This past week, I had family visiting from Ohio. It’s always so much fun seeing things through other people’s perspectives. Especially if what you are looking at is your own hometown. I’ve lived in St. Mary’s County, Maryland my whole life. Sometimes it feels like I’ve become numb to some of the sights around me.
Solomons Island, Maryland
Even some of the more beautiful places in the county had become boring to me. They have added a lot more things to do around the more popular sights over the last few years. One of the coolest things I can definitely say about our county is that it is not short of learning moments. We have a lot of museums to keep a tourist busy for weeks, let alone the few days that we had to show my family around.
Solomons Island, Maryland
We tried to do as much as we could in the morning because Southern Maryland is the middle of a heat wave! It turns out we are having a long streak of 100 degree days here and it was dangerously hot outside. That didn’t stop us though, we pushed through and saw some great things. The first day we went to go see the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland. They have plenty of historic boats and artifacts having to do with marine life around Southern Maryland.
Patuxent River, Maryland
The second day we visited the brand new Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. This museum has actually been around longer than I have. They just moved into their brand new location though and it is gorgeous! One of my favorite highlights of the museum is the Cupola taken from the Cedar Point Lighthouse. The locals are all familiar with that lighthouse because it was offshore for a long time. The water ended up claiming the house, but they brought the cupola to the museum where it has been ever since. They also have plenty of aircraft to see. My father has been an aircraft mechanic since he was 20 years old and so this is a big deal to my family.
Historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland
We spent the third day at Historic St. Mary’s City. Not only is it only a few minutes from my house but it is one of my favorite places around St. Mary’s County. Nestled right next to St. Mary’s College, this historic landmark has plenty of colonial building recreated. St. Mary’s City was America’s first capital city and they even have a recreated state house that you can walk through. It is also an active archaeological dig site, so there is always more being found and created here.
The Dove, St. Mary’s City, Maryland
I’ve always loved to visit on The Dove. I don’t know if I have any Mayflower or Jamestown ancestors, but I’ve always wanted a Dove ancestor the most. I know that I don’t because my family isn’t from here but boy would it have been cool.
Do you have cool landmarks in your town that you have avoided?
So far, I can count on one hand what I already know about “La Moss”. In the documents I have, the name is always written as La Moss. Her birthday is listed in Llewellyn’s diary as February 27th. It looks like her surname in that same birthday entry is Menner.
Where do we start?
I have to start with figuring out where in Llewellyn’s timeline I am working. Llewellyn’s diary covers the years 1923-1925. At that time, she was living at home with her parents. She was working in an insurance office and teaching at her church. She got married in June of 1926. La Moss appears often in the diary. After looking at the diary again, I noticed La Moss only appears in the first year. That leads me to believe it’s possible she wasn’t even at the wedding. I have a guest book and gift list. I can’t skip them because this is the biggest list of Llewellyn’s friends and associates I have to work from.
I made an extra workbook in my Research Log to start. In that workbook, I went ahead and re-transcribed the guest list and the gift list. I marked the family members, whoever signed the gift list, and whoever signed the guest list. If you’d like to follow along and see the file, I uploaded it to my Google Drive.
The Excel file I created to show the family, guests, and gifts.
I turned off the family members for the screenshot above. That made the list visible in one screen, without scrolling. This makes it easier for me to see who the possibile candidates are. I can also rule out a couple of people just based on Llewellyn’s diary entries.
Who am I ruling out and why?
Mrs. Margaret Glazier & Ruth: Ruth appears often in Llewellyn’s diary. She’s been written about the same days as La Moss at times.
Willa Steinhoff – Willa is in the diary more often than La Moss is. Willa and La Moss have been in the same entry together.
Anna Pusch – Anna was one of Llewellyn’s co-workers. She gets her own nickname in the diary, Puschie.
What’s Next?
I already have a ton of leads that I’m looking into. I find it curious that there is mention of La Moss only until August of 1923. Before that she appeared often. After La Moss drops off the diary, a Harold Menner shows up often and gives Llewellyn and her friends rides home. I will be looking into that next time!
I will save you from hearing about how great of a record keeper my Great-Grandma was. Obviously Treasure Chest Thursday would not have been the same without her, but we will just move straight to the point of this post. Newspaper articles! (Copyright Notice: I was given permission by The Progress to post these clippings. Thank you! theprogressnj.com)
Like any proud mother, my great grandma saved newspaper clippings of her only child’s achievements. Lucky for me, she not only saved these articles but in a large group of them, she wrote the paper’s name, The Progress, and the date of publication. I am still scanning in some so I thought putting these articles about Grandpa’s time with the North Caldwell Police Department would be a cool post.
“High in Course,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), 21 Nov 1958
Here is an article about some of his training shortly after he joined the police department. Being a skilled marksman was a family trait it seems. When my father joined the Marine Corps, he also was one of the top shots. A few weeks ago, on my private Facebook page, I posted a scan of one of Grandpa’s old report cards from 1947-48. He was an okay student but for the year of that report card, he got straight A’s in his Safety class.
