Amanuensis Monday - JC Hawver's 1878 Diary - August & September

These are the last few entries from JC Hawvers diary. I wish I had more to transcribe. Maybe someday I will find more from another diary.

8-12 Went to Damascus by having Young our landlord wake us early. We had packed all we could last eve. So we were soon ready to start after breakfast. I gave a team a quarter to bring our valise up at it was coming today. The place is a cool one being in a ravine with north side hill so steep that the sun does not shine over the hill until eight oclock. It must be dreary in the winter. Met a friend who, in 1873 drove the store team from McKillicare and for the last twenty years. But at present is not paying expenses.

8-15 Drove down to Iowa Hill to get the mail as there seemed to be no prospect for anything to do today. We started at about eleven and reached there about one. It was very cloudy going down so it was very pleasant. But coming back it was very sultry until a thunder shower started. It came near giving us a wetting but did not as the top of the buggy is good. About nine of us turned out with a large saw and went for the big bee tree in earnest, then we had to send for wedges to get it down. Lots of cross bees, but little honey.

8-19 In the evening we went to Iowa Hill, got there just about dark after a splendid ride of about ten miles. This forenoon I put on some old clothes and rode into a mine through a tunnel over a mile long. The ride was nice and the mine extensive being drifted but the walk back out alone through the water was tiresome.

8-20 I have been around town all day trying to get something more than promises and talk. But have nothing to do. What a pile of mail mother sent last night. Among the rest we got our cards to Order of I.O.G.T., a letter from home and from Luties home also.

8-21 Got through work by a squeeze and started for Sunny South about four pm. It was good and dark when we got to the boundary house at the foot of a hill steeper than a house.

9-6 We attend the school party and dance it being in the house where we stop. It being the first dance Lutie and I have attended since our marriage. I may ask her to attend another but hardly think it for she will take no interest in the dance and requires more coaxing than the pleasure justifies.

9-12 Packed our traps up to the buggy and started to leave, but we were persuaded to remain to dinner. On settling with Abrams, his bill was fifty cents more than mine which was $59.50. We have been in Sunny South about three weeks. I cleared while here about $50.00 having done some good work. Now tonight we spend our first night in Towers Hotel, Michigan Bluff.

12-26 Auburn-1 granate dish pan, 1 corset #22 without pads, 3 prs ladies woolen hose and 1 pr #4 C shoes. Sacramento-Yardage & findings for dresses.

Lutie = Lucretia Backus, JC's wife
Stasia = Anastasia Hawver, JC's sister

Henry = Henry Hawver, JC's brother
Prince = JC's horse
Dr. JC Leonard = JC's teacher of dentistry

Falling In Love From Across The Street

There is a story from my wife's side of the family that tells how her GG Grandparents met. They were Benjamin Hawver and Magdalena Gall. He was born in 1877 and she was born in 1880. They were both living in San Francisco with their parents and the story is that she was washing windows while he was working outside the same building, and their eyes met and they fell in love.

I was doing some research on her father Gottlob Gall and found him listed in the Langley's San Francisco Directory each year for over 20 years (from 1884-1905). By the way those directories are available on sfgenealogy.com. He was a baker, and during his time in San Francisco he worked at and eventually became the proprietor of the "Volz & Gall bakery & coffee saloon" which was located on 28 4th St., just off of Market St. Here is a listing from 1895.


In the same directory I also found an entry for Benjamin's mother Julia. She worked at a cigar and tobacco shop, that just happened to be across the street at 41 4th St!


Assuming that this is indeed Benjamin's mother, I don't think that I could get any closer to finding documentation that proves this story, short of having the love story printed in the San Francisco Call itself. The fact that their parents both worked across from the street from each other would definitely put them in close enough proximity to bump into each other and fall in love.

The address of the bakery (28 4th St.) was in the Pioneer Building. So it would have been one of those little shops that was at the bottom. Today that building is an Old Navy, but back then the building was different. Across the street is a modern day Marriot where the cigar shop would have been. Here is a picture of the Pioneer building from 1888.


Then in 1906 San Francisco had it's famous earthquake and most everything was damaged, either in the earthquake or in the fires. Here is the same Pioneer building in 1906. You can see that the shape of the windows are the same.


All this to say, I don't know if their eyes met in the window or not, but it appears that they were both in very close proximity, at the same time, and so it is a good chance that this is the building where they met.

Amanuensis Monday - JC Hawver's 1878 Diary - June & July

Here is some more out of the diary of Dr JC Hawver. There were no entries for May transcribed in the document that I found, so either he didn't have any or there were some missing pages in the original when it was transcribed. Here are his entries for June and July 1878.

