Hay view from Castle

Hay view from Castle
Hay-on-Wye, Powys (formerly Breconshire), Wales. The "Town of Books" (and Vaughans!)

Monday, March 16, 2015

Elinor's Great-Granddaughters Help Make My Case

There is no escaping the location of the Johns's Family ranch on the land that is now Washoe Tribal Land. The Stewart Indian School did not acquire the ranch outright, but rented the ranch well into the 20th Century. A son of Jane Vaughan Lewis Johns, Henry David Johns (1861-1926), lived there through at least 1900. I recently acquired a photograph of his three surviving daughters (one had died as an infant and is buried in Genoa). This is a picture annotated with fading pencil that someone had won a spelling prize. My guess is Edythe because I think she's the one holding flowers with a smile:

Elsie Fern (1892-1987), Edythe Neanette (1884-1955), and Mary Elma Johns (1886-1955)
about 1902, probably at their home in Jacks Valley, Nevada.
Then I noticed the slope of Genoa Peak behind them. Could I have possibly matched the shot when I was taking pictures in front of what appears to be their former home or at least close to the same site? 

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

John Samuel Lewis Died in the Philippines

Americans of the Volunteer 29th Infantry wading ashore at Marinduque, Philippines, 25 April 1900. John?
Son of John Lewis and Jane Vaughan Lewis, born in Llanfoist in July 1847. Died 11 August 1902, Iloilo, Philippine Islands. Upon finding this information, I mourned for him.

The notebook of Johns Family History has arrived. There is much to digest and sort through. There was a passing comment in the notes of Elsie Fern Johns Schneider (1892-1987) that Jane's son John by her first husband, John Lewis, died in the Philippines.