“New Desk,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), 18 May 1967
Even though they call him Danny in the caption, he did indeed build the desk at the police station that consolidated all the different systems. When I would talk to Grandpa about his earlier years, his time as police chief was one of his favorite topics. One of his favorite stories was about this desk. He thought it was such a waste of resources that they all couldn’t talk to each other.
This actually reminds me of the Christmas that he spent with us in 2011. We had an old tree topper star that didn’t work anymore. My Mom was hesitant about throwing it out because it was the one we used for many years. Well, Grandpa asked if he could give it a shot. Sure enough, he took the thing apart and found the problem. He knew exactly how to fix it. It’s no surprise to me now that so many of his grandchildren are gadget geeks. It’s in our blood from the looks of it!
“Two Promoted,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), 1967
In 1967, the department promoted Grandpa from Sergeant to Lieutenant. It’s so amazing some of the details you can get from articles like this. From the article I learned that Grandpa also volunteered with the Fire Department. It tells you that his parents lived on Park Avenue. I know from the records that they lived there for almost 60 years. It even tells you that he had a wife, Florence, and four children (Hi Dad! You made the paper!).
It’s really great to have so many of these articles that help me to verify not just his occupation, but some of the other details surrounding his life. It is only a glimpse though. Throughout all the newspaper clippings, we have these achievements and good news announcements. The one article missing from Great-Grandma’s collection is any mention of Stevie and his tragic car accident. That one I’ll have to search out myself. I understand 100% the reason for its absence among all the other articles. As the family historian, I’m going to have to search out the sadder family events in addition to the happier times.
“Looking Good,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), Aug 1972Speaking of happier times, in 1972 “dashing Captain Bill Moore” made the papers once again for of all things, his mustache.
“Moore Is Acting Chief; Speller Resigns,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), 3 Jan 1976
In 1976, the Chief of Police resigned from his position. They named Grandpa as acting Chief and he kept the position until his retirement. This article gives us some great dates for his career as a police officer. He joined the force in 1958, promoted to sergeant in 1962, promoted to lieutenant in 1967, and then to captain in 1971.
As a genealogist I look at these years when he is having a great career and I think about what was going on in his family. Grandpa and Grandma were married in 1951, and he joined the force in 1958. They had four children by that time. Stevie would be born in 1959. By the time he was named acting chief in January of 1976, he had lost a child, gained five grandchildren, been divorced and re-married, gained three stepchildren, and was essentially estranged from his children.
“Safety Award Winners,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), 13 Oct 1977
In 1977, many local officials were given safety awards. That means thirty years after receiving straight A’s in a secondary school safety class, Grandpa proved he still considered safety a top priority.
“Honoring Bill Moore,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), 26 Aug 1983
Finally we make it to 1983 when he retired from the police force. Picture above with his second wife, Jackie, you will see they gave him a gold pocket watch. The thing is, Grandpa was an antiques dealer and yes I have the newspaper article to prove it!
“Off-duty time has historical flavor,” The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), 24 Apr 1980
Every item he came across would be analyzed and valued monetarily, and if it was of some value then it would be sold. There are very few valuables that weren’t sold or traded. In the article, he talks about leaving space in the basement for historical furniture. I definitely remember that he always had historical furniture in his house. I also remember that none of it was heirloom furniture from our family. The only things that weren’t sold were these mementos from the police department and the documents that his mother had in her house. There are so many things in his life that he had no attachment to, but those mementos from the police department, he kept.
This pocket watch is the only “valuable” item from Grandpa’s past besides Llewellyn’s bits and pieces. That isn’t an insult to him, I am just saying that you can tell what he really valued by the items that were kept. I never expected to inherit the porcelain tea set listed in Llewellyn’s gift registry. It is interesting to see how Llewellyn and her son differed on the value they placed on objects from the past. From the article where he talked about antiques, you get the sense that he took a great interest in history. From his actions, it seems to me that he saw the profit in the objects from history. I know it might sound like I’m insulting him. I’m really not. Our family just had to learn that he valued these items differently than we did.
I love this badge, it is my absolute favorite keepsake. I couldn’t explain it if I had to. It kind of sums him up perfectly by the end of his life. A little battered and bruised, but still strong and proud.
Source List:
Llewellyn’s Boxes, privately held by Kathleen Moore, [address for private use,] Lexington Park, Maryland, 2005. This collection originally compiled by Llewellyn Thorward-Moore. After her death they resided with her son until 2005, when they passed to Kathleen Moore, his grand-daughter.
!["Looking Good," The Progress (Caldwell, New Jersey), Aug 1972; Llewellyn's Boxes, privately held by Kathleen Moore, [address for private use,] Lexington Park, Maryland, 2005. This collection originally compiled by Llewellyn Thorward-Moore. After her death they resided with her son until 2005, when they passed to Kathleen Moore, his grand-daughter.](https://i0.wp.com/www.moore-mays.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MooreWilliamThorward_1972_NewspaperArticle.jpg)