6-9 Stasia’s Birthday. Mrs. Beach and four children, K. Backus, M.J., Annie & Alice N. and others came down and we ate dinner under the apple trees in the orchard when the hay had been cut off.

6-10 Left home intending to ride to N. Bloomfield with Cunningham was too late so I rode up with the butcher, got up too late to do any work. Commenced board at Mrs. Victor’s again.

7-4 Father and Henry work on the road while the rest of us stayed at home having no way of going banbury. Fathers often and gay on a sled, but we will wait and take our Fourth when we get our horse and buggy and start out on the road. I hardly expect to get much of a Fourth.

7-7 Leonard got down from Downieville about nine oclock, bringing Prince and the buggy with him. This morning we hitched Prince up and drove to North Bloomfield to see Mr. Clerendall. Found he had gone to Nevada City with the remains of Wm. Nab who died last night from being thrown from his carriage, but we waited and rode home by moonlight after seeing him when we got home.

7-8 Took Leonard to N San Juan when I bought Prince and buggy from him, giving him my note with father to back it for $200 and Crandall to back it for $300. Father’s due in five months and Crandalls due 2-1-1879. Had prince shod as I came through Cherokee.

7-9 Father takes mother up to No Bloomfield in the buggy in the afternoon. Mother enjoyed the rest.

7-14 Father and all hand laid off the road today, to finish tomorrow. Henry hitched up Prince and took Stasia up to Mrs. Nichols and around for a ride. I filled several teeth form Mr. Talbot.

7-15 Father finished his road at six and got home at supper time. He said a month ago that he would finish the 15th of July but I guess it was more of a happenstance than anything.

7-17 Mother made us a good dinner and as we had all things ready, we started on our first pilgrimage from home about two oclock. Lutie did not seem to mind the start much but it was hard for me to say goodbye and start out from home. Henry seemed to feel it as much as anyone. Everyone has been made so pleasant for me at home that I feel humbled too much to try and express my gratitude in words. So here we are in Nevada City, 10 miles away from there. Tomorrow we will put 14 miles more between us as we will drive to Colfax.

7-18 Made Colfax by late supper time. The road was terrible coming from Grass Valley. The influence of the railroad has been against the major road so now it is in poor trim. Have found a good place to stop at the Exchange Hotel.

7-19 Spent the day resting and looking around Colfax thinking that if work enough came in we could stay here a day or a week but as I have found nothing we will break for Iowa Hill in the morning. Colfax being a railroad town it had excitement enough to keep it up but should judge that the real business done amounts to but little.

7-20 Reached Iowa Hill 10 miles from Colfax between twelve to one. Got dinner and put up at J. Youngs Star Hotel. We have either to make some money in Iowa Hill or pull out fairly soon because our dollars amount to but a very small sum. I think though that I will get something to do.

7-22 Extracted a lower right desideous lateral incisor for Mr. Young ad fifty years of age. The tooth had a perfect root but the crown was curious. It was the same length as his permanent teeth and shows plainly where tobacco has been chewed with it for years. Of course it had been the cause of a crowned denture, but was extracted on account of it’s decaying.

7-29 Everyone today had a piece of smoked glass. Watching the eclipse. I smoked the two front lenses in my small telescope and had a good view of the transit.

Lutie = Lucretia Backus, JC's wife
Stasia = Anastasia Hawver, JC's sister

Henry = Henry Hawver, JC's brother
Prince = JC's horse
Dr. JC Leonard = JC's teacher of dentistry

Photo Comparison - The Backdrop

One of the cool old pictures that we have of my family is if my Great Great Grandpa Jetze Broersma's family, taken in the Netherlands probably around 1911.


This portrait has some unique stuff. Everything looks pretty symmetrical as far as people go. My GG Aunt Dieuwke Broersma on the far left has her arm on an empty chair. They might have been able to do without that, but it does seem to balance out the rail on the opposite side that my G Grandpa Laas Broersma is sitting on. And behind him are some bushes and trees that seem to fade away towards the left, and what looks like a river flowing nearby. Maybe the studio has a few different backgrounds painted and depending on what type of picture you wanted they would move you to the left or right. Since this was a wider portrait I guess they just got everything from a curtain on the left, to blank in the middle, to a forrest on the right.

One thing that you can say about it is that it makes for a unique picture setting. I didn't think much of it until I saw another one that had a similar pose and furniture.


