Promise, Oregon revisited

Now if this doesn't prove that we really do live in a small world, I don't know what does. After my previous post about Promise Oregon, I found a post from someone who had family that had homesteaded in Promise Oregon also. We emailed each other and she gave me her family's names...which I will omit for now as I do not post anything without someone's permission. I thought the names sounded familiar but just how they fit in I didn't actually know. Well, my guess was right the one family had married into my Grandmother's family. As for the other side of her family they actually owned the property where my Grandparents lived. It still amazes me that whenever I post information somewhere here on the Internet about Promise Oregon, the number of people that will contact me concerning their families homesteading up there.

This makes me really want to attend one of the reunions they have up there every year on July 4th. I guess I am just going to have to make it a point one year to go! I say if you know anything about your family and the adventures they took to get here to where you now call home, don't hesitate in getting the information out there somehow, who knows you too might just find more interesting information. It is fun and exciting to discover new facts all the time.

Promise, Oregon

A few years ago my family decided to get together and travel to Promise, Oregon to see if we could locate the family homestead where our Great Grandmother, from Sweeden and Great Grandfather had decided to make their home. The story has it that my Great Grandmother chose this piece of property as it reminded her of her home in Sweeden. The lilac bush that stands alone now actually stood at the back corner of the house, where my Dad was born, and when you walk down to the lilac bush you can actually still see the corner stone of the foundation. The view all the way around from the front of the house over looks a beautiful field that just disapears on the edge of the Mountains, but yet overlooks the Blue Mountains in every direction.


This is what was left from some farming equipment and wagon that my Great Grandfather and Grandfather used to work the land. My Great Grandfather was better known for his farming, and has his picture along with many of my Dad's siblings, pictures hanging in the museum in Willowa, Oregon. My Grandmather met my Grandfather while she was teaching at the school which is up the road from the homestead. Her family homesteaded somewhere near there, but no one is actually sure where.


Though the house is not standing today, this is the original barn that my Great Grandfather built. Every year they have a reunion for the families of the homesteaders there in Promise Oregon. They have now turned the old Grange Hall into a museum with furnishings and household things they have been able to find out of the old homesteads. They even put out a calendar every year that has pictures of what every original homestead looks like. When I had my website I actually was contacted by someone who had been to this reunion. She said it was a lot of fun and that someone was asking about my family. Some year I would love to go to one of these reunions. Who knows it might just happen yet. My Great Grandmother has been laid to rest in the nearby cemetary near the place she chose to call home.

Obsessions

Sometimes I just become obsessed with something that I just can not shake. Well, the last couple of days after finding my family tree that my Aunt and Uncle made, I discovered that they had my Great Grandmother's Birthdate listed at 1855 while my Great Grandfather's was listed as 1862, something just did not seem right to me. I spent hours and hours searching different sites to try to find the correct information. I was really beginning to pull my hair out as I just did not feel that this date was correct but I could not find a single thing. I did however find my Great Great Grandparents names Yippee!!

Finally it hit me like a rock, when we visited the homestead in Promise, Oregon where my Great Grandparents had homesteaded when they moved to Oregon, we visited the cemetary where she is buried. I remembered taking pictures of her head stone, figuring I would probably never get back to Promise Oregon again in my life time. No, I don't go around taking pictures of headstones! Now, what in the world did I do with these pictures? Well needless to say I found them nestled inside our family scrapbook and guess what according to the headstone she was born in 1869, or that is what I believe it to say. It is going to be hard to really know for sure since she was born in Sweden. Maybe I will start a search of Sweden....is that even possible? I guess I will have to see if by chance they have such registries as we do.

Anyway my point is I just hate it when something so silly obsesses me. Who really cares when my Great Grandmother was born? Or this obsession just another sign of my compulsion for having everything just perfect? Yes, that is right I am a perfectionist in many areas of my life...especially for some reason where my family history goes. Now that probably sounds strange, but I can't help it I love dreaming about my family history, what my family lived like, who they were, and where they came from. Now this is all another story in itself, but for now I can only say I do believe I am closer to being able to put this obsession to rest, and just head off to bed. So with that said goodnight and who knows what other obsession will arise tomorrow.