Stanley Muller slide scanning project done

I have now scanned over 7000 of my dad's (Stanley Muller) slides from roughly 372 rolls of film. I believe I am done scanning his slides. When I started this project, I didn't know how many there were, but I guessed around 4000.

Along the way, I've had fun discovering lots of stuff I remember from my childhood, as well as a large number of slides, both old and "recent" that I had never seen before at all.

Probably the most pleasant surprise of my entire scanning experience: I found a set of slides that I had given up for lost. The subject was a 1959 automobile ferryboat trip from San Francisco to Oakland and back. I remember this trip, when I was 4, and I remember seeing slides from this trip when I was a very young child in the early 60s during slide shows that my dad would put on periodically.

Other jewels I have uncovered in recent days: A set of pictures from a trip my family made to Fairyland in Oakland in 1958. I was 3. I have pictures of me meeting Skipper Sedley and King Fuddle. Skipper Sedley had a TV show on KRON channel 4 in the Bay Area that I used to watch.

I am going to be scanning around 100 or so slides of the work portfolio of my dad's long-time employer, Cornelius Sampson. He inherited these slides when Sampson died. He didn't know what to do them, other than preserve them, and both he and Sampson's wife couldn't bear to throw them away.

What's here and what's coming

The framework and part of the repository for my genealogy research is the GEDCOM database maintained on Rootsweb.

Living people have been removed to protect privacy.

In addition to the GEDCOM data, there is a relatively small amount of textual information, including evidence from various censuses to support the basic facts, a few obituaries and wedding announcements.

Not included in the database, and generally not anywhere on the Internet at the moment are:

Biographical sketches

I've written one of Marcus M. Thompson, and posted it here. I have a dozen or so others in mind. These are meant to provide a minimal narrative of the basic facts of a person's life, to suggest research opportunities and provide an overview, and in Thompson's case, to attempt to correct somewhat misleading family stories.

Letters

I have a few letters. A transcription of one is posted here. Others are images only. My goal is to eventually post images and transcriptions of all of them.

Audio

My dad conducted audio interviews with several people. Eventually, both audio files and transcripts will be posted. Also, my grandfather recorded several events on wax 78s in the 1930s. There are also some other audio files, made by others.

Video

My grandfather also made some home movies -- in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. This is currently all on 16mm film. (He had some of it converted from early 9mm to 16mm!)

Photographs

My dad (Stanley Muller) took thousands of photographs (primarily 35mm b/w and color film) over 75 years, in all environments of lots of people and landscapes. He's upgraded to digital now, with my support. I have scanned most of them, but have a few more thousand to go. One of my goals is to organize them and put them on the Internet somewhere.

Ottoman Turkish Empire Settlement payments

As I was doing my California state taxes last night, I ran across an unbelievable question:

"Did you receive any income from Ottoman Turkish Empire Settlement payments?"

I was so tickled that I went and told my dad.

This actually is slightly relevant to our family, because my father's father's father, Georg Mueller (an ethnic German living in a German village in Georgia on the Black Sea), was inducted into the Russian Army in 1877-78 to fight ... none other than the Ottoman Empire (aka the Turkish Empire; aka 'The Sublime Ottoman State').

I playfully speculated that our family was deserving of such payments because the actions of the Ottoman Empire forced Russia to abandon its century-long agreement to let the German settlers in its territories retain their religion, culture and language, and not induct them into the army. This stressed out my great-grandfather and made him a little crazy, which in turn made my grandfather a little crazy, and my dad suffered from his craziness, and I suffered in the telling and retelling of it.

So, I probably deserve some kind of settlement.

To find out where to sign up for an Ottoman Empire settlement payment, I did some research.

It turns out that in 2005 a life insurance company was forced to pay some settlements from actions of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, in which they committed genocide against Armenians, Kurds and others. Last year (I suppose), the CA legislature voted to make such settlements exempt from taxes.

I guess I don't get a Ottoman Empire settlement payment.

Edith Gaylord Muller (1919-2003)

Written by her brother, William Luther Gaylord, Jr., October, 2003:

Edith Gaylord Muller, born in Berkeley, California in 1919 and a long-time resident of Mill Valley, Marin County, California, passed away Friday, Oct. 3 in the Marin Convalescent Hospital where she had been a patient for two weeks.

