A brief History of Roger Kroth 2/25/97

I chose to be born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 10th in 1927. I wanted to be near my mother(Hazel Marie Bender-Kroth) who had moved there with her husband Milton George Kroth. They had gone there ‘cause my dad wanted to attend the Drew Seminary at Boston University. Of course, after I was born they abandoned their plans to enter the ministry. I was delivered by a Doctor Pollock, who we still haven’t been able to place on the Genealogy profile.

I don’t remember 1927 very well but I do know that it was the year that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs.. It is a wonder that I wasn’t named Ruth, instead of Roger. It was also the year that Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. Al Jolson starred in the Jazz Singer (the first talkie).

The 1926-27 years must have been heady times in Boston. I can remember stories about a protester who chained herself to one of the trees so they wouldn’t cut it down. and the Transcendalists (poets and philosophers) were in vogue.. There is so much history in that area--- homes of authors, Walden Pond, famous places and famous people and college students debating on in the night. I an imagine that my folks enjoyed themselves immensely. One could buy a new car for $350, and gas was 10 cents a gallon. Bread was less than a dime and stamps were 2 cents, and it was the same in 1927 when I was born. Irving Berlin and George and Ira Gershwin--and Oscar Hammerstein had some of the top songs of that area, some of which we still remember like “Old Man River, Strike up the Band and Why do I love you?”.

I came from a traveling family. My great-grandfather Johann Heinrick Groth (naturalized to Henry Johann Kroth) , left Volsberg Germany in 1840 and traveled around the country until he was naturalized in 1847 in Owen County, Kentucky. He married Louisiana Loughmiller in Easton, Kansas. There is more known stuff but I’m jumping ahead to when my grandpa George Howard Kroth was born in 1871. I remember him well and stayed with him a couple of summers later on a farm in Winfield, Kansas . I helped him plow, etc.

Grandpa had married Anna Venneberg in 1895. They took off a few years later in a wagon with all of their worldly goods and ended up in the Cherokee Strip near Arapaho and Clinton, Oklahoma, to farm prior to the Oklahoma Land Rush. So my dad and three of his sisters were born in Indian territory. Oklahoma didn’t become a state until 1907 and dad was 4 years old by that time. A couple of years later they headed back to Kansas and soon ended up on a farm west of Winfield, Kansas.

LORRAINE, KANSAS or our Walden Pond without a Pond.

After I was born the stock market crashed in 1929 and headed us into the “Great Depression”. Since we didn’t have any money and my dad didn’t have a job that I know of it didn’t make much difference to our life style. “Poor graduate students” set the tone for the our family for decades to come. My dad could preach and farm and flip hamburgers and eventually would get into teaching. Prices dropped in the next few years and many farmers and others started the caravans west to the promised land of California. But we settled into the “Dust Bowl” in Lorraine.

A little gap exists which I have no documentation of and nobody to ask, and I was too young to remember and now I’m too old to remember.

But I do have some memories of Lorraine, Kansas.

Although prices were low by 1990 standards, gas was about 10 cents a gallon, and bread was a little more than a nickel a loaf, Dad’s teaching contract was for $110 a month with a proviso that “contract automatically expires in event sufficient taxes are not paid to meet salaries”.

Simplify-----------Simplify--------Simplify-------

Is this what you had in mind Thoreau????

We moved to Lorraine with a population of about 125 on a Saturday night. My dad started teaching there and I went to school in the first consolidated school in Kansas. My first and second grade teacher was Leota Veech.

I never thought we were poor and I don’t think my folks did either. We had lots of fun as a family and everyone in town knew us and we knew everyone. Mom made the best raised glazed donuts I ever ate. In later years mom and I even talked about opening a donut store. And can you believe she made homemade potato chips. I still have the potato slicing board. It must be an antique by now. I can remember playing pinochle. I doubt if I was very good at that age but it was a card game that mom and dad could play that didn’t cost anything.