This photo of the Tjeerd Harmens Andringa family is out of the book "Andringa" and I believe it is from around 1902. It has the same rail on the right side. And the chair in the far left looks extremely similar to the one that Jetze Broersma is sitting in the other one. Just look at the knots in the legs and the diamond shape on the cross bar. To me this looks like it could be in the same studio based on the furniture.

Then I was forwarded this portrait that has another Broersma in it, Antje Broersma (cousin of Jetze Broersma, center with white hair covering).


This one has the same background as the first one, with trees on the right and curtain on the left. The chair that Johannes Werkhoven (man in the middle) seems to be the same style that Dieuwke had her arm on in the first one. Based on the the 2 sons having wives, I would estimate this picture was taken around the same time as the others, somewhere around 1914. The youngest son Klaas (on the left) was married in 1914 and this might even have been taken on that occasion.

This last one was taken in the same place as the first, almost certainly. Most of the people in it are the same, Jetze Broersma's family at Tjerk Broersma's wedding in 1916. See the trees on the right and the river? I don't see the curtain on the left, but the exposure on this one doesn't seem to be as good so I don't know what's going on on the left. Also the bench on the far right seems to be the same as in the previous picture on the left


So anyway, I thought that it was pretty interesting that these photos could possibly be from the same studio. Now what would be really awesome is if that studio was still in business and someone could go there and look at the archives of photos from way back. I'm guessing that there were not a lot of photo studios in that part of the Netherlands so many people would use the same one.

Amanuensis Monday - JC Hawver's 1878 Diary - April

Here are some more entries from the 1878 diary of JC Hawver, a dentist in the Nevada City area in California.

4-3 I have been home a week tomorrow and all I have done is to cut brush and burn it but even that has made real improvement in the looks of the hill above the house. We trimmed up some more small pine trees at the upper edge of the grove.

4-4 Dr. Leonard came up here when we arranged our account and we went home leaving me to do any work in this section would find to do, having finally made up his mind to sell his house and furniture and leave for the Black Hills. He now has my note for $200.00 and I our line besides that $86.

4-5 I went up town to get to do some work for Richardson but we bring in Cherokee jailed. I came home and spent the afternoon chatting with Lutie, Mother and Clara Hawley who came down to find Stu Evelvilles girls. Stasia is stopping with Mrs. Brigham for a few days doing some sewing for her.

4-9 Father hitched Tom to the Spring Wagon and I took myself and Traps to N. Bloomfield where I had a pleasant reception from all I met. Father, Mr. Creagan and myself had to give up bonds for the building of the road from Columbia Hill to Lake City. I thought they would let me off but not so. Today I start out in a world for myself with just $1.00 in my pocket and owing $300.00 with but one third of that amount coming to me that I could collect.

4-13 I packed my things away in a rush this morning to get a ride down home with Parzetti on the store team, it was going down to Talbots. Reached home in good season, but found Father was up town and been drinking badly for a few days. Mother was not yet returned from Corral where Father took her last Wednesday. Lutie and Stasia went with him but they came home Thursday. I found Lutie two days before the ususal time.

4-14 Somebody said it was ten when Lutie and I got up this morning but no one seamed to care much about it. The rest of the day was spent in taking a good bath and being Luties beau.

4-15 Henry and I hustled from home this morning over the Kennebec to take the stage for Humbug. We got there in time and our patience gave out waiting for it to come. I rode on the seat with the driver, sorry later when the snow blew thick some of the time. We found five inches of snow all over the ground this morning.

4-16 Took impression with plaster of paris, neither one of their plates are just what they aught to be for all they would do if no better could be made. Plaster surely takes a better impression of a flat mouth than the moulding compound does. I wrote to Leonard’s Folks to know when he would be home, desiring to go down there and have him show me how to set teeth.

4-17 This morning I was surprised to have a man come to the door and say “You are Dr. Hawver I suppose. I have a tooth and I want you to fill it for me.” It pleasured me sure. But I filled it and five more, he left me $12.50. It is sure like old times to fill a tooth again, but I do good work. This evening I finished reading the Crossing Voyager, sequel to the Young Hunters, written by Captain Maynard Reid.

4-18 I got Austin to take me and my traps to Relief Hill having given him $2.50 for the same. He is leaving me at the Relief Hill Hotel run by Mr. Lund which as I wrote before, I have found to be a well kept house with but one boarder besides myself, an old acquaintance named Milton Bau a fine young man. Attended a revival preaching.

4-19 Worked all day and attended Revival again. Preaching what I think.