She was the daughter of the late William L. and Marion P. Gaylord, and spent her childhood in Berkeley, where her family home was destroyed in the Berkeley Fire of 1923, and in St. Helena, Napa County, where she attended elementary and high schools. She graduated from the University of California in 1940 with a degree in Art Instruction and was employed as an art teacher at Atascadero High School. After teaching assignments there and at Napa High School, she was employed by Jo Sinel, a prominent San Francisco designer. Later, she was associated with the Neil Sampson design studio when she met her future husband Stanley Muller, also a graphic designer. They worked together for many years, and were married for 56 years. Both were water-colorists in their spare time.

While raising three children at their Mill Valley home, she taught in the Marin County school system as a home teacher. She did some free-lance writing in recent years, describing the Berkeley Fire, and childhood shopping trips to the Emporium which were published in the Oakland Tribune and the S.F.Chronicle.

She is survived by her husband, Stanley Muller; a daughter, Carolyn Muller of Napa; two sons, Randal Muller of Roseville, his wife Roberta and daughter Halina; Bradley Muller of De Leon Springs, Florida, his partner Lois and children, Rima and Miles. She also leaves a sister, Alice Gaylord Taplin of St. Helena, and a brother, William Gaylord of Sacramento; two nieces and three nephews.

A memorial service will be held at a future time. The family would appreciate a remembrance to the National Cancer Institute, 6130 Executive Blvd. MSC8322, Bethesda, MD 20892-8332

Letter from M.M. Thompson to Orin Amsden, 1862

Fort Pike, La.

Nov. 30, 1862

Brother Amsden,

It is with pleasure that I seat myself down to write a few lines to you and tell you how I am getting along. I am well and enjoy myself first rate, and hope that you and your family are enjoying the same blessing. I have enjoyed very good health most of the time since I left home and I am in prety good working order at presant. I weigh 180 pounds. We are taking life prety easy at presant; we don't have much to do and we have very good quarters and enough to eat and drink but the water is poor, but we have coffee or tea twice a day. We have to drill four hours in a day and we have to go on guard once in three days--then we don't have to drill.

It is a healthy place here, and there has been but few sick since we came here. We get a good fresh breese of wind from the lake and it is a good place to catch fish but the worst trouble that we have had is we have been over run with mosketoes. They have been as thick as you ever saw flys around a peice of fresh meat, but the nights are so cool now that they don't trouble us but little now; but it is warm enough tonight so that they are buzzing around my ears while I am writing--but enough of this.

We have taking a good deal of property from the rebels since we have been here. We have a steam boat here the most of the time on purpose to go out on. We took a lot of lumber, five or six hundred thousand feet of the best that I ever saw and we have took over two hundred head of cattle and eight or ten horses and some hogs and a good many other artles and twelve prisnors and about two hundred contrabands have come to us for protection since we have been here. We have over a hundred here now and we have sent some to another fort near by. We have found enough for them to do; it saves us some hard work that we should had to have done if it had not been for the darkes. I had charge of about 25 of them over two months and keep them to work; that was all that I had to do. Most of them are pretty good to work. I have quit it and gone back into the Company to drill with them; I like that business better.

Ellis has been sick, but the last I heard from him he was on guard. Ezban has been prety well. They are at Fort Jackson, 80 miles from New Orleans, and I am 40 miles from New Orleans.

We went on board the steam boat last Wendsday. Two companys of us, F and G, and sixty Negroes, and went across the lake and went up to a brick yard to get a load of brick; and when we got there we posted a guard out in the woods on both sides of the water, and the darkes went to loading brick, and about three o'clock the guierrillas fired on our guards and wounded one of them in the foot. But the guard shot him dead and loaded his gun again before that he new he was wounded. Our guards killed two of them and wounded some. They were on the other side of the water and we throughed a few shells over into the woods and before we could get accrossed to them they fled. They don't like our big guns--they through shells to far for them. We had three of those guns on board and men to fire that was used to it, and have been in battle before. We finished loading our brick and put on some wood and went back to the fort; we see no more of them. We intend to make them another call soon. There was about 150 of them. We took two men that lived there; we surpose that they new all about it, and as near as we can learn that one of them sent for them to come and atack us, and the other gave the signal when to advance on our guards. This one keep a store; we took what few goods he had.

