An Unexpected Find

One of my longest and fruitless on-going searches has been for information regarding my father's father.

The family story was that my grandmother, Pearl Ford, met and married Charles Budavich, an immigrant from Lithuania in 1926.  My father, Eugene, was born in November, and his brother Charles followed in 1927.  By 1930, Charles Budavich was gone.  Grandma had said he died young, possibly in a mining accident.

I found a Budavich family in Pennsylvania, and they originated in Lithuania, but all their members seem accounted for.  There is no Charles who disappeared to the West Coast and was never heard from again. Besides, the family immigrated in the 1880s, while Charles was (presumably) of Pearl's generation, too young to be their offspring born abroad.

The only record I could find that Charles existed is the record of his marriage to Grandma in the Washington State digital archives, where he is listed as "Charles K. Budavick."  The couple married in Tacoma, Washington on June 23, 1926--four-and-a-half months before my father was born.

I noticed when I reviewed the search results that records also showed a marriage for Pearl M. Ford that occurred in 1924.  I clicked on the linking, finding it amusing that there was someone of a similar name in the area at the time.  Apparently on July 21, 1924, Pearl M. Ford had married William H. Clark in Tacoma, Washington.  What made it odd was that one of the witnesses to this marriage had the same name as Grandma's mother: "Mrs. W. G. Ford."  So, maybe there was another "Pearl M. Ford" in Pierce county in the early 1920s, but one whose mother "Mrs. W. G. Ford?"  The other witness was "Mrs. Minnie Clark," undoubtedly William's mother, and it sounds crazy but as I read her name and imagined myself at the scene--a witness myself--felt that Minnie had not approved of this marriage at all and that she was protective of her son (turns out he was her youngest.)  Grandma Pearl married again less than two years later and as far as I know never mentioned this earlier marriage to her children at all.

I was hesitant to bring this information to my father--essentially telling him that Charles Budavich may not have been his father--but Dad seemed to be relieved, as if what I was telling him was something he had felt most of his life.  I would like to be able to tell him something more about this William Clark who may have been his father but a name like "William Clark" makes it easy to disappear.

 The Clark family left the state for California in the late 1920s.  I don't know if there was any further contact with Pearl but when I discovered that my father had started grade school in San Diego, I had to wonder if Pearl's travel to Southern California had been connected to the Clark family.

I am still puzzling this one out.

My Father's Story

My father recently sat down to write his memories from childhood.  These are his words:

The Beginning

by Eugene R. Rutland

I do not know when Gholson and Annie Ford moved with their family, Pearl, Delpha and Harry, from Oklahoma to Tacoma, Washington.  Gholson Ford was quite a bit older than Annie and was unable to work.  I do not know how or when he was injured.

Annie had a brother, Elmer Barnhart, who had a small fuel distribution business in Tacoma.  I suspect that hope of financial support from him was the basis for this migration.

In Tacoma they lived in the south end of town.  Mom (Pearl), their oldest child, dropped out of school at the age of sixteen, and went to work at Seiyers Lumber Mill in the Tide Flats area of Tacoma.

Osage Nation

This stone structure was the Osage Agency School in Pawhuska.

From the Osage Nation website:

The Osage, Ponca, Omaha, Kwapa (Quapaw), and Kansa Nations were the descendants of one great tribe of Indians whose first dwelling place was in the region of the Ohio and Wabash rivers. Soon they wandered westward, some going down the Mississippi and some ascending it.

The Omahas, which then included the Osage, Ponca, and Kansa group, ascended the Missouri river, but another separation took place when the Osage and Kansa families settled in the present territory of Missouri and Kansas.

The Osage were once called "Wah-zha-zhe" - the name of a great tribe. The older ancient Osage called themselves the Niukonska which translated to "Little Ones of the Middle Waters".

The Osage were often described as war-like due to the fact that they guarded their land with such ferocity. The ability to obtain firearms at an early date gave the Osage a major advantage in their conflicts with those who intruded upon their lands. The Osage occupied a strategic location between the tribes to the west and the advancing European-American frontier. They were able to control the trade between these tribes and the Europeans until the nineteenth

There were three divisions, the Big Hills, the Little Osages, and the Kaws. The Kaws, who the Osages once refused to acknowledge, drifted away and did not return for a long time. They spoke about the same dialect and could understand each other. The Kaws allotted their lands in 1902, and their people occupied the area northwest of the Osages in Oklahoma Territory.

The Osage were first recorded by Father Jacques Marquette in 1673. He placed them on the Osage River in present-day Vernon County, Missouri, where they were still established nearly 100 years later in 1759.

