Pocahontas, a Native American woman, is one of the best-known cultural icons in the United States. However, her biography has been constructed through her association with the English settlers in America. Pocahontas was not her real name. She was in fact called Amonute when she was born. She was the daughter of a powerful tribal leader in the region near the Chesapeake Bay. The most well-known story regarding Pocahontas is that she saved the life of English colonist Captain John Smith. Moreover, numerous depictions of her in art, literature, and film show that the two were romantically involved. In fact, she most probably didn’t save his life and the two were, at best, friends.

Pocahontas married a Native American warrior named Kocoum about 1610. Some believe they had a child, a daughter Ka-Okee, though this lineage is not widely known or published. Around age 17 she married John Rolfe. They had only one child, a son named Thomas Rolfe, born in 1615. All of Pocahontas’s descendants trace back to the progeny of either Anne Rolfe and Peter Elwyn, or Jane Rolfe and Colonel Robert Bolling. The descendants of Princess Pocahontas, through her son Thomas Rolfe number in the tens of thousands and encompass numerous lines of the colonial Virginia and British gentry.

SOURCE: The Historian's Den

Update about the 1930s Texas German Americans

 I just was given an excellent link that helped explain how my mother had been involved in a Texas high school group wearing swastikas on their uniforms. I've updated this post to remove the German American Bund quote, and added fellow blogge, Mike Brubaker's information instead. Thanks Mike! His earlier comment is at the bottom of the post.

Mike BrubakerFebruary 18, 2024 at 10:46 PM (second comment of his research)

I've done more research, Barb, and I think I have found the answer to your mystery. As I discovered last week, in the 1930s there were a large number of "Swastika Clubs" in America and surprisingly there were many in Texas and in San Antonio too. Some were connected to a women's organization called Royal Neighbors of America that was associated with the Woodmen of the World fraternal order and still exists as a life insurance company. This group sponsored "Swastika Clubs" to encourage young women to enter the business world. They also liked to play bridge. But I could not find a direct connection to any San Antonio high school.

There was also a "Swastika Club" in San Antonio's Mexican-American community in the 1930s that was also for young women. It sponsored society balls and other benefit entertainments but its membership seemed to be just Hispanic people and it was not affiliated with any high school.

Then I found a couple of 1930s yearbooks from Jefferson High online that let me check if the swastika was possibly a school symbol. Obviously Thomas Jefferson High School had better history to use for symbols, mascots, and school names, but the yearbook had numerous photos of members of the school's ROTC and the swastika should patches were very clear on both boys and girls.

With a little more digging I found the answer. The swastika was once an insignia of the 45th Infantry Division, an infantry division of the U. S. Army, mostly associated with the Oklahoma Army National Guard, from 1920 to 1968. You can read about their history in Wikipedia which has a picture of the same swastika patch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)#Inter-war_years

The patch design was borrowed from Southwestern Native American symbols and approved in 1924. Though the 45th Division was a National Guard unit based in Oklahoma it recruited from young men throughout the southwestern region. As school ROTCs were being developed they used the uniform patterns of the nearest military units, so that's how the swastika patch became part of Jefferson high's unit. As the Nazi party in Germany came to power in 1932, the army sensibly decided to change the shoulder patch and in 1939 chose a Thunderbird symbol created by a Kiowa artist to replace it. Like many traditions it probably took time for schools to change too. Here's another website with some of the history:

https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/post/the-american-ww2-soldiers-who-wore-swastikas

The American use of the swastika in the 1930s was not associated with the rise of Hitler and the German Nazi party. A search through the newspaper archives found lots of "Swastika Clubs" but absolutely none included any reference to fascism, German nationalism, or Hitler. It was a design that unfortunately became connected to hatred and violence and forced many innocent organizations and even the the U. S. Army to abandon it. Though there were small groups of American fascists that formed in the 1930s, I fell confident that none of them were connected to a high school in San Antonio.

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Here're my photos from my post which shows 1933-34 Texas high school extra-curricular activities from their yearbooks. One photo with cut edges was in my mother's photo album.. 

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Edited from - Thursday, October 23, 2014

More uniforms

I continue sharing old yearbook pictures of my parents when they were in high school

By 1933 my father had met my mother probably, in Jefferson High School in San Antonio, TX.  She signed her name (Mataley Munhall) by her picture below, the right column at the bottom of portraits.  Is she in Company C's group picture?  Yes, front and center (well, to the right of the tall young man in the very center.)

I don't think my father (George Rogers) was in Company C until 1934.  Then he was listed among the members, but I can't find him in the crowd (photo below).  But where is my mother in 1934?

 

Mataley went to the newly formed Company D in 1934...and she was then listed as a sponsor.  I think George missed his chance, (that time) since she changed her marching company.  Incidentally, like many yearbooks, the group picture below does not have my mother located in the place that is indicated by her name.  She is actually the girl in the middle of the front row, with her eyes closed.  I know you were wondering about that!