Dad was a shop teacher at the high school. I don’t know what else he taught but I remember that he and his class once made a huge Yo Yo and dropped it off the top of the high school. He also made a mahogany bed which was beautiful. Once he and some of the high school kids made a tennis court in the vacant land across from our house. They graded the land and marked it off with lime. For a long time I had one of the tennis racquets that they used it had steel strings and a huge handle. Both dad and mom played golf on a course with sand greens. I can remember once when dad and some other guys went golfing and they had some 3.2 beer...Near beer here an real beer near here!!!! The people in that community were of German descent and having homemade beer around was very natural. so I had my first taste of “dirty water”, which I was reminded of for years.

And the dust blew and blew.

We had had dust days instead of snow days. We had wet cloths around the cracks in the doors and windows to try to keep the dust out. Some days it was so bad we couldn’t see well enough to get to school. The other day I was talking to another Old Codger and he remembered that sometimes they had to send the school bus home early because it would get so dark that they couldn’t see and if they didn’t the kids would have to stay over night in the gym.. Much like we see with snow now. A movie much later was made on the book “The Grapes of Wraith”. It almost seemed like a documentary.

The Superintendent . E.D. Mechem, had 4 kids, Bobby, Donny , Ruth Mary and Dorothy and they lived fairly close, so we played together a lot. There were a couple of other kids in the area too. Once in a while we would go down to “Fat” Peters grocery store. I’m not sure why because we didn’t have any money to spend that I can remember. Right next door to the grocery store was a croquet court were some of the adults used to play once in a while and we could watch.

I have often felt like my life was under control and maybe even controlled by forces outside of me. I was fortunate to have parents who were willing to let me try things and who were willing to take risks. To be born in an era of the Lindy Hop (across the Atlantic Ocean) was one of the benchmarks to be remembered. Just a part of a life of being raised in the Land of OZ

Flying has always fascinated me. I can remember that when I was living in Lorraine I saw my first airplane flying across the skies. I would imagine that it was going from Wichita to Denver. In my imagination I have flown with or without a mechanical appliance.

UFO’s

Living in Kansas and NewMexico, I have often been asked if I’ve seen a UFO. Of course, there is Roswell and the Aliens and many New

Age devotees and the spiritual area aroung Chaco Canyon. There does seem to by something mystical about the area but I have never seen a UFO.

Now Near Death Experiences are another thing and so are Out of Body experiences.

A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY

If I seem to stray from one time period to another it is not just a James Joyce technique but my own crazy thought process. I’m not astroprojecting, but one thing seems to lead to another. Maybe more like Shirley MacClain who regresses to another life right in the middle of a sentence.

Although was born in Boston, most of my early life was growing up in small town America. I was lucky to be born into a family who fostered creativity and imagination. We did things like live in Lorraine, Kansas and go to school at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois. While it did not seem strange to me then, as I look back, I didn’t know of other kids in my little town who went to some Cubs baseball games and rode the El or go to The World’s Fair. I could walk over to the Evanston Public Library and devour kids books like they were going out of style. I could swim in Lake Michigan which was a lot more water than fell in the Kansas plains during the dustbowl days.

I never thought much about it until years later but my parents treated me like a real person. Our discussions were about real things. As we moved from Lorraine to Pontiac, Illinois and then on to Dowagiac, Michigan, there was all sorts of enrichment activities in my life. Many of my summers were spent on the Grandview ranch in Winfield, Kansas or my other grandpa’s farm on the other side of town. Having teachers for family members some of my cousins were around too.

GRANDVIEW RANCH---A KANSAS THEME PARK

In the 1960’s and through 1990’s many theme parks rose like Phoenix from the ashes throughout the USA. People from all over the country loaded up their children in vans and headed to Disneyland, Six Flags over Texas, Dollyland and many other venues in the Southeast. But it did not equal the enthusiasm of the many people who headed into the Grandview Ranch in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s and even in to the 50’s and 60’s.

Friends and relatives headed in to swim and fish, ride horses, learn to drive, camp out, and spook the cattle. Some hunted in season, and all enjoyed the boundless hospitality of the owners. Years later, everyone has a story to tell.. some true, some fanatasy or some wishful thinking.

