Lukhard

My dad's cousin "Teeny" shared some of her recollections of  family on a recent visit with me.  Her mother,  Miriam, was my grandmother's sister.  Her father was Herman Leslie Lukhard, Sr.

Ida Rene Abbott > Jacqueline D. Abbott > John B. Zaun > Teresa Zaun Austin.
Miriam Edith Abbott, sister of Jacqueline D. Abbott, married Herman L. Lukhard).
Miriam E Abbott > Miriam "Teeny" Lukhard > Robin Rachael Vaughan.

Herman Leslie Lukhard
Herman did not have a high school education, but became one of the most successful businessmen in Richmond.  From a job at the corner grocery store sweeping floors at age 17, he worked his way up to the meat department, training to become a butcher.  Eventually he went in with a partner and opened the first Lukhard's Market in Richmond.  The business grew to six stores which were managed by family members.

Lukhard's Market, Westbury Shopping Center

From Style Weekly, Jan. 1 1980: "The 12,000-square-foot building at 400 Libbie Ave. once was home to a beloved neighborhood grocery, Lukhard's Fine Foods. Lukhard's closed five years ago. Nonetheless, neighbors still refer to the site as Lukhard's, never as Rite Aid, the chain drugstore that replaced it."
Herman raised various animals for the store.  Once he got up in a tree to teach the turkeys how to roost so they would be safe from predators.  Did you ever wonder why turkeys are transported in crates? Uncle Herman loaded turkeys one day in the back of a truck and went in to grab lunch.  When he came back out, the frightened turkeys were piled up in one end of the truck and half of them were dead.  He frantically threw them out of the truck and tried to resuscitate as many as possible, but was largely unsuccessful.  Hard lesson.

I remember when they raised pigs on the farm, and my Aunt Miriam calling out, Soooieee!  Soooieee!  All the pigs would come running up from the wooded area around the pond.  A little runt piglet was given to Teeny's daughter Robin to raise.  The piglet became a pet, but somehow, tragically, it got into the truck with the pigs going to market.

Lukhard's was part of the Richfood co-op, which enabled small independent grocers in the Richmond area to compete with large chain supermarkets.  When Herman retired, Lukhard's was passed on to his sons.  His oldest son Dee bought his brother out.  When Dee's daughter Lindsey died in 1979, he sold two of the stores, closed the remaining four stores and retired from the grocery business.

Dee, Herman, and Miriam 1931

Herman's struggle with alcohol came to a head after Teeny's husband Kenneth died unexpectedly at age 47. Once, when Herman started to drive off in his car, Teeny told him that she would call the police if he drove. He said, "If you do, I'll never speak to you again."  She said, "Okay, if that's the way it has to be.  I'm still going to do it."  He said, "You ARE my daughter, aren't you?"  He gave her the keys, went in the house and took a nap.

Herman loved to invest in land.  He purchased a piece of property in the mountains and donated it to his beloved Battery Park Christian Church to use as a camp.  He bought Spring Green Farm in 1957 from the Tillman family, who were descendants of the original builder.  (The main house was built in 1778).  When Herman died, all of his assets were tied up in land, so in order to pay expenses and support Miriam, half of Spring Green farm was sold to his son Dee.

Approximate boundaries of Spring Green Farm in Old Church.  The main house and ten acres was sold outside the family, and the rest is parceled out to family members.

Robin Racheal Vaughan
Teeny related several stories about her daughter Robin's escapades as a child.  Robin had a habit of hiding or running away and causing widespread panic.  When she was very little, she locked herself in the bathroom and would not answer when her mother called.  Teeny picked up a deck of cards that Robin had been forbidden to play with, and sat on the floor outside the bathroom door, passing the cards under the door one a time.  Silently, the cards would be pushed back out under the door.  Teeny used that tactic until Uncle Kenneth came home and unlocked the door.

Robin (painting by Miriam Lukhard)

Another time Robin went missing, causing panic for hours while people searched all over the farm and everywhere.  Uncle Kenneth came home from work and went to use the bathroom before joining the search.  A small voice from behind the shower curtain said, "Hi Daddy." Robin was wrapped up in the shower curtain with nothing showing, not even her feet.  She knew she was forbidden to be in the bathroom when Daddy was doing his business, so she knew she needed to make her presence known.

