Some Far-Flung Tapply Cousins

As some of you know, our great grandfather Charles Tapply had six siblings. This story is about his younger brother George and his great-granddaughter Phillippa or "Pip".  George settled in Kent and raised his children there. His grandson, Peter, would have been my mother's second cousin. Pip was my third cousin. Pip Tapply married Henry Lord Powlett the 8th Baron of Bolton.

The Baron of Bolton is the direct descendant of Richard LeScrope who built a castle over 600 years ago in Wensley, North Yorkshire. Imagine being the member of a family who has lived on the same plot of land for over 600 years! There is an extensive bit of land with a large home, gardens, and the remains of the castle.

Bolton castle

Pip Tapply found herself with a full-time job. She and her husband had three boys. The family still lives in Bolton Hall. The castle has long since become unlivable. However, as with Lord and Lady Carnavon at Highclere (think Downton Abbey) the Orde-Powletts have had to scramble to make the property pay for itself. There are reenactments, castle tours, a gift shop, vacation rentals and all manor of income-producing ventures. You can read more about that here.

Bolton Hall

In my ramblings on the internet for obituaries, I ran across an obituary. First, hers then his.

Pippa and Henry (Lord and Lady Bolton)

Here is the obit I found in a Yorkshire paper. It gives you some feel for the kind of person she was:

"A DALES woman deeply ingrained in the local community has died following a short illness.

Philippa Anne Orde-Powlett, 64, better known as Lady Bolton, or simply Pip, from Wensley, near Leyburn, was a keen gardener and avid supporter of events in the local area, including the Dales Festival of Food and Drink.

Lord and Lady Bolton regularly opened their gardens at Bolton Hall in Wensley to the public, although this year’s opening has been cancelled.

Mrs Orde-Powlett had also been a supporter of tramp Mel Bird who was a fixture of Leyburn Market Place in the early 2000s - prompting headlines about the unlikely alliance between the lady and the tramp - before Mr Bird’s actions caused him to fall out of favour with Lady Bolton.

She was an organiser of the Wensley Flower Show at Holy Trinity Church Wensley - a two-day festival featuring displays of flowers that represent many diverse musical tastes and has included the opera La Boheme, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Elvis themed displays.

Gerald Hodgson, an organiser of the Dales Festival of Food and Drink, said he was deeply shocked to hear of the death of Lady Bolton, who had been a supporter of the event from its early days.

He said: “Each year at the festival she hosted a lunch for the speakers and other guests. I know all our guests really appreciated the warm and friendly way she looked after them.

“She was a keen supporter of the festival and was a well known, friendly member of the local community. My deep condolences go to her family.”

Lady Bolton was a much loved wife, mother and grandmother. A private family cremation service will be followed by a service of celebration and thanksgiving for her life at Holy Trinity Church Wensley, on Thursday, May 26 at 2pm."

Looking a little further, I found his obituary as well from 2023.

A celebration and thanksgiving for the life of Harry Algar Nigel Orde-Powlett, 8th Baron Bolton, was held last Friday following his death from cancer at the age of 69.

The service was held near his beloved home, the Bolton Estate in Wensleydale, at Holy Trinity Church, Wensley. Lord Bolton leaves three sons, eight grandchildren and his second wife Valerie. 

He was renowned as a humanitarian and determined custodian and environmentalist, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds in his lifetime for charity and setting up British Direct Aid, which delivered vital aid to Bosnia during the war in the former Yugoslavia, and later to Rwanda.

His eldest son Tom told the congregation: “Dad was fearless and tough, physically and mentally and an adventurer at heart. He was always up early, even in his last few days, he was up and dressed in good time.

“He was very determined and if he wanted to do something nothing would deter him. He cared passionately about the estate and always strived for the highest standards of stewardship. He achieved this with distinction, leaving the estate in better condition environmentally, socially and economically than when he inherited it.”

In his youth he was a daredevil amateur jump jockey and accident-prone amateur pilot, but he became an energetic champion of the family estate in North Yorkshire, winning the largest ever repair grant paid by English Heritage towards the restoration of the medieval family seat, Bolton Castle, as well as a Site of Special Scientific Interest award for work to increase the wildlife value of the estate.

He was a keen huntsman, once swimming across the River Ure after a fox and contracting hypothermia. In 1977 he married Philippa.

Tom added: “In so doing he was blessed with the greatest good fortune, she was the rock at his side and with modesty and quiet determination they achieved so much together.” Philippa died from cancer in 2016. The couple had three sons, Thomas, Benjamin and Nicholas.

During the war in the Balkans the couple started collecting aid and he took it over in a horse box.

There the 8th Baron found warehouses full of supplies but not nearly enough people transporting it to where it was needed so he bought six army Bedford trucks and painted them white, recruiting volunteers to deliver the aid.