The Ranch was about 800 acres. which was small for Texas or Oklahoma but large for Rhoad Island or Vermont. There was not a lot of tillable soil, but there was some good pasture land and a creek ran through it. Also the Santa Fe rail had a spur that ran through the property.

THE CREEK

The creek ran from the north side of the property all the way to the south. I never did go much further south but I think it ran into the Walnut river eventually. At one time or another I traveled the whole creek and I don’t remember many places that were over my head. It seemed like kind of a friendly stream and yet there were times that it got out of its banks and raised hell with crops and structures along it route. A couple of times we found a boat which had floated down and got caught up in the ford or in the trees along the bank. they never were very sea worthy and I’m sure they didn’t lead to my desire to go to sea later on in life.

I can remember using a boat to set lines to catch fish along the bank. We would try to find places that looked deep enough to attract a good sized catfish and tie a line with a sinker and a small float . We would leave them over night and come down the next day and run our lines. The rule was in hunting and fishing that you cleaned and ate what you caught. So we didn’t like to catch turtles. they were tough to handle and their jaws were strong.

The catfish we caught could make a good dinner and so we cut off the head and used a pliers to skin them. Then we gutted them and washed them down. I think mom used to fry them in a batter of corn bread and salt. If it was the right time of the year we could pick some corn and husk it and cook the ears in boiling water. If we were staying over night we might leave the husks on and pack them in mud and put them under the coals in a fire we had made and then we would have roast corn. My dad used to plant watermellons in the corn rows so when we were out working

and if it was hot we could break a watermellon and eat the heart out.. Usually we got so much sticky juice on us that we had to strip off our clothes and jump in the creek and get clean.. You can’t do that at Disneyland.

Amusement and Amazement

The creek was there. and hundreds of people enjoyed her over the years. In the early some people from town (Winfield) built cabins in the bend of the creek. For years after ward one could see the cement slabs that remained after floods had ravaged the area. The people who had built there had chosen the site well. There was ususally good fishing on the east side of the cabins or slabs as I remember them. On the west side of the cabins the creek had doubled back and I can remember putting up a rope with a tire on it so we could swing out and drop into the creek. The bottom there was made of large flat stones and it felt good. On down the river and away from the usual noise and human beings some beavers had built a dam. If you didn’t walk down the creek from the swing you would never see it. And I doubt if it was there when the cabins were inhabited.

There was a ford accross the creek where you could cross and go up the other side to the pasture. Just north of the ford was a big mud bank.. Some of us used to splash water up on it to make it slippery and we would dig steps and hand hold so we could get up and slide down. Since we almost aways did it skinny dipping we had to watch out for stray roots which might protude out and get our attention.

One day my dad and I were down there skinny dipping and we heard some cars coming through the gate. Our options were few. Our clothes were on the bank. and we had no suits.

WE WAITED UNTIL THEY CAME INTO VIEW . Dad finally got their attention, and persuaded them to back off for a while, while he got out and slipped on his pants and went to the house to get me a suit.

It was a Sunday School group who had stopped at the house and mom had told then they could find us down at the creek and they sure did.

The creek could be a place to relax or cause trouble. One Saturday, I decided to wash the car so I could go to town that night. The folks had gone off somewhere and I drove down to the ford. I had a 1936 Ford convertible with a merc motor and a rumble seat. We had a lot of fun with that car and a gang of kids.. It was fun to drive and park in front of Bird’s Drug Store and watch people go by - some dragging Main street and some just walking .

At any rate I drove down to the creek and drove on to the ford. I had some soap and rags and washed the car and then went swimming in the creek just north of the ford. Time passed by and it was a warm lazy day.
Finally I got out and went back to the car. Of course, the creek and been streaming by and under the wheels. I started up the car to back it out and the wheels just spun and the car sunk lower. I tried going forward with no luck. I began to panic.. there was no one around to help and trying to drive it out wasn’t working.. This was before the days of the cell phone.

I decided I was going to have to run to the house. It was quite a run. over the railroad tracks and I was almost to tears with worry. When I got the house there was no one there. geeez. I think I had prayed all the way. Help me god.....

` Earlier that morning we had been working on the tractor and it was sitting there as if it was waiting for me. I grabbed a length of chain and started up heading for the ford in the ford. I was praying that it wouldn’t be floated away before I could get there.