I mentioned before  how these young people wore a swastika on their hats...(HERE).
When I remember Hitler's youth troops, it is even possible that his influence came into south Texas through the German connection.  These high school students certainly appeared to have enjoyed wearing uniforms. Here's another post about The Girls who liked to March. And another one with similar photos HERE.

Yes the club was made of young women who met "as a social aid to the Battalion"...and were called the Swastika Club.  I'm sure the young women stopped using that insignia in the early 40s.

1934

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I have often wondered how her grandfather being German American would have influenced her. And of course many other German immigrants lived in the San Antonio area.

Sharing again with Sepia Saturday! 

PS: The first comment by Mike Brubaker with more information than I had before:

Mike BrubakerFebruary 11, 2024 at 9:11 PM

That is a troubling history to unravel, Barb. Before the Nazis party took over the swastika, it had long been a symbol for many cultures, including Native-Americans in the southwest. In the 1920s and 30s when American high schools began developing school identities with sports teams, clubs, bands, mascots, uniforms. etc. it would not be surprising if a school in Texas might use an ancient Indian symbol. However I don't think Jefferson High borrowed a tradition from the Indians or bought into a relatively new German fascist movement either. Instead, I think the "Swastika Club" your mother and father joined was part of the Y.W.C.A (Young Women’s Christian Association)!

I found several references for this. Here is another blogger writing about a Swastika Club in Ohio.
< https://mcdlgenealogyspot.blogspot.com/2018/11/when-being-member-of-swastika-club-was.html >

And Wikimedia has this image of girls from the same Jefferson High year book that identifies their club as part of the Y. W. C. A.
< https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_photos_of_school_girl_students_in_military-style_uniform,_cape,_dolman,_side_cap_with_swastika_symbol._YWCA_Swastika_Club._1935_yearbook_for_Jefferson_High_School_in_San_Antonio_Texas,_US._Low_resolution_image.jpg >

Under the long Wikipedia entry for "Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century" there is a section "Use by non-political clubs and organizations" that says "The Ladies' Home Journal sponsored a Girl's Club with swastika membership pins, swastika-decorated handkerchief and a magazine titled "The Swastika". Their version of the symbol was square with right facing arms. The club was formed at the beginning of the 20th century to encourage young women to sell magazine subscriptions."

When I looked up "Swastika Club" in Newspapers.com from 1930 to 1939 there were nearly 11,000 citations in newspapers all across the US. Another archive brought up nearly 700 hits for just Texas. Most of these Swastika Clubs seemed to be for women and several were in high schools. The reports were mainly notices about organizing bridge games, dances, benefits, or other innocent activities. They all used the swastika without any reference to Germany or the Nazi party. Despite what it looks like, I don't think the Jefferson High swastika club was promoting German nationalism or a fascist movement. I think it was just dressing up in a uniform style that would soon prove to be very politically incorrect.

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I posted his later comment to this blog at the top, since it summarizes the use of the swastika symbol for the Thomas Jefferson High School.

Music for Sepia Saturday

  My cousin teaches music. I guess he'd know a lot more about it than I do.

 I must share a photo of my cousin, John Fitz Rogers, who teaches composition (and other musical things) at The University of South Carolina, Columbia SC. He visited me last fall. So proud of him.

And of course he composes also!

This is a very brief description which leaves out a lot of his achievements. But I'm just a cousin...

"Intarsia" by John Fitz Rogers

Performed by The University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble Cormac Cannon, conductor

If you'd like more info about John Fitz Rogers, check out his web site, with much better bio. https://www.johnfitzrogers.com/

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week, whose theme has operatic aspirations. I think the modern take that this piece has stretches my appreciation of music!

Laura Rogers, historical leader in teaching music in Texas

 Sepia Saturday is focused on music this month...so I am reminded of my music teacher Great Grand Aunt Laura Rogers of Mexia, Texas.

 Here's the Historic Marker for Laura Terrissa Rogers, a music teacher in Mexia, Texas from 1880-1920. (Text is given below so you don't have to strain your eyes)

"Miss Rogers Music Room, Built opposite public school, for Laura T. Rogers, who (1880-1920) taught piano and choral music from 7 am to 7pm 6 days a week, 8 months in year. Had 4 pianos used all day, 8 pupils often played in unison. Auditorium with overflow seating in the yard, staged recitals and dramas. A church organist/choir director 35 years Miss Rogers kindled cultural interests in pupils of two generations. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965.  (Note, the historic marker gives the wrong year for her death which was in 1922.)

She lived with her married sister, Alice Luella Rogers Ross, and remained single all her life. But she was a very active woman...and much admired by her relatives and pupils.