Some kids from church came to spend the day on the farm.  They took turns riding Robin's pony Stardust while Robin led them down the road.  Stardust got stubborn and would not come home.  When it started to get dark and the parents came to pick up their kids, they were nowhere to be found.  Once again, a search party was formed. Robin was brought home in the back of a police car, past the long line of parents' and searcher's cars parked along on the road.  The church kids followed behind, leading the pony with two astride.

Another time, when Robin was found after being missing for a while, she said indignantly, "I know where I am!" This quote was used at her funeral.

Stardust, Robin's pony

John Beverly Zaun

My father died way too young.  He had been having some heart trouble for a while, but he should not have died when he did.  The doctor found some abnormalities in a stress test and sent him home anyway instead of admitting him to the hospital.  He did not make it through the night.  His untimely death had a grievous impact on everyone who knew him.  He was one of those people whose deep love of family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers created powerful bonds of affection.  He captivated everyone around him with his penchant for storytelling, friendly teasing, and his uncanny ability to relate to most anyone.  

John, or "Bev" as his family called him, was born in 1930 in Richmond, Virginia.  During the Depression his father, Ernie, moved to Norfolk to seek employment, leaving his wife and young child to stay with family.  Ernie rented a room in a boarding house on 10th Street in Ocean View, finding work as a bookkeeper at Dalton and Bundy Lumber Company.  Mother and son later joined him in Norfolk.  This was a traumatic move for them as family ties to Richmond were strong.  There were frequent letters and trips between Norfolk and Richmond that continued into succeeding generations.

Richmond kinfolk. Top:  John, Teeny, and Dee.  Middle:  Zaun family.  Bottom:  Dee and Bev.

The Zaun family lived in an apartment on 35th Street where John attended J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School, Blair Junior High School, and graduated from Maury High School in 1948.  He was a boy scout (Ernie was the scout leader).  He built his own motorbike, which fell apart underneath him in the street, as witnessed with glee by his then future wife and friend from a school window.  His close friends were inseparable - Harold Thumm, Bobby Brockington, Streeter Morrisette, and Bobby Twiddy.  

John "Bev" and friends in Norfolk

After graduation from high school, John and his friend Bobby Brockington took off for Florida.  They worked in Miami for a time as switchboard operators for a hotel (where, as it turns out, they unwittingly arranged "business" appointments for prostitutes).  I remember him telling a story about falling asleep at the wheel of his early model automobile and driving into a swamp.

with Bobby Brockington in Miami

For two years, John went to a technical institute, Norfolk division of the College of William and Mary.  He got a job with WTAR-TV as a cameraman in the beginning days of television.  He was promoted to videotape technician, and eventually became an engineer.  He retired as the chief engineer of WTAR and WLTY radio after a 40+ year career with Landmark Communications.  He approached his job as he did everything else in life - with optimism, commitment, and passion.  

  

TV commercial filmed at our house.

John loved his work but his preferred occupation was fishing.  He always owned some kind of boat - always a very practical boat, no frills - to transport him and a fishing buddy to favorite fishing holes in Back Bay, Suffolk, and Chickahominy.   He loved all kinds of seafood, and was known to cut open a clam he found at the beach and eat it right on the spot.  His lifelong fishing buddy was school chum Harold Thumm, who later became his coworker and next door neighbor.  But John went fishing with whoever would agree to go -  neighbor Floyd Edge, nephew Calvin, or one of his beloved coworkers Joe Perkins, George Ramsey, and Jeff Dane.  Jeff Dane hosted a long-running local television show on WTAR-TV Channel 3 called "Tacklebox" which sometimes featured their fishing adventures.  He also worked on a fishing show hosted by Joe Perkins for many years.  When John first asked Virginia Crofford for a date, it went something like this:  "If I can't find someone to go fishing with me, would you like to go out on Friday?"  She should have known....

Caught his limit.

John's second favorite occupation was tinkering around with anything mechanical or electronic.  He had an impressive, well organized (though greasy) collection of tools, hardware, and gadgets.  Everything was kept for parts, nothing wasted.  He could fix or build most anything, and would attempt any project that caught his fancy.  He even took up sewing once just to prove he could.  His methods were not always the neatest or the safest, but the end product was usually admirable.  

