ago because of failing health, she came to Adair county for treatment, and was intending to undergo an operation for goiter, when death claimed her. She attended the Greenfield schools and later spent 2 years at Simpson College, where she received her musical education, afterwards teaching music. She was later employed in the Free Press office, where she showed marked ablility, being quick to learn and ambitious to succeed. She united with the Church of Christ in Greenfield, under the ministry of Rev. F. C. McCallon. In her life she displayed the fortitude of motherhood and was steadfast in her faith. Her home was her shrine and in it she was all that a wife and mother should be. There is no greater commendation than that. She is survived by her mother, Mrs. W. J. Holliday of Greenfieldd, four brouthers and two sisters; William, James, Frank and Walter of Greenfield, Mrs. Jane Marsh of Surprise, Nebraska and Mrs. Kate Hepler (MY Grandmother) of Greenfield. It says the father of the family passed away in 1921, but I found this NOT TRUE. Leo Lincoln Gordon remarried about 1923 in Canada and lived until 1962. I don't know what happened to Etha, her daughter, but I did find Doris: married to Frank Joseph Zemanick in Ellicott City, Maryland.


FUNERAL FOR MRS. LILAH GORDON Dies at home of brother after fight to regain health. Funeral services for Mrs. Lilah M. Gordon, who died at the home of her brother, Frank Holliday, Sat. 2 Jun 1923 were held Friday afternoon at the Presbyterian Church here (Greenfield, Adair Co. Iowa) at 2 p.m. The services were in charge of the Rev. F. C. McCallon of Lenox. Burial took place at the Greenfield Cemetery. Lilah M. Holliday was born in Adair County, Iowa 8 Aug 1888 and was 34 years of age at the time of her death. She was married to Leo L. Gordon, 8 Nov 1909, and to this union 2 daughters, Etha, seven years of age, and Doris age four. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to Pier, Alberta, Canada. Some 2 months ago because of failing health, she came to Adair county for treatment, and was intending to undergo an operation for goiter, when death claimed her. She attended the Greenfield schools and later spent 2 years at Simpson College, where she received her musical education, afterwards teaching music. She was later employed in the Free Press office, where she showed marked ablility, being quick to learn and ambitious to succeed. She united with the Church of Christ in Greenfield, under the ministry of Rev. F. C. McCallon. In her life she displayed the fortitude of motherhood and was steadfast in her faith. Her home was her shrine and in it she was all that a wife and mother should be. There is no greater commendation than that. She is survived by her mother, Mrs. W. J. Holliday of Greenfieldd, four brouthers and two sisters; William, James, Frank and Walter of Greenfield, Mrs. Jane Marsh of Surprise, Nebraska and Mrs. Kate Hepler (MY Grandmother) of Greenfield. It says the father of the family passed away in 1921, but I found this NOT TRUE. Leo Lincoln Gordon remarried about 1923 in Canada and lived until 1962. I don't know what happened to Etha, her daughter, but I did find Doris: married to Frank Joseph Zemanick in Ellicott City, Maryland.
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Contributed by Carolyn Huffman

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