Laura's sister Luella married John Ross when she was 22, and moved to Mexia TX, where he first he worked as a store clerk, and Laura apparently lived with them early on. She is on the census with the Ross family continually until her death in 1922.

Great Great Aunts Laura and Luella's brother was my direct ancestor, my father's grandfather, William Sandford Rogers. 

Aunt Laura would have been living with her sister's family when my grandfather, George E. Rogers Sr,  and his little sister Annie were under the guardianship of the Ross family following their father's death. Their mother, Betty, must not have been able to care for them, nor could anyone in her family, because the Ross family were made their guardians, with my grandfather just two years old, and his sister Annie just one. I didn't realize their mother had continued living in another city until I read a census in Galveston which included her and her 2 children, later in their childhoods.

John Ross was the manager of the water works of Mexia, Texas as of the 1900 census. And his sister-in-law, Laura, in 1900 at age 48 she is listed as unable to read, but can write. By the 1910 census after the death of her husband, L. Ella (Luella) Ross (56) was head of household, and Laura would have been 57 and is listed as blind.

GG Aunt Laura had been the second oldest child born to my GGG grandparents, George and Lucinda Rogers of Huntsville TX, but both Laura and her one-year younger sister (Alice) Luella were both born in Mount Lebanon, Bienville Parish, LA, where their mother's family lived. My great great grandfather William Samuel (W. Sam) Rogers had been the oldest child, born in Huntsville TX. Their mother, Lucinda Gibbs Rogers had a brother who was a doctor in Mount Lebanon, LA, which could have been the reason she went there to have her babies. With two younger brothers who died in their first years, perhaps Lucinda had trouble with carrying her children.  They had one younger brother, George W. II, who lived to be 18 years old, born in Mount Lebanon. 

Laura Terrissa Rogers is buried in the Mexia City Cemetery, as well as her sister Laura Rogers Ross and her husband John Elmore Ross.

An article in the Mexia Daily News on June 25, 1965, describes as the second place to visit on Mexia's Tour is Laura T. Rogers' Music Room.

This text (below) was given as an address during an event to honor of Laura Terrissa Rogers at her "Music Room" in Mexia Texas. The date attached in Ancestry is 1886...which  was early in Miss Rogers' career. If it was 1986 that's after the  death in 1956 of Thomas Chatham who wrote the note at the  top) So at this point I only know in 1965 there was a celebration. When the one was that is in the first paragraph of the following text, I'm not sure.

It also includes some interesting information about my great grandfather, George W. Rogers, and his father M.C. Rogers. The only thing I've found that is inaccurate is the statement that George W. Rogers was "only parent to Luella and Laura Rogers." He also was the father of William Sandford Rogers, (1850-1879) my Great Grandfather!

Thomas Chatham, who signed the note at the top of page one, was son of Mrs. Lamar Ross Chatham, daughter of John Elmore Ross and Luella Rogers Ross. So Laura was his mother's auntie.

AND an update regarding that first paragraph of the San Antonio's Texas Institute of Cultures...I found it is still in existence but struggling to continue due to funding shortages. I emailed them with that first paragraph, and they called me back on Wed. Jan 10, 2024 and said they had no records of the event I was referring to. I asked if they had records from 1965...thinking that wasn't all that long ago, but she continued to just say they had no records. She referred me to the San Antonio library's genealogy reference section. I said I should also try the Mexia Library and Historical Societies, if they exist. So that was a dead end for now!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week.

Sod house construction

 Photo: A homesteader and his family in front of their sod house in Cherry County, Nebraska. C.1900 (Photograph by Solomon D. Butcher)

In a 1959 correspondence from Ollie M. Hoback to his half-sister, Mrs. Clay Jenkins, an account unfolds detailing the construction of a sod house by his father on the vast Nebraska prairie. The letter provides insights into this bygone era, capturing the essence of the laborious task undertaken by Ollie's father.

“In the fall of 1883, my father, Isaac Newton Hoback, built a sod house astride the section line, whereby one half of the house was on his homestead, and the other half on presumption land. The law said the homesteader had to make the homestead his home (and only home) for at least six months of the year.

On a presumption, one had to live on it six months and pay $1.25 an acre. By this method, one could live in one end of the house for six months, and then move to the other end for six months, satisfying the law.

Our land was about three miles from McCook, Nebraska. I watched Father plow the sod for his house. The Buffalo Grass roots held the sod together for great lengths—a mile if you wanted to plow that far. The sod would turn over just like a board.

After the first furrow was turned, the second one would lay down and fit into the furrow space left by the first one. The field would just lie there like a smooth black expanse. Any fair team of horses could pull a twelve inch plow, so the sod strips were four inches thick, twelve inches wide and cut the length you wanted to use for the width of your house walls. Father used a sharp spade and a measuring stick for uniform size.