At one point they helped rescue 200 Bosnian Muslims, mostly women and children, who had walked 14 miles to escape, with five dying on the way from hyperthermia and others killed by snipers. “That was the beginning of his charity British Direct Aid which grew to a fleet of 51 trucks over a couple of years and they succeeded in getting aid to many people in need, often in desperately harsh conditions,” added Tom.

During the service a tribute was read by his Bosnian translator Ismilda Mallinder, who said without Harry she would not be here today.

“You were a hero to us all, a driving force, the world has lost a very special soul,” she added.

Harry Orde-Powlett became 8th Baron Bolton in 2001 following the death of his father and dedicated much of his time to improving and preserving the estate.

One of his most ambitious efforts to raise money for charity was a solo challenge, abseiling down three of London’s tallest buildings, The Shard, Gherkin and Walkie Talkie, raising £50,000. He married Valerie in 2019.

His son Tom, who has four children, becomes 9th Baron Bolton."

Lord Bolton had rather an exciting life.

The three boys have done well. As you read in the obit, Tom is now the 9th Baron Bolton. He has four children and currently manages the estate. His brother Ben is a retired jockey and has several children. Nicholas runs a company which retrains retired police and military for new careers. 

So if you ever find yourself in Yorkshire....

More Photos from the Smith Branch

 Cousin Andy Cracknell sent along some more photos from the Smith side of the family.

George Smith

Another great photo of my great grandfather George Smith was a pleasant surprise. A much younger photo which gives a real feel for him. Not smiling perhaps, but I see humor in the eyes.

Estill at work

Estill at work at GM Parks Steam and Gas fittings in Fitchburg. It later became Parks-Cramer.

Estill

We think this is Estill as a young man. Just FYI the name Estill goes way back in Letitia's Indiana family. It was originally a surname.

And now the biggest surprise for me. An actual picture of Letitia herself.

Letitia 

Not sure what's wrong with her eye in this picture. Maybe just some clumsy photo editing by an earlier source.

Letitia and Marion

And here she is again with her granddaughter Marion. The biggest surprise for me was NOT the photo of her. Look again.

the Morris chair

I was aware that this Morris chair that was passed along to me was a family piece. I just didn't know its origin. It's been recovered and refinished a few times, but it is a sturdy survivor.

Cora and Harry

Andy knew this was Cora Elizabeth, but not who the child was. I feel reasonably certain this is Harry, my grandfather. Check out the lounge and the wallpaper.

So nice to have these additional family photos.

Happy Life...the Strange Story of Dr. Samuel Milton Archer

 

Dr. Samuel Milton Archer

I knew that Dr. Archer had a very interesting life, but who knew HOW interesting. Dr. Archer was the younger brother of my 3x great grandmother Margaret Archer. He was an early settler in the Salinas Valley in California.  He was married 4 times, twice to the same woman and had a total of 10 children. He became the head of the Monterey County Hospital and a pioneer in the treatment of the ailment once called "dropsy" but now known as edema. 

Samuel grew up in Owen County, Indiana the son of James Milton Archer and Margaret Dunn. Margaret was a member of the pioneer Dunn family who settled the Indiana territory. He was the seventh of ten children.

In 1861 he enrolled as a drummer in the 14 regiment of the Indiana Volunteers and went off to the Civil War. This is where his life takes a fortunate turn. I recently found a feature article written in 2014 by Jim Albanese of the Salinas Californian. Here's how he tells the story:

"But he showed such promise treating wounds and setting bones the Union army permitted him to be discharged from his drumsticks to pursue a medical education" How remarkable!

Samuel got that education and then reenrolled in the 133 Indiana Volunteer Infantry as an assistant surgeon.  That was 1864. Sometime during that period he married his first wife Alma Miranda Lee. Now Dr. Archer served out the remainder of the war and then went for further training in New York. He divorced Alma in 1866.

He married again and divorced pretty quickly from Sarah Maynard. At that point he decided to sign up as a ship's surgeon. Life at sea did not suit him, but luckily he came to that conclusion in San Francisco. 

He was offered the hospital position in 1869, which brought him to Salinas and into contact with a sixteen-year-old Luisa Robinson. Albanese describes her as a spitfire. No doubt considering what followed. They soon had two daughters. I'll let Albanese's version of events tell what followed.

"Archer's job kept him away from home, and Luisa didn't like that. Some of his patients were women and Luisa liked that less.

She accused her husband of all manner of infidelity in front of company. Neighbor Ramona Valenzuela recalled the particularly nasty language Luisa used to berate Archer and how on one visit to the Archer place she found the doctor bleeding from a blow to the head with a candlestick......It all came to a head in November of 1874 when Luisa whacked Archer smack-dab in the forehead with a frying pan."

Remember that in 1874 this would have been a cast iron frying pan. Ouch!

After Dr. Archer recovered from his concussion, he filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized in 1876. By now they had four daughters. 