4-20 Worked filling teeth, mostly with gold and cleaning tartar off teeth. It now strikes me that the higher up on this ridge I go the more tartar I find and the deeper yellow it shows. Rode with Mr. Panzetti from Relief Hill to Humbug.

4-21 Just after making up my mind to stay up and not go home today, Henry came up on Tom and we took him to the stable and Henry to the Barber Shop and had his hair cut. After he took dinner with me he took Tom and started for home. I did some work then struck out on foot for Relief Hill.

4-22 Work

4-23 Work then attend church to hear Mr. Redding preach his last sermon before he goes to N San Juan. His revival some days has resulted in twenty or more people joining the Church.

4-24 to 26 Work on plate. I finished Mrs. Lund’s plate and put them in. She seemed very much pleased with them though I was not when I put them in and found they were not as tight as they aught to be being a partial set, and she having good use of them. We settled up him paying me $16.00 for my work and I paying him $11.00 for my hotel bill. Road with Mr. Parzetti to Humbug and lodged at Victor’s Parish House.

4-30 Went with Lutie up as far as her mother’s gate where we had often met and often parted. I kiss her there and returned to meet the stage from San Juan to meet Stasia.

Lutie = Lucretia Backus, JC's wife
Stasia = Anastasia Hawver, JC's sister

Henry = Henry Hawver, JC's brother
Tom = JC's horse
Dr. JC Leonard = JC's teacher of dentistry

Funeral Card Friday - Lawrence Broersma

27 years ago today my great grandfather Lawrence Broersma passed away. He was 85 years old.

Amanuensis Monday - JC Hawver's 1878 Diary - March

More from the 1878 diary of JC Hawver. Here are his entries from March:

3-2 How glad I am to be home with Lutie and here in bed waiting for her to come. She is taking her bath, I have just had mine.

3-3 Tom threw me off this morning, he took objection to the belly band of the saddle bags. Nobody hurt more than a frightening.

3-4 Mother commences her 54th year today so I stay to take breakfast at home in which there were 18 Robins (she had 19 children but only 8 survived). I bought Mother my present, really one she needed, a set of glass ware. This day passed pleasured indeed.

3-7 This evening Lutie and I attended N Bloomfield Lodge. We had a very pleasant meeting with the members and witnessed an initiation also heard a very enlightened remarks made by Bro. Richard Jones.

3-10 Tried to be Luties beau in the afternoon taking her to see the air compressor and Burley drill in the MBGM Co. Tunnel at shaft #7, it is a complicated machine making ____ feet per month.

3-11 Moved my engine and things down to Edwards Hotel so that I might keep Lutie company while I have work to do and as I was expecting to get to clean Katies teeth, but she went to school in the afternoon we arrived to avoid having them cleaned (her mother is an Irish man you can bet the world). The Double Shaft struck blue gravel last night.

3-12 Had callers and Lutie and I visit a woman with three children.

3-16 Lutie went down in the Stage and I rode Tom down home though we both walked from the west edge of the turning of the Stage Road. Lutie was up with me for 11 days and our bill was $5.50.

3-20 How good it is to arrive home where everything is cherished, pleasant and comfortable.

3-21 It seemed harder than ever to leave Lutie and start for Humbug to work.

3-28 I left N. Bloomfield this morning with the purpose of going to spend another week with Dr. Leonard, have him fill my teeth and see him perform more plate work. But when I got home I did not get off in time for the Stage so here I am at home with Lutie.

Lutie = Lucretia, JC's wife
Stasia = Anastasia Hawver, JC's sister
Tom = JC's horse
Dr. JC Leonard = JC's teacher of dentistry

Father Abraham had many sons...but I am not one of them.

One of my favorite songs to sing in church when I was growing up was "Father Abraham." There is no real deep spiritual significance to the words, but being able to move your arms around sure made it fun to sing.

Father Abraham had many sons
And many sons had father Abraham
I am one of them, and so are you
So lets just praise the Lord! (right arm, left arm and so on)

Somewhat recently I was looking up some stuff about DNA and how much it would cost to do some genetic research on my ancestry. Since both of my parents descend from ancestors in the Netherlands (mostly from Friesland) I don't think there would be much new information I could get out of doing the test, except maybe find some genetic relatives or something.

Based on what others have posted, and also info on Wikipedia, it looks like my Y chromosome haplogroup would most likely be R1b, which is the most frequently occurring haplogroup in western Europe.