He took the regular bed off the wagon and laid flat planks on to make a flat bed. He picked up the cut sods and hauled them to the house, building the house walls as he unloaded the wagon. He drove the wagon along side the sod strips, loaded, and pulled the wagon so near that the sod could be placed right in the proper wall location.

When the walls were about five feet high, he started standing on the wagon bed to place the sods. There was no mortar or daubing for the sod house, nor was there a foundation.

The first block of sod was laid grass side down on the grassy ground. Subsequent blocks were also laid grass side down and the grass acted as a sealant and a mortar to seal sod to sod.

Read more: https://amzn.to/3S32M8W

Also thanks to History Shortcut Facebook page

Cousins of my father's

Week 51 (Dec. 17-23): Cousins

My challenge is to skip my first choice, which was to have spent time with my first cousins this fall, but I've already blogged about our visit HERE.

So let's look back at cousins that might have been part of the lives of ancestors.

My mother had several cousins growing up. My father met some cousins at one time with his brothers. He may have stayed in touch with them later in life. All I have to go on are a few photos.

I just discovered my external hard drive won't turn on. I'm hoping it's just the connection. Otherwise, that will be a big loss of many old photos. Anyway, blogs have a few of my photos that I can scroll through!

Here are my father's cousins as adults.

My mother, Mataley Munhall Rogers on left, then my dad's cousin, Zulie Winslow Seamans, next to  her mother, Stella Swasey Winslow (Aunt Jim) and then her sister, my grandmother, Ada Swasey Rogers.

Men behind are Uncle Chauncey, his brother my father George Jr. Rogers, maybe his cousin who was close to my father's age, Billy Winslow, then my grandfather in hat, (Poppy) George Rogers Sr.

So Gummy (Ada Swasey Rogers) and Aunt Jim (Stella Swasey Winslow) were sisters. Gummy and Poppy were parents of Chauncey and George Rogers (as well as Alex and James not in photo.) Stella's husband died in 1923. Her children were Zulie Winslow Seamans and Billy (William Swasey Winslow).

I just love the clothes these family members were wearing. I wonder what that fur collar my mother is wearing might be. I am pretty sure my parents and the senior Rogers lived in San Antonio TX at the time (around the time my parents met sometime in 1935 until they got married in 1939.)

Chauncey Rogers, Zulie Winslow, Alex Rogers, and George Rogers, cousins in Kansas City, Mo in 1918. My father, George was 4 as they visited their mother's sister's family.  Zulie was a cousin while Chauncey and Alex were his older brothers. Since the boys all came from Texas, this snow must have a wonderful treat for them! I imagine the took the trip in 1918 on a train from Texas.  

I'm glad I had to check my ancestry files to find out if there was a special event at the time of the Rogers visit from Texas to Missouri. I had a vague date of the birth of cousin Billy (William Winslow) of 1918. But a hint gave me the correct June 2, 1917 date of birth for him. So I guess that had nothing to do with the visit in the winter.

Other details are in the notations of Alex's weight of 40 and date of Feby 10 1918 , and Chauncey's weight of 70 and a date of Feby 12, 1918. All the writing is that of my grandmother, Ada Swasey (Gummy) Rogers.

I wonder if the weights of the boys had something to do with their fares on a train...

Gladly sharing this with 52 Ancestors 52 weeks...as I have for the whole of 2023. Can I finish it?

Grandmother's recipes - maybe

 52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks: Week 49 (Dec. 3-9): "Family Recipe"

I can only say these recipes came from my mother. Not any grandmothers here, except I'm now one. I know my father's mother's recipe for fudge, but it's in my head, never written down. And that is the way it's going to stay. The secret Rogers Fudge recipe.

I've got a wonderful old book where 3x5 cards may be slipped into sleeves, and then placed in an appropriate index section. I must have been given it maybe 40 years back but kept my recipes in the little file box of 3x5 cards for some time, before finally filing them in the book. That's probably why the book is still in good shape...but the cards, well, just look at them!

Some cards are from my mother's cards, copied. Some of her's were from her Betty Crocker cookbook. Some were on her own file cards! And I also opened a library copy of a cookbook and copied some of those recipes, and never have cooked them!

As you can see, I slipped some clipped recipes into the sleeves also. This is in my Mother's handwriting.

Have you noticed a theme here yet?

Baking was my interest, in order to feed those wonderful children I expected to have. (Certainly not for my own tastes!)

These were typed by me, though I didn't have a typewriter of my own. Maybe when I'd been working somewhere I decided to get these recorded. I've obviously cooked them many times. Though I think Florida little critters may have contributed to some of the markings...which we won't think about, since there was already flour, butter and sugary fingerprints on them!

This is one of my favorite cookies. So soon I shall get a baking again.