BUT the story doesn't end there. In May of 1882 Samuel and Luisa got remarried. They went on to have 5 more children. Things seem to have been calmer from this time on. Dr. Archer continued his practice and his stewardship of the hospital. He raised his large family. He took care of his aged mother who had come out to join them. He died in 1902 at the age of 60. Oddly the contributing illness to his death was the very disease he had pioneered treatment for- dropsy or edema.  Luisa died in the 1920's. 

The Smiths- Some New Discoveries

 

The Smiths

First of all, I thought I'd better put up a reference tree for the cousins to check out before I launch into my new discoveries. I was contacted on Ancestry by a cousin. My thanks to my cousins Andy Cracknell and Chuck Dietsche who are descendants of the Estill Smith branch of the family. They supplied the wonderful photos.

Some of the photos they sent I had seen. A few I had bad or cropped copies of. But the photos I have never seen were a revelation. Let's start at the top of the tree. I decided to make use of a little AI to see what I could discover. My Heritage, Ancestry, and Image Colorizer.com will all colorize photos with different results. More on that later.

The picture of Letitia is the same one that hangs on my wall with the family pictures. Although AI is an "intelligent guess" with photos, I have to say this shows her pretty jewelry and brightens her up considerably.

Letitia Ellen Johnson Smith "Ella"- my great, great grandmother

What excited me was the next photo. I had never seen a photo of my great-great grandfather George F Smith.

George F Smith- the railroad man

My Heritage takes a fairly restrained approach. I notice they focused on skin color mostly and didnt' go crazy colorizing everything. 

George F Smith- older

George died in 1915. My guess is this photo is from a period after 1900. I was thrilled to get these photos.

Next is their oldest daughter, Cora Elizabeth, my great grandmother. I know a bit about her because she spent a lot of time with my mother when mom was a child- they lived right next door. I have this photo, but mine was cut down for framing. I love the full version. The details jump right out at you and you really can see a hint of humor in her eyes.

Cora Smith Rogers

We have her brother Estill in the next sets of photos. 

Estill Lowell Smith

I must say that Imagecolorizer.com did a fine job of repairing the scratches and bringing this young photo of Estill to life. Estill, like my great grandfather Ned and my grandfather Harry worked for the City of Fitchburg.

Estill

This slightly older picture wasn't as successful. probably because it's still in the frame.

Here's Estill's wife Bessie Priest. I don't know too much about her, but I must say her daughter Marion looked like her as you will see.

Bessie Priest Smith

I have no pictures of Frederick. Would love to, but they haven't turned up yet.

Finally, we get to the youngest two daughters: Lotta and Clara. I knew Clara as a child- what a character. She lived to be 101 or 102. Neither married. Lotta had a brief local musical career in her young days, but became a hairdresser later and gave up music. Or so the family story goes...

Lotta Mae- a young photo

Lotta was a pretty girl. Talented but maybe troubled as well. She got accolades for her singing in local musicales and quartets. I've been told the whole family was musical.

Lotta Mae

The bonnet and the bouquet of posies is a nice touch. I had a copy of this, but this one is in better condition. And she looks happy here, which is nice.

Clara was the baby. It has been suggested that she was a little spoiled. Perhaps. But I see spirit and humor and intelligence in this photo. And perhaps a strong will. Clara taught kindergartners and first graders all her life. She also spent a good bit of that time looking after Lotta.

Clara Letitia

Here's a slightly later picture of the two girls together. That was them: where Lotta went, Clara was with her.

Lotta and Clara

The colorized version brings out the details of their pretty tops. I don't think I had ever seen this photo either- my framed version was cut down.

This next photo surprised me, because Cora looks very different in the picture. Andy said they were in their choir robes from church.

Cora and Clara

This last photo was the clincher for me. Just too adorable.  From left to right we have my grandfather Harry, my Aunt Dorothy (Deo), and their cousins Marion Smith and Webbie Smith. Dorothy was born about 1903, so my guess is maybe 1905.

Harry Rogers, Dorothy Rogers, Frederick Webster "Webbie" Smith and Marion Smith

Just look at those cute little faces. They must have taken single shots of the children on the same day, because I remember seeing a single photo of Harry in that outfit.

Here is where AI doesn't always get it right. My grandfather Harry had red hair. I mean really red hair. The family called him Uncle Rusty. Neither of these colorizations picked up on that. The photo on the left is Ancestry's version and the one on the right is from ImageColorizer. I think the second one gilds the lily a bit. And you can see how much Marion looked like her mom. 

The four cousins about 1905 or so...

And lastly, if you want, My Heritage will animate your photos. So I took the sweet photo of Lotta and tried it out. They zoom right in on the face and that's what animates. I think the eyes do something weird. Cool or creepy? You decide.

I'm very pleased with this new collection of photos.