A couple of "before and after" shots...
Starting with Rte. 66 across America:
TAMIAMI Trail (U.S. Highway 41) opened Feb 1, 1929
Actually US 41 across Florida to Miami, is pretty dull.
A postcard of the Western North Carolina railroad between Old Fort and Black Mountain!
My mother, holding the Keystone motion picture camera (8 mm) next to a train which might have carried her grandfather, Charles Herman Miller, in Texas as the passenger conductor. The train was in a museum in Missouri when we visited in the 1950s.
When Great grandfather Charles Herman Miller got married back in 1896, there was this notice given in the Houston Post.
The Houston Post Oct 30, 1896 - perhaps a bit fallible, since Charles Herman Miller came from Germany as a child (unknown how old) and no information has yet been found on his parents. One story is that he stowed away on a ship to Galveston (a big port at the time). Perhaps he had foster parents in Bellville, TX. Or this was convenient...since the marriage was in Hillsboro TX where the bride's family lived.. quite a way from Houston. But it does give him membership in a secret benevolent order, as a Knight of Pythias.
Wikipedia lets us know some vague facts about the order...
Membership has historically been open to males in good health who believe in a Supreme Being. Maimed individuals were not admitted until 1875. Members are accepted by blackball ballot.
A member must be at least 18 years of age, and must take the following oath:
I declare upon honor that I believe in a Supreme Being, that I am not a professional gambler, or unlawfully engaged in the wholesale or retail sale of intoxicating liquors or narcotics, and that I believe in the maintenance of the order and the upholding of constituted authority in the government in which I live. Moreover, I declare upon honor that I am not a Communist or Fascist; that I do not advocate nor am I a member of any organization that advocates the overthrow of the Government of the Country of which I am a Citizen, by force or violence or other unlawful means; and that I do not seek by force or violence to deny to other persons their rights under the laws of such country.
By the end of the so-called "Golden Age of Fraternalism" in the early 1920s, the order had nearly a million members. By 1979, however, this number had declined to fewer than 200,000.
In 1892, the Supreme Lodge ruled that the work of the order would only be conducted in English. This upset some members who were accustomed to using German. After this ruling was reiterated at the Supreme Lodges of 1894 and 1895, a number of German-speaking Pythians split off and formed the Improved Order, Knights of Pythias at a convention in Indianapolis in June 1895. The new order was reportedly not very popular, and a movement toward reconciliation occurred a few years later.
The fact that enough Knights of Pythias wanted a German language organization for a while at least, would have been attractive to Great Grandfather Herman Miller, since that was apparently his native language.
Knights of Pythias Castle, Houston, Texas (postcard, circa 1898)Two other interesting documents are on my Ancestry file on Great Grandpa Miller:

On Sept 11, 1937 he applied for US citizenship, stating his birthday as July 18, 1868.
But wait, he again applied on Oct. 9, 1939.
This time he had witnesses, Willis E. Long, and Jack E. Adams both of San Antonio TX. I would imagine this time there was more caution about Germans becoming US citizens, since Germany was beginning the events that led to WW II.
So finally this widower at age 68, and then age 70 by 1937 may have become a citizen of the USA.
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For this week's Sepia Saturday post
I love riding through the mountains...much as this person did so many years ago!
I liked your choice of road pics before and after. It wasn't just the West that had bad roads, but many places in the East and South, too. In the olden days most people rode a train to get to Asheville/Black Mountain rather than drive. Sometimes I wish it was that way again. Your Great Grandpa Miller's first application was a declaration of intention for citizenship, the second was the petition for naturalization, a bigger commitment. In September 1937 German-Americans were still well-regarded as the war wouldn't begin for two more years. The Knights of Pythias were one of several "Knight" fraternal societies. Most large towns had a half-dozen or more. They all dressed in very fancy uniforms with feathered admiral hats and swords. Some men had membership in several fraternal orders which must have been an expensive hobby, not to mention wardrobe.
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