So I compared this information with the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, and what scholars have traditionally said about it. The Table of Nations is the passage in the Bible that talks about the descendants of the 3 sons of Noah after the great flood that destroyed every living thing on the earth that wasn't in the ark. They are Shem, Ham and Japeth. Here is a map that shows the approximate areas of the descendants of Noah's sons according to Genesis 10.


The descendants of Shem are Shemites or Semetic people (Jews, Arabs, middle east and Asia regions). One side note on this that I don't understand is that Semetic people include what would now include Islamic nations, and Islamic nations are anti-Semetic right? I thought anti-Semetism was hatred toward Jews, but it looks like it should include all descendants of Shem. And since the Muslims traditionally descend from Ishmael, son of Abraham and Isaac's half brother, they would definitely be included in that. I think they should come up with a better name for it, or maybe just stop hating people. It maybe also be that not all Muslims actually descend from Ishmael, they just follow.

The sons of Ham traditionally settled Canaan, Egypt and eventually Africa. I am pretty white. It's fairly obvious I don't have any Ham in me. I think it's interesting that the genetic material in Shem, Ham and Japeth (and their wives) had the genetic information for all the variety of people there are in the world. I'm sure that many would disagree that all the people in the world came from the descendants of Noah, but I would argue that even if they all came from the first humans that sprung out of east Africa (as seems to be the prevailing theory these days), my thought is still the same, it's interesting how the people of the world all have a common ancestry even though skin color and eye shape are different.

So it looks like I would be a descendant of Japeth then. I'm not from the middle east and definitely not from Africa. But Abraham is not a descendant of Japeth, which means I'm not a son of Abraham. How can I in good conscience swing my arms and legs while singing about being a son of Abraham when I am not? I guess I need to start singing about Japeth then. It just doesn't roll off the tongue as nice though, Father Ja-apeth...

Wordless Wednesday - Lollipops

Amanuensis Monday - JC Hawver's 1878 Diary - February

Here is the continuing saga of JC Hawver's daily life in his own words. These are his entries from February 1878

2-1 Saw numerous friends in No Bloomfield, thinking it would justify I concluded to take my instruments up by stage in the morning. Brought Lutie home a pair of of rubber over shoes lined with flannel and buckling in front of the ankle a unbleached cloth. Brought Mother home three balls of knitting cord for # 1 I got five linen collars #15 of course my favorite style. Father was as indulgent as ever this morning. I told him how Mother thought he humored me to much.

2-4 Reached N Bloomfield some where about noon, was hospitably received by Mr. Smith and his deserving daughters Nellie and Tillie and son Fulton. I saw Tom (horse) in good comfortable quarters then took dinner and went to work. It took all day as there was much decayed teeth. 2-5 Continued work, and attended lecture of Mr. Leland and his reorganization of North Bloomfield Lodge #460 of the I.O.G.T.

2-6 This morning I stepped into the first snow I have met with this season. The south wind came near severing the roof as it did about blow it off. This at Victors house where I slept for the night and where I slept and roomed with McAllister during the winter of 73-4.

2-7, 8 & 9 Put in gold fillings and cleaned teeth, spent the evenings with friends.

2-9 Had an appointment with a man for this afternoon but he failed to appear so I mounted Tom and headed straight for home, where I was glad to get and glad to be welcomed back. Lutie, Stasia and I went to lodge where we were elected to different jobs.

2-10 The fornoon had slipped away before I had any thing done but to taking my bath. Lutie and Mother went with me as far as the edge of the Diggings as I went to Columbia Hill where I did some work.

2-11 How hard work it was for me to leave Lutie and the pleasantness of home this morning as I got ready to start for Humbug. When I reach my journeys end safely about one pm for all it rained steady since morning. But taking the tops of a pair of gum-boots for leggings and a blue cloak with Tom to ride I came out all dry. Many thanks to Mr. Kallenburger the barber for his room and use of his new chair. I did much good work.

2-18 Edwards Hotel in Humbug is the only place in town that will comfortable enough for Lutie when she comes to stay.

2-20 Played cards at the Barber shop and took a lesson to not encourage card playing. Wish Lutie was here!

2-22 It is not many years since I could lay in bed and hear dancing going on over my head. (Washington’s Birthday Dance in the Hotel where he stayed).

2-24 Have many friends in N San Juan but barely any work. Instead of spending my money for cards and liquor, I will spend it to improve my instruments and do better work.

Lutie = Lucretia, JC's wife
Stasia = Anastasia Hawver, JC's sister
Tom = JC's horse
Dr. JC Leonard = JC's teacher of dentistry