There it was -- water was beginning to flow through it and I waded in and put the chain around the bumper. Hitched to the tractor, I knew I had to pull slowly so the tractor wouldn’t sink in the gravel along the creek and that I wouldn’t pull the bumper off. My body strained as if I was pulling it by hand and then it slowly came out.

I drooped over the steering wheel with sweat pouring off my body. I’m sure I sobbed. Finally I turned off the motor, got off the tractor seat and went back to see to my car. The creek had run right through it. I tried to start it . No LUCK.

Finally I decided to pull it up to the house and let it dry off. It took some time but I finally got it up. I had to open and close gates so the cows wouldn’t get out.

By the time I got home, my folks were there. I hated to face my dad. He could really get angry as my kids could attest. But he could also get over it fast. When he saw what had happened and what I had done, he laughed. He then helped me dry off the spark plugs, and parts and said I had done a good job for such a stupid trick. and then he wanted to know if was going to town that evening.

Dad taught me many lessons by the way he handled situations. and of course, I never forgot this one,

When I was running around he would often tell me that he didn’t care when I got home but I could expect to be on the tractor at 5:30 and there were a number of nights that I got home in time to change clothes and go to work. and my eyes would burn when the sun came up....

COUSINS

Joy, Eleanor and Nancy were Uncle Harold’s kids and most of the time they lived in Kansas. I stayed at their house in Burns one summer for a week and enjoyed myself. Harold was the manager of the local Farmer’s Union. They didn’t have any boys so I got special attention.

Bill Bender was about my same age and his dad, Leslie, was a principal of a junior high school in West Orange New Jersey. He had sister, Edith Penelope (Penny) who was quite a bit younger but I don’t

remember her being on the ranch much.

Chuck Anderson was Winnie and Lawrence Anderson’s son. He was a few years younger. He got my metal clarinet when I wouldn’t play it. He learned and now has a real one which he plays in a German band. He ended up being a professor in North Carolina.

Since Uncle Andy was a teacher at Evansville College, they spent some of the summer’s on the ranch too. The trick was to get us all there at the same time.

MOUNDBUILDERS

SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE was called the Moundbuilders for whatever reason. I tend to think that it was because of the Indian mounds around the area. We were told that classes from Southwestern came out to the Grandview Ranch to dig in one of the Indian graves in the East Pasture. I don’t remember who told us about it but I know that Bill and I went over to dig ourselves to see if we could find any artifacts. We found some colored beads but that was about all.

“Bill, let’s buy some of those colored Indian beads in town”

“You mean those little kits? Why, do you want to make a bracelet or something?”

“No, I think we should take them over to the Indian grave and ‘seed’ the place for some of those college kids>“

“WOW!!!! what a good idea”

So Bill and I bought the beads and took them back. I think to this day that some people had the delight of finding some ‘real’ Indian artifacts.

As you can imagine, we had enough kids to get into mischief from time to time on the ranch.

TURKEY TREES AND OUTHOUSES

The ranch was a fun place to be and we had many adventures and misadventures. We all learned to ride horses, drive trucks or tractors, swim in the creek, fish and shoot rifles. Even our own children had some of the same experiences on the ranch.

Turkey Tree For a time my grandparents raised turkeys. They are the dumbest birds(even though they were considered as a possibility for our National Bird). I can remember one time a couple of us started teasing them and they chased us up a tree in the yard. Being pecked by a turkey is not a treat and we scurried up yelling for help. We had had visions of staying in the tree over night. We could see the girl cousins huddled together trying to decide whether to save us or not--would they go tell someone or let us stay up in the tree overnight. You could never trust a girl at our age and we remembered hearing how turkeys roosted in the trees at night. Scared--you bet!!! Eventually some of the elders paid attention to us. Some of our girl cousins accused us of crying in the tree but I can’t believe it.. I remember us as being fearless.