He must have taken some time off of fishing because he married Virginia in April 1952.  They bought a tiny little house on Brest Avenue in Norfolk where their two daughters were born.  In 1959, his father Ernie died tragically at age 49 of preventable complications from gall bladder surgery.  This was devastating to the family and forced John to become responsible for his mother who was naive and inexperienced about financial affairs.  John once physically threw an unscrupulous suitor out of her house on Witchduck Road by the scruff of the neck.  

He was an actively-engaged, fun, and affectionate father.  He was easy to talk to about anything in the world.  His daughters had the best school projects, the biggest backyard bonfires, the most wonderful garden vegetables in the summer, and the coolest recreational equipment of anyone around.  He made us the very first ever skateboards (from old roller skates), piped stereo music to the back porch (before stereos were portable), built a magnificent ping pong table, installed various high jumps and monkey bars between the trees in the backyard, and created pet enclosures for an ever changing menagerie.  The neighborhood kids all wanted to hang out at our house.  

Ride 'a horsie!

His grandchildren were the center of his universe.  He loved them passionately and without reserve, and they all felt it.  It is heartbreaking to think that they could not have had more time with him.  The loss cannot be measured.  

PawPaw in his glory.  

Abbott & Sons Piano Factory, Fort Lee, NJ

Here are some bits and pieces of information about the Abbott Family Piano Company in New Jersey sent to me by Matthew Weismantel, great great grandson of Whitfield Barrie Abbott (which makes him my 3rd cousin):

Bryants and Abbots
My (Matthew's) Grandmother was Margaret Weismantel nee' BRYANT whose mother was Rebecca Godfrey Curtis Bryant nee' Abbott (daughter of Whitfield Barry ABBOTT & Gertude CLAYTON) and whose father was William Thomas BRYANT (son of Eley BRYANT and Margaret COBB). The Abbotts started in America John C. ABBOTT (1809-1898) who manufactured pianos both in NYC and Fort Lee, NJ.

• Born in London in about 1815, John Abbott immigrated to New York with his brothers James, Nathaniel, Abiel, and William to manufacture pianos. John Abbott first apprenticed with the firm of R & W Nunns. He opened his first shop in 1835, at only twenty years of age, at 66 Walker Street in New York City. His pianos were exhibited at The American Institute Fair in both 1835 and 1836, and they were awarded medals at both exhibitions. Abbott quickly gained popularity and a stellar reputation for his instruments. It seems that John Abbott went into general business and left the piano industry before 1850. His brothers James Abbott and William Abbott continued building action parts for pianos in New Jersey under the name of Abbott & Sons.

• In Spillane’s History of the American Piano-Forte, published in 1890: “John Abbott, a graduate from the shop of R&W Nunns, began business at 66 Walker Street, NY in 1832, and became very successful immediately from the standpoint of making reputable instruments. In 1835 John Abbott took the gold medal at the Mechanic’s Institute for a piano-forte which won special mention. In 1836 he moved to 267 Bowery. Mr. Abbott exhibited a grand piano in this year which won the second premium at the Mechanic’s Institute. This clever piano make is yet living and is a member of a family whose connections with the trade has been of long standing. James Abbott of Abbott and Sons, is a brother and was connected with him in 1833 when he began business on Walker St., and is the youngest of the Abbott Family of piano makers.”

• ABBOTT. London-born makers in New York, NYand Fort Lee, NJ. John Abbott (b. London, 1815-d. after 1890) apprenticed with R&W Nunns in New York; in 1832 he opened a workshop at 66 Walker Street (Spillane). Spillane reported that John Abbott won a gold medal for one of his pianos at the American Mechanics’ Institute Fair in 1835, and the following year he won a silver medal for a horizontal, not square, grand piano. In 1836 his address was 267 Bowery. Abbott apparently opened the firm of Abbott & Sons in Fort Lee, NJ, possibly as early as 1836; although the date is uncertain, he is known to have been working in New Jersey by 1839. http://antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum/abbott/

• John had three brothers, all of whom were active as piano makers, Nathaniel B. Abbott was listed as a maker during the 1840's, but later he turned to other occupations; he became first a policeman, then a carpenter. James Abbott (b London, 1825) worked with his brother John in 1833 on Walker Street in New York and in the firm of Abbott & Sons about 1839 in Fort Lee. James lived at a hotel owned by John in Hackensack, NJ; he was active in the business until 1860, according to Kaufman. William Abbott (b. London, 1816-d 1889) also worked with John in Fort Lee in 1850. Abiel, another brother, operated during that year a piano dealership in NY; he lived in Jersey City. Spillane state that all four of the Abbott brothers were trained at R & W Nunns.

