Family Stories: Joseph and Belle Stroup

For this week's installment of family stories, we're taking a look at my great-great grandparents, Joseph and Belle Stroup of Columbus, Ohio. I didn't even know my great-great grandmother's name until I discovered a treasure trove of history on the internet last week. My great-great grandmother was Belle M. Dunn before she married Joseph. Joseph was born in January 1866 to Anthony Jackson Stroup and Martha Caroline Puckett. He was a locomotive engineer. He died sometime between the 1900 and 1910 census.

He married Belle, who was born in April 1863 (an older woman!), in either 1884 or 1885. They had four children: one who died prior to 1900, Clyde (my great-grandfather who was born in May 1890), Howard F. Stroup (who was born in June 1892) and Joseph Earl P. Stroup (who was born on July 18, 1899).

After Joseph passed away, Belle became a laundress. My mother said she was responsible for our beautiful family quilts, although she kept them in a drawer and didn't share them with anyone. After her death, my great-grandmother inherited two that are now in my mother's care. Her hoarding ways turned out to be a positive, as they are in perfect condition today!

Here are the family photos:

My great-great grandfather Joseph Stroup

This is a photo of Joseph and Belle and two of their children. It is labeled Clyde and Earl, but after considering their birth years, I think the younger boy is Howard.

This is a photo of Joseph Stroup and Beecher Dumm, my grandmother's grandfathers. As Joseph died before 1910 and my great-grandmother Elsie didn't marry Clyde until 1920, I would assume their were either friends or business associates. It is a lovely photo.

Family history...isn't it fascinating?

Family Stories: Clyde L. Stroup

My great-grandfather, Clyde L. Stroup, suffered from polio and died before my mother was two years old. Joan told her that he taught her to walk by luring her along with his cane. After his death, my great-grandmother remarried, and she and her second husband moved from Ohio to California. We don't really know much about my great-grandfather, as everyone who knew him is gone. I hope that by digging through the boxes of old photos and papers that I'll be able to learn more about him. I also did a Google search and found out a little more about his parents. The internet can be such a marvel sometimes!

Here are the photos I've found and scanned so far:

Clyde and Elsie with their first granddaughter, Kathryn Elizabeth (Kathy) Stroup.

The sweet program from Clyde's memorial service in 1958.

Clyde L. Stroup in 1900 at age 10!

My very favorite photo of him.  He has a sparkle in his eyes, and I like his polka dot tie!

sneak peek: cottage living

For five and a half years, Jonathan and I lived in a sweet mid-century modest cottage. We fell in love with our little home the very first time we laid eyes on it. Everything about it was charming. While it wasn't perfect when we moved in, we were okay with that. We loved adding our touches over time, while working hard to preserve the 60-year-old cottage feel. I don't think we realized how truly charming it was until we listed it for sale at the beginning of July. When I saw the photos of our house on the Internet for the first time, I cried. There was our perfect little cottage, the keeper of our treasures and memories. We arrived here as wide-eyed newlyweds with our cat, and we're leaving with almost six years of marriage under our belts, our cat, our dog and even bigger dreams for the future.

I'm writing this post two weeks before it's actually scheduled, so I'm still in our little cottage. Mountains of boxes surround me, and the process of moving begins tomorrow. I know the tears will come soon.

A sixty-three-year-old house comes with so much history. Five and a half years is such a brief time in the grand scheme of things, and yet I feel that we've left our mark on it -- the roses are blooming, the new windows open wide, the deck welcomes friends and the white paint is so fresh and bright. Yes, it feels like home to us, and it will feel like home to the new owners.

They will add new memories and treasures to the next chapter of the little cottage we once called home.

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Collections: Sheet Music

My dad recently passed along his collection of vintage sheet music, which seemed perfect for a collections post during a week when we're gearing up to list our home. Many of our collections are temporarily in storage, so they might be absent from the blog for a while. We'll bring them back as soon as possible! Take a peek at the typography, the colors and the illustrations...aren't they amazing? If you look closely, you'll see several pieces have their original owner's name on them in the most perfect penmanship, as well as the date. When I look at them, I imagine a family gathered around a piano, all singing the songs together. So charming!

I have plans to hang these pieces together as a collection. The quality is amazing. It's incredible to think several of them are 100 years old -- they certainly don't look like it.

That thought also makes me wonder -- what will future generations be hanging on their walls 100 years from now? What will inspire them?

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