Turkey feathers had some good uses. We could put them in a head band and play cowboys and Indians, but the best thing was to get a corn cob and cut it in two pieces. Then you could take the feather and stick it in the soft center part of the cob. They made great throwing “things”. Another trick we learned was to take a shingle and shave a point on the thick end. We could fashion a tail on the thin end and then notch it about half way up. Getting a stick and putting a piece of twine on it and a knot on the end of the twine and snapping it out would make the shingle arrow for long distances.

Find a piece of limb that had a Y and then taking a knife and shaving it down made a sling shot if you could get a good piece of inner tube. It is a wonder we didn’t kill each other or some of the animals on the ranch.

We could shoot the rifles or once in a while the 12 gauge double barrel shot gun if we could con our parents into it. Shooting the shot gun had so much kick that you could have a bruised shoulder for days.

It all sounds pretty lethal but we were good church going kids.

Outhouses Thomas Crapper was born in 1837 and has often been credited with the invention of the flush toilet .While he was a plumber in England the flush toilet was patented when he was only nine. “In the United States the word ‘crapper ‘ means toilet or john but not in England.. Maybe the troops in England in the WWI. brought the name back. Adam Hart-Davis points out that in the Collegiate Dictionary the phrase “to crap” means to defecate and has done so since 1846. Therefore Thomas Crapper could not be responsible for giving this function his name. I use this to illustrate that I am glad that a Kroth did not invent the flush toilet. Wouldn’t it be awful to say I had to take a Kroth?????

Needless to say most of us, of my vintage remember the outhouses on the farms where our grandparents lived and sometimes in the towns and often at the rural churches. It is a wonder we all didn’t end up with constipation problems. There was nothing like making a run out and back, and I could never figure out why there were two holers. I don’t ever remember sharing that chore with anybody.

In the early days the paper in the outhouses consisted of a Sears catalog. That was mighty stiff paper and not nearly as gentle as Charmin ;-). We did get an education from looking at the pictures. I remember when the grandparents called the catalog the wish book. Almost everything you could want and even didn’t know you wanted was found in there. It was a precursor to the mountains of catalogs which are delivered to our houses every day.

There was a certain aroma that is associated with an outhouse that I’m sure none of us will ever forget.

Fourth of July was a great time to try to catch someone in the outhouse and drop firecrackers in, and listen to the yells. Of course, I never did that personally, but I knew some who did. It was fun if all of the kids of the families would converge on the ranch on the same 4th of July and pool our fireworks. Usually we would make ice cream and one of the smaller kids would sit on the freezer while the older and stronger ones would crank away. Our dads would usually have to finish it up.

We all knew of a story or two of some devilish kids tipping over an outhouse around Halloween. I can remember about one story of one of the guys in an older class than mine in school who supposedly tipped over an outhouse and then ran around the farmer’s house to get to his car. When the farmer came out and threw on the lights and started chasing the boy on foot he ran around the house and right into the place where the outhouse used to be.. ugh!!!!!

When my Grandpa Bender died my dad resigned his job as principal in Dowagiac and we moved to the Ranch.

I hated to move.

I had been moderately successful in my small high school in Dowagiac. I played on the basketball and tennis teams and had been elected to some offices. I hadn’t really started dating but the thought did enter my mind from time to time. I had friends who I continue to keep in touch with today Dowagiac was small enough that we all seemed to know each other and we could ride our bikes out to one of the lakes and go swimming. Dave Cargo who later became Governor of New Mexico and I had stories about me getting bit by a dog while riding in the country. Ivan Carl Kincheloe, in my class later was an Ace in Korea could fly his own plane and he and I played in the orchestra. I couldn’t make it in the band and the teacher even asked me to leave the reed out of my clarinet when we were having a public performance. but Carl who played the tympanis decided I could play the bass and so we got that accomplished. We had a lot of fun together. Andy Moses-Thomas and I had a lot of fun playing tennis together and even played in the National Boys Tournament in Kalamazoo. I think they needed to fill out some brackets but it is nicer to think we were talented.

The move to being a farm boy was tough.

I was fortunate to have parents who had both graduated from High School and College in Winfield. Their contacts in the community helped me get a leg up. Being a better than average tennis player helped a lot too..

