"Life, it's a pretty good deal.  I recommend it."   -   H.D. Stevens  (1915-2007)

A Pilgrimage to the USS Shenandoah

Posted: November 29th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Ohio | Tags: | No Comments »

It was many years ago the last time my father mentioned it, and to be honest it could have been the only time. You see, Pop didn’t talk about his personal experiences much, a trait that seems to have been handed down by his father. While few details accompanied the story, I distinctly recall his saying that he and his father saw the wreckage of the Shenandoah, the the first rigid airship built in the United States. Caught in a severe storm on the morning of September 3, 1925, the enormous ship was torn in two by a series of violent updrafts and downdrafts. The control car broke free and crashed near the farmhouse of Andrew Gamary, killing the seven occupants. The stern portion, over 400 feet long, came down a half-mile away and dragged along a treeline, eventually coming to rest on a nearby hillside. The 200 foot bow section, controlled by seven crewmen, remained airborne for nearly an hour, eventually coming down on the farm of Ernest Nichols, six miles southwest of the stern.
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Where’s Albert Stevens?

Posted: November 4th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Genealogy, Ohio | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

One of the few photos of my paternal Grandfather, Homer StevensI’m new at this genealogy stuff, and must admit that it’s proving to be more difficult than I anticipated. How is it that generation after generation of Caldwells, Hopsons, Tunes and Tiptons (Mom’s family) can be found with relative ease, while the Stevens, Parker, Hockenberry and McMurray clans reveal nothing? It’s as though Dad’s family tiptoed through the nineteenth century undetected.
What little information I have on the Stevens Family is thanks to what I will hereafter refer to as “the family outline”, a compilation of data that my sister Carol gathered many (many) years ago for a school assignment. Our Mother and Father each completed a page outlining their place and date of birth, marriage date, occupation, major place of residence, and religion, with similar pages being completed by, or on the behalf of, the other family members. Access to this type of first-hand information should have put us on the fast-track to a genealogical epiphany, but that has not been the case.
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