• It is my (Sylvia Abbott) impression that the Abbott family was a large one and branched out to perhaps many other states. I have no records of this. My ancestor, James, had a small piano making business in Edgewater, bought property in Fort Lee in 1850 where piano actions were made in his home. In 1872 Abbott Piano Factory opened off Lemoine Ave. In 1953 the building was sold and has since been torn down to make way for the new Port Authority Building on South Marginal Rd.

• According to Margaret Weismantel, John C. Abbott died pushing Bonnie Cowen up a flight of stairs in a baby carriage. Now that I have dates for his death in Dec 1898 and Bonnie Cowen's birth in August 1895 this certainly plausible.

Charles Bryant, a "dapper fellow"
On another note, from Matthew Weismantel: "My aunt has been asking me if I have any information about a Mariah BRYANT who she remembers owning a boarding house in Ocean Grove, NJ. The only Mariah I have come across was in your photo on-line with Charles Bryant.

l to r:  Mariah, Ida Rene Abbott, Addie Fletcher, and Charles Bryant.
Possibly taken on the occasion of Charles and Mariah's wedding? This photo had to have been taken around 1910, which is after their mother Margaret died on a train... after "the rift." 

My aunt later remembered that there was a Charles Bryant who was married to a Mariah and owned a piano store on Broad Street in Newark, NJ -- strange since it was the Abbotts who owned a piano factory.

Research Gets Harder

At first this ancestry project took off like a rocket.  Though I was only able to work on it in my spare time, the pace of progress fueled my motivation.  Every day I would discover some new link to the past.  Progress got a tremendous boost when I was able to connect online with new-found cousins who were also researching our family history.

After months of research, the project moved forward only in fits and starts.  New discoveries happened just often enough to keep me motivated.  Sometimes a closer look proved my former findings to be questionable as I checked my facts more carefully.  Progress sometimes took a few steps backwards.

It is now well into Year Two of this ancestry project.  It is becoming tedious work.  A new bit of information is a rare treasure.   Every now and then, I choose an ancestor and do an exhaustive search online.  At least once a month, I look for inspiration for a blog entry.  My main focus now is to try to make sense of all the accumulated information.

The next steps are to add more of my family's "hard copy" information and do more research outside of the online environment.  I will look for family documents, analyze them, and scan them into the records.  I will interview the few remaining folks in the generation before me to flesh out the facts with stories.  I will study historical records and read accounts of the places and events that personally affected my ancestors' lives.  Now is where the real detective work begins.

The goal of this project is to provide as complete a genealogy as possible for my children.  I want them to have all of the family stories, pictures, and documents within my reach, to be able to put names and faces to our family's history.

Ada C. Crofford

My great grandmother, Ada Clemina Hall, was born on July 18, 1856 in Chittenango, New York.

Ada C. Hall > Horace C. Crofford > Virginia M. Crofford > Teresa Zaun Austin

Ada's family (parents, Andrew and Olivia, Ada, and her siblings, Nina and Albert) traveled west and settled in the Dakota Territory sometime before 1876.  Their home was near Bear Butte Creek at the northern edge of the Black Hills (near what is now Sturgis).  Her father was a farmer and her mother kept house, perhaps with her daughter Nina's help.  A young man, Jesse, boarded with them and shared the work of farming.  Albert most certainly worked on the farm as well.  Ada became a teacher.

Ada taught school at Fort Lincoln in North Dakota, and was friends with General Custer's wife, Elizabeth, who was about ten years older than Ada.  Family legend has it that Ada was teaching school at Fort Lincoln on the day that Custer and his men left to fight the Battle of Little Big Horn in May 1876.  Ada later wrote a paper defending General Custer which is now housed in a museum in Newcastle, Wyoming.