And now I will give you a little scetch of our voige across the water to Ship Island. We left Boston Feb. 21 for Fortress Monroe. We arrived at the fort the 24 about noon. The 25 we left the fort about noon. We saild very well untill the night of the 26 the wind began to blow, and when we went around hatteras we came very near being recked. The morning of the 27 the waves run very high, but at night the wind went down, and we saild on untill the morning of the 28 about 9 o'clock we run on to a sand bar (this was off Cape Fear).

We fired a gun and was answered by a rebel steamer, and soon we see two steam boats and they were rebel boats, but soon we saw another boat that proved to be one of our boats. She came to assist us. She took on board three companys and we throughed overboard a number of thousands dollars worth of property; then the steam boat hitched on to our boat, but we could not start, but when the sun was about an hour high, the wind began to blow, and the ship began to rock, and we started and run about ten miles and anchored, but our ship leaked very bad in the fore part of her and we had a hole stove into her when we run on to the sand bar, they drop the anchor down before the boat had stop, and she run onto it and stove a large hole in her, and we had to pump and bail water for two hundred miles.

March 1st we sailed for Fort Royal; we arrived there the 2nd about 4 o'clock. We anchored and layed there until morning the 3rd; then we went to Seebrook landing where we stayed one week and they rigd up the boat. And the 10th we went on board the ship and saild--we went about 80 rods when the chain broke to the wheel so that they could not steer the ship, so we run into the mud and did not get started again until the 12th. Then we sailed for Fort Royal. We went down near there and anchored and loaded again. We had to on load our ship before we could get out of the mud. The other boat carried it down to where we anchored, and while we were loading on our freight again, some of the men meet the captain of the boat coming up from magisene, and they went and looked, and he had bored a hole into it, and we surpoze that he ment to blow us up but he (was) taken and a guard with loaded guns waited upon him on to another ship and they carried him to Ship Island. I believe he was a rebel and meant to destroy us if he could and save himself. He run a number of hundred miles out of the way, and when we were on that sand bar we were out of the way, and rebels close by us.

The 13th we saild and the weather was pleasant, and we saild at the rate of 14 nots an hour. The 14 we overtook a gun boat; she came up to us and wanted to no where we were bound. We told her to Ship Island; she said Ship Island also. The 15th it was pleasant but the waves run high; we were off the coast of floriday. There was an appearance of a gale but at night the wind went down. The 16th it was pleasant and the see was smooth, and about 3 o'clock we haild a steamer. We fired two guns but she fled; we took her to be a rebel boat. The 17th it was pleasant and we are sailing sloly towards Ship Island. We past Kee West this afternoon.

The 18th it is pleasant and the wind is fair, and the sails are spread, and we was under good headway. The 19th it was pleasant and we was traviling fast. One man died last night and was lored into the sea today, and at night we had heavy thunder showers and it was very warm. The 20th it was pleasant, and we reached Ship Island, but did not land. We tried, but could not. The 21st we are still on the ship and moveing, and we have run into two or three brigs and smashed them up prety bad. The wind blowed so hard that we could not keep from running into them.

22nd it is rather chily and the wind blew hard. 23rd it was milder and quite pleasant in the midle of the day. The 24 it was quite warm and pleasant. The 25 it was pleasant and the see was smooth. We landed on the Island that day and pitched out tents. April the 5th there was five men drowned; they were in a bathing. The 11th in the night there was a heavy thunder shower and the lightning struck the guard tent and killed three men. It was the heaviest shower that I ever witness, and the wind blowed so hard that we had to hold our tent up and prop it up with our guns, but in spite of all we could do blew almost down, and we got prety wet, and our guns, and things look hard in the morning.