There is little known about the Osage from this time until the treaty at St. Louis in 1804. Here we find the explorers and French traders marrying into the Osage tribe. Almost from the beginning, trading with the Indians became a lucrative enterprise, for the white man and the spread of trade brought a large number of tribes into contact with the French, Spanish and English. Of whom all groups were trying to create allies among the Indians.

In 1853 the Osages composed seven large villages, besides many smaller ones, along the Neosho and Verdigris rivers, and held sway, at one time, over most of the territory which now composes the states of Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.

During the treaty of 1894, at St. Louis, it had become apparent that they had in many instances married French traders and explorers, from whom they took the names that distinguishes some of the prominent Osage families of today. Some of these names are: Lessart, Revard, Plomondan, Del Orier, Pappan, Tayrien, Mongranin, Soldani, DeNoya, Fronkier, and Moncravie.

Osage County, Oklahoma

From Wikipedia:

Most of the county is in the Osage Plains, and consists of open prairie. The eastern part of the county contains the Osage Hills, an extension of the Flint Hills in Kansas. Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is north of Pawhuska.

By the seventeenth century, the Osage had moved west of the Mississippi River and established themselves as a powerful nation in the areas of present-day Missouri and Arkansas between the Missouri and Red rivers, as well as extending to the west.  By 1760, they had increased their range to include the present Osage County.  Historically one of the most powerful Great Plains tribes, their numbers were reduced by infectious disease and warfare.In 1825, they ceded their claim to the land in present-day Oklahoma to the United States government in 1835.  In 1870, the Osage prepared for removal from Kansas, after having negotiated payment for their land. They purchased 1.57 million acres of their former territory from the Cherokee and, by owning it, had a stronger position in relation to the US government than did other tribes.

The Osage Agency was established at Deep Ford, later renamed as Pawhuska in 1872. It was named the county seat at statehood. The other chief settlements in the 1870s were Hominy and Fairfax, each of the three settled by a major Osage band.

In 1875 the land they purchased was designated the Osage Reservation and, because the tribe owned the land directly, they retained more control over their affairs than did tribes who only had rights to land held "in trust" by the United States government. This reservation became part of the Oklahoma Territory in 1890.  

In another important difference, as owners the Osage retained the communal mineral rights to their reservation lands. In October 1897, the Phoenix Oil Company drilled the first successful oil well on the Osage reservation and Oklahoma Territory. It was located along Butler Creek. In 1901, Phoenix Oil and Osage Oil companies combined their assets to form the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company (ITIO).

By 1920, the Osage were receiving lucrative revenues from royalties and were counted as the richest people in the country. During the 1920s, Osage County was the site of the infamous Osage Indian murders. Because of the great wealth being generated by oil, an estimated 60 tribal members were killed as whites tried to gain their headrights, royalties or land.  To try to protect the Osage, Congress passed a law in 1925 prohibiting the inheritance of headrights by persons who were not at least half Osage in ancestry.

He Comes

He comes!
And my wayward heart
Lifts on wings to greet him,
And sings a jubil song...
But he is not for me;
So I bid my heart
Be still! Sing not! 'Tis wrong.
I must bind it strong
With bands that will not part.
But my heart, poor thing,
It does not understand...
Right? Wrong?
It turns to him
As to the sun.It cries,
He is the one!
Love denies...
So my heart dies.
Oh, God, why?

--Merle Gilman Shoemaker
(1904-1986)

Three Generations - 1920

My grandmother (Merle Ketner Shoemaker) as a teenager posed with her mom (Ethel Payne Ketner) and grandma (Lydia Burgess Payne) about 1920. The house behind them--2718 North Mason--was built by Merle's father and she would live most of her life in that house. It was always known as "Grandma's House" to me.

"Grandma Payne" (seated) died in July of 1920. "Grandma Ketner" (Merle's mother, Ethel) is a childhood memory to me. By the time I knew her, her hair was snowy white. I recognize her smile here, though.

Ernest E. Shoemaker (1902 - 1968)

Ernest Ellsworth Shoemaker was born 16 March 1902 at Mt. Holly in Warren County near Xenia, Ohio.



Ernie Shoemaker at about sixteen years old.
16 mar 1902 ~ 18 mar 1968

Sometime after 1910, his mother left his father and moved the family to Washington State. He joined the Navy for a stint before becoming a carpenter.



I don't know how he met my grandma Merle and I suppose I should ask someone before all those who have heard the story are gone. I think it was while he was in the Navy and stationed on Puget Sound.

His is a quarter of my own DNA. I had the opportunity to know him into my teens. But I don't feel that I know much of who he was or what he felt as a person. He seemed mostly unhappy when I knew him but maybe that was just the effect of grandchildren pestering him. Lord knows most young people that meet me probably think I'm a crabby old bitch so I could see that possibility. He had a sly sense of humor. I hope he made Merle laugh more than cry.