"Mrs. Crofford was a school teacher at Ft. Abraham Lincoln and was a friend of General Custer's wife Elizabeth. She came to the Black Hills to teach in 1876." From the obituary of her daughter, Miriam Darrow printed in "Bits and Pieces" Newcastle, Weston, Wyoming, Vol. 4 No. 1, 1968

Ada married Horace C. Crofford in 1891 at age 34. They had three children born in South Dakota - Horace, age 5, Oliver, age 4, and "Abraham" (Abram), age 2.  The census indicates that she had another child that did not survive.  By 1900, they had moved across the line into Wyoming, just south of Newcastle. Daughter Miriam was born in 1902.

Ada holding Miriam, born in 1902.

In 1907, Ada's father Andrew Hall signed over to her the title to farmland in Weston County, in the Newcastle area.  Horace raised stock, and the three boys worked as laborers on the home farm.

Ada was an consummate inventor.  In 1905, she patented a design for an insect trap.  This design has been referenced by other inventors until as recently as 2012.  In 1906, she patented a signal attachment for a life preserver that would make a person in distress visible from a distance.  In 1918, she patented a method for sealing jars of preserves.   In 1923, she patented a mechanism to automatically release the thread tension in a sewing machine.

She was also a writer and historian.  Her story "Pioneer days in North Dakota" was published in the 1923 North Dakota Historical Quarterly.  I wonder if she was inspired by her friendship with "Libbie" Custer who supplemented her widow's pension by writing books about life on the plains.  http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/elizabeth-bacon-custer/12030

The Shakespeare of the Netherlands

Joost Van Den Vondel, my maternal 7th great grandfather, was a 16th century poet and playwright who produced some of the greatest works of Dutch literature.  His allegorical plays drew from Christian themes and reflected his religious and political views.  He "holds the record for the longest tradition of annual performance in Europe." (Brill)  John Milton drew inspiration from Vondel's tragedy of Lucifer, introduced in 1654.  You can read the play HERE.   

Joost Van Den Vondel > Joost Van Den Vondel > Johannes Van Den Vondel (Wandell) > Jacob Wandell > Capt. Jacob Wandell > Miriam Olivia Wandell > Ada C. Hall > Horace C. Crofford > Virginia M. Crofford > Teresa Zaun Austin

NOTE: this link has not been verified. Working on it!

From the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia:  

"He is the greatest poet the Netherlands have produced, one who is distinguished in every form and who occupies a place among the best poets of all time."

As a legacy, Amsterdam's biggest park, the Vondelpark, bears his name, as well as his statue in the northern part of the park. The Dutch five guilder banknote bore Vondel's portrait from 1950 until its discontinuation in 1990.

This connection needs more research.  Ada Hall Crofford shared this family lore in her writings, but the dates don't make sense. 

Ranchers feud

The story is that my maternal great grandfather Horace Crofford spent a year in jail for murder.  There was a feud over grazing land between the sheep rancher (my great grandfather) and a cattle rancher.  Eventually, it was declared that my great grandfather acted in self defense and he was cleared.

Horace C. Crofford, 1891

I found several newspaper accounts of the incident:

HOT SPRINGS, July 27.—Saturday evening about 7 o'clock a tragedy occurred on Lame Johnny creek, six miles north of Buffalo Gap, in which John Taylor, a young ranchman was shot and instantly killed by Horace Crofford, ex-commissioner of Custer county, and an extensive sheep owner. The trouble arose between the parties over the possession of the range for Crofford's sheep. Crofford immediately gave himself up to the authorities at Buffalo Gap. He will waive examination and be bound over to the circuit court. Public sympathy seems to be with Crofford, who, it is claimed, did the killing In self defense. Crofford is in charge of the sheriff at Custer. Estherville Daily News, 1895

1.  The small town of Buffalo Gap.  2. the fertile land about six miles north of Buffalo Gap on Lame Johnny Creek.  I studied the maps of the area and best I can figure, this is the approximate site of the killing.  Area is at the southern end of the Black Hills National Forest, near Custer State Park.

I have not found documentation of the resolution of the case.