April 15th we went on board the Mississippi again, the 20 rigt and 26 rigt and the battery of Mass. Vol.; there was about 25 hundred of us in all and were thicker than three in a bed. The 16th we saild about 10 o'clock in the evening and saild all night; it was pleasant weather but we were crouded. The 17th it was very warm and we arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi river and anchored. The 18th we saild up the river within about 20 miles of Fort Jackson and anchored, and the mortar boats began to shell the Forts. There was two Forts, one on each side of the river.

The 19th it was pleasant and warm and we could hear them fire at the Fort all day and night. To the 20th it was cloudy and rained about two hours and then it was cooler, and we could hear them firing still. The 21st it was pleasant but cool and they were still a fireing. 22 about noon we started up the river nearer the Fort and at night we could see shells a flying.

The 23 it was pleasant and they were throughing shells. They had got the chain out of the way. There was a chain run across the river so that no boat could go up to the Forts. There were four scooners placed at equil distances apart across the river and this chain; one end of it was fastened on one side of the river and run over one of the boats and under the other and so on to the other side, and then back in the same way, only over the boat that it went under, and under the one that it went over, and that made it strong. They had to work some time to on hitch it, but our men hapened to find a man that told them how it was hitched so they made out to get it out of the way.

The 24 they commenced in good earnest about 2 o'clock in the morning we could see from 30 to 40 shells at once a flying in the air, and some of the gun boats run by the Forts, and got by some of the rebel gun boats, and about 9 o'clock we run down the river 10 miles; at 5 o'clock saild down the river across the sand bar into the ocean and anchord.

The 25 we saild around into the bay of Ronde east of the Forts and anchord. Two rebels came on board that night; our men caut them. The 26 it was pleasant and the 26 rigt of Mass. Vol. landed that day in order to go down to the Forts. The 27 it was pleasant and two more ships came in that day with about five hundred soldiers.

The 28th at night we left the Mississippi ship and went on to a small steamer and started to land but did not for we had news that the stars and stripes were raised over both Forts. The 29th we went back and went on board the Mississippi and saild back to the mouth of the river, and saild up the river within 20 miles of the Forts and anchord at 12 o'clock the morning of the 30 we saild up the river. We got to the Forts at 5 o'clock; at 7 o'clock we started again and saild up about five miles and anchord untill one o'clock in the morning.

May the first we saild for New Orleans; we arrived there at the warf at 10 o'clock; we landed about 5 o'clock and marched up to the custom house. We did not get there untill dark. There was a croud of people on both sides of the streets but we marched along as cool as we could although it was very warm. Some of them insulted us, but we keep our eyes open and march on, and when we got to the custom house we went in and put up for the night. Our rigt and 6 companies of another rigt was all that landed that night. We posted a strong guard around the house and laid ourselves down to rest.

In the morning, our co. and 7 others were put on guard around the street about the custom house. We had as much as we could attend to to keep the crowd back. We had to charge baonits on them a number of times to keep them back. This was the 2 of May, and the 3rd I went to the Evens house with 20 others to guard it; they took it for a hospital. One man died that day. At night about 11 o'clock one of the 9 conn. rigt was stabed and brought to the hospital. He was stabed in the bowels. He went in to a drinking saloon and got tight and got in to a quarril and got stabed. He was alone but the guard heard the row and went and found him. I saw the docter dress the wound but the poor man was so drunk that he did not reallise much of anything and the poor man died the next day at 2 o'clock. This was the 4; all was quiet in the city, and at night this man's body was carried to be burried.

The 5 there was some of the rigt went on board the ship to go up the river, but there sick was left here. All was quiet and some of the men had opend there stores. The 6th all was quiet and buisness was more lively, and the stores was opening, and the teams was at work. The 7th we had a fine shower; I went down to the mint. All was quiet, and buisness more livly. The 8 some of the rigts started up the river; they left there sick here. The 9 our provost guard discovered that all was not right about the French Consolate, so they posted a guard around it, and found two million of dollars that belong to the United States. This was the 10, and at night a guard was posted around the city bank, and the 11 thy removed a lot of specia to the custom house. All was quiet that day and we were enjoying ourselves first rate.

We stayed in the city untill Aug. 19; then we went to Fort Pike where we are still and I don't no how long we shall be here. It is the healthyest place that we have been in. You must excuse all the mistakes and poor speeling. I often think of home and my dear children and friends that I have left, and wish that I could see them all, but I cannot at presant, if ever; but it is a great consolation to me that I can pray for them while absent from them. Oh Orrin, if I never more meet you on earth, will you try to meet me in heaven? I mean to try and live so that it may be well with me where ever I am. I am in hopes that this war will end soon, for I had rather be at home to work; but I am makeing more money here, and living easier than I should at home. But I must close, so goodby for this time. Write as soon as you get this; my love to you and your family and all enquiring friends. This is from your friend and well-wisher,

M. M. Thompson

A Brief Sketch of the Life of M. M. Thompson

Preface

I first became aware of the Civil War letter written by my great-great-grandfather M. M. Thompson in 1964 when my mother, Edith (Gaylord) Muller, did a pen-and-ink watercolor of a map of the eastern United States tracing Grandfather Thompson’s ocean voyage from Boston to New Orleans in 1862 aboard the steam-powered paddle-wheel gun boat USS Mississippi.

Grandfather Thompson’s vivid and eloquent description of the Battle of New Orleans and daily life in the army was riveting, but ever since then I have wondered what his first name was, and who “Brother Amsden” might have been. Later, I wanted to know how his daughter, my great-grandmother Alice, came to be adopted by the Kendalls, and who Grandmother Thompson might be.

In 1999, I began discovering answers to these questions when I started doing genealogy research on the Internet. This brief sketch is one of the products of that research. I hope it adds some background to the amazing wartime letter that Grandfather Thompson took the time and effort to write.

I wish to thank and acknowledge my mother for doing the work that provided the initial stimulus for this work. I also wish to thank and acknowledge her brother, William Gaylord, for his help, encouragement, humor, suggestions, patience and endurance under the non-stop barrage of my questions.

Randy Muller, August 19, 2005

MARCUS MORTON THOMPSON was born on May 3, 1825 in Pelham, a small farming community in western Massachusetts.

Pelham (population about 900 at this time) was originally settled by a group of Scottish/Northern Irish Presbyterian families in 1738, and Marcus Thompson's great-great grandfather James Thompson was among this group, coming originally from Ulster, Northern Ireland. These families had emigrated to Boston in 1718 and after 20 years, founded Pelham.

Marcus Thompson's brother, Merrick Monroe Thompson, was born December 21, 1826. His sister, Rachel Caroline Thompson, was born April 18, 1829. Merrick died at the age of 3 1/2, 4 months after Rachel was born.

During Marcus' childhood in the 1820s, the minister of the Presbyterian church converted to Congregationalism, and the congregation followed, formally reorganizing the church in 1837 as the Evangelical Congregational Church. A Calvinist (Presbyterian) Church organized in protest against this change flourished from 1822 until 1827. These events probably had a significant impact on the family Marcus grew up in.

It is thought that Marcus' father Isaac died sometime around 1829, when Marcus was about 4. After this, the Thompson family relocated to the adjacent town of Prescott, which was originally part of Pelham. It seems likely that Marcus' mother Mercia (Hoar) Thompson took her remaining children to live with one of her relatives in Prescott. There were 4 Hoar households in Prescott at this time.

After about 10 years, Marcus Thompson's mother died in Prescott, leaving 14 year-old Marcus and 10 year-old Rachel orphans. They probably continued living with the same relatives or family friends, and Marcus was undoubtedly working as a farmhand by this time.

It is probably in Prescott that Marcus met his future wife, Charity Vaughan. Charity was born in nearby New Salem about 1830, part of a large clan of Vaughans, which were spread throughout several neighboring towns. There were 7 Vaughan households in Prescott by 1840, and she was either living with one of her aunts and uncles there or visited several of them regularly. They might even have known each other as children growing up. Marcus and Charity were 5th cousins.

Marcus and Charity were married in 1846 in New Salem, where Charity was born and where her parents still lived. By 1850, they had two children, Clara (possibly named after Charity's deceased mother) and Mercy (named after Marcus' deceased mother), and were living with one of Charity's cousins in Prescott. Charity's cousin Ebenezer worked as a carpenter, and Marcus worked as a farmer, farming the small plot of land they were living on. One of Ebenezer's 9-year-old children may have been named after Marcus. Ebenezer, his wife Lezette and Charity were all first cousins.

Charity had ten brothers and sisters, among them a half-sister Clarissa who was 10 years older, and Laura, who was about a year younger. Clarissa had married Ellis P. Amsden in 1837, and in 1850 they lived in Petersham (another nearby town), and had 6 children, including Jacob Ezban Amsden, born in 1842. Charity's sister Laura was also living in this household. 4 lots down the road, 22 year-old Orin Amsden is living with the family of his mother's first cousin. Orin's and Ellis' mothers were sisters. Orin and Laura married in November of 1850. Orin, Ellis and Marcus were brothers-in-law, having married 3 sisters.

Marcus and Charity had two more children, Alice Evelyn (our ancestor, born in 1854) and Cora Estelle (born in 1856). Sometime after 1856 and before 1860, Charity died, possibly as a result of complications during or after the birth of Cora. Marcus, as was customary, "put out" his children. It was common practice at this time for a widower to put all his children up for adoption, and to remarry and start a new family.

Alice was adopted by Henry and Cordelia (Buell) Kendall and was living with them in 1860. The other children were adopted by other families nearby.

In November 1860, Lincoln was elected President on an Abolitionist platform. Less than a month later, 7 Southern states seceded over a period of 40 days, launching the Confederacy.

In the North, fervor for preserving the Union and abolishing slavery grew, and reached a fever pitch in western Massachusetts by late 1861. General Benjamin Butler was actively recruiting for forces to open up a major new front in the war: The Mississippi River campaign.

Marcus, 36, with no immediate family, decided to respond to the call, and enlisted on November 5, 1861 into the Massachusetts 31st Volunteer Infantry. Ellis Amsden, 44, Marcus' brother-in-law, and his son, Ezban, 19, joined the same regiment on November 19, leaving their family of 7 behind. Ellis and Ezban mustered the very next day. Marcus mustered on February 19, 1862 and the account in the letter to his brother-in-law Orin Amsden begins on February 21.

Ellis Amsden died of disease on September 25, 1863, in Baton Rouge.

Marcus Morton Thompson died of disease on October 21st, 1863, in New Orleans.

Jacob Ezban Amsden re-enlisted on February 14, 1864. He was wounded in the battle of Yellow Bayou on May 18, 1864, and died of his wounds on June 3, 1864, in Baton Rouge.

The Writings of Edith Gaylord Muller

In the late 1980s through the early 2000s , my mother, Edith Gaylord Muller (1919-2003) wrote a series of articles for various purposes, including publishing reminiscences in the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, and creating a book for my daughter Halina. She took a writing class at the college of Marin to improve her skills and marketability.

She published one copy of the book for Halina in two installments, in 1995 and 1996. More installments were clearly intended. but never gathered together with the line art she did to illustrate the book. It is obvious to me that the memory problems which plagued her later in her life (from 1997 onward) were already at work, affecting the second installment in 1996.

As far as I know, most of the articles are factual reporting of events and people that she remembered. There are several poems, at least one of which is through her own eyes as a child. I have not found any fiction.

I believe that most, if not all, of the articles were written on several personal computers. The earliest was probably a CPM machine running WordStar, which my dad had gotten from his sister June Bogard. Later my mom migrated (with the assistance of my father Stanley) to Windows 3.1 (still using WordStar) and finally Windows 98 (now using MS Word).

In January, 2007, I decided to look for these files on the long unused computer. I found them, and to my surprise, there were many more than I expected, and almost all of them have answered genealogical and historical questions that I have been regretting not asking my mom before she died.

I have since copied the files to multiple, more modern computers, and have worked to convert them from WordStar format into MS Word. It's not hard, just tedious.

It was my desire to publish them immediately, so I began this blog to do so.

It was not until after she died that I began to grasp how talented my mother was. I just took it for granted.

This is for you, mom, and thanks for answering some questions that I didn't possess the wit to ask you when you were alive.