SPECIAL PLACES

As time goes by in one’s life, special places emerge. Some are related to an emotional time, some spiritual, and some physical, but they are places that made enough of an impression that they are visited and revisited over time. Sometimes we make an active effort to go to one for a particular purpose---to problem solve, to meditate, to conjure up stories, to day dream and sometimes just to return nearer to God.

One of the experiences that I will always cherish is “riding fence” with my dad. Sometimes it was in a truck but often it was on horseback. We usually took a rifle along with the off chance of getting a jack rabbit.

Over the years I had a number of adventures with horses and other farm animals. I was sure not a “Horse Whisperer” but probably more of a Horse Shouter. I can remember one time when we were riding in the East Pasture and it had been raining the night before. It made the grass wet. A cow got loose and Dad yelled for me to head her off. The ponies were trained to get on a cows tail and steer it to a pen or some trailer.

Off we went.. I think Sunny heard my Dad and not my whisper. Over the hill we went and the cow turned sharply and Sunny went right after her. Down went Sunny and I was on her back. Then she struggled to get up and she did, right under me. and off we went again. Nothing like a good cow pony.

Another time when we were just trying to break her to be ridden. Dad in his wisdom decided to ride Buck while I rode Sunny. Sunny was a pretty palomino, and liked to follow Buck but not with me on her back.

We started across a plowed field in the thought that she would not try to buck when she couldn’t get a good footing. WRONG!!! Up she went and her hind feet slipped and sunk in to the soft earth and back she came. Fortunately the saddle horn slipped between my legs and only took off some hide.. I say fortunately because otherwise we might not have had
David and Amy.

The Spring.

We rode our horses slowly down a hill into a swampy area with a slow flow of water. Water cress was all over the moist ground and grew in water in the area. The sun played through the leaves of the trees and made patterns in the clearing.

We halted our horses and Dad said, “Don’t let them go into the watery part, they’ll rile the water and we won’t be able to get a good drink.”

I had ridden by this area many times before but I had not paid any attention to it.

We got off the horses and tied them to some saplings and knelt to drink the water. Cupping our hands to create little hollows to hold the water allowed us to have a perfect drink. Without a doubt it was the coolest clearest water I ever had. It would come back to me many times in the years to come.

As we sat by the spring with the sunlight coming through the leaves of the trees, one could almost see the fairies flitting around and the water nymphs trying to get one’s attention.

My dad was always teaching.. telling me the value of the savoring the moment and reminding me to return when I need a spiritual uplift or the need to create. In the following years, I came across other special places, but the spring had a special meaning to me. Maybe because my dad introduced me to it.

I used to return to it for inspiration for stories like the “Flying red Horse” , which it was needed on the fly as we drove down the road late at night on one of our many trips across country to visit grandparents.

The Fiji Islands.

In late 1948 or early 1949, the Norwegian tanker, Mosbay pulled into a bay area across the country from Suva, the Capital of the Fiji Islands. Looking over the railing as we chugged in, we could see down through the crystal clear water to the rocks on the floor of the bay. I don’t think I ever was so impressed unless it was in Petoski, Michigan, when we used to look for Petoski stones on the beach.

I’m not sure there was a name for the dock or port that we came into but it was so serene and a place to return to in my mind many times in later years. We came in from the north and slide through the calm sea until we got to the shore. The palm trees beckoned us with their waving branches until we were ready to toss out the lines and hook up. It seemed that we were all lined up on the rail waiting for what (?) , we did not know.

From the time we left San Francisco in November to the time we landed in the Philippines at Manila Bay in the midst of many sunken ships from WWII to our trip down to the Palembang Islands to pick up oil to go to Sydney, Australia, we kept looking for something exotic, like the Fiji Islands.

When we tried to sign off the Mosbay in Sydney, we found we could not ----because we did not have enough money----and of course we were always too proud to write home for money.. This was to be on our own.

We had to go to sea again to make some more money, so that Australia would accept us and so we showed up in the Fiji Islands.

The Fiji Islands came closer to the adventurous sites we hope to find as we traveled the world.. Native wore grass skirts and women and men wore no tops...Hooterville .... We took a train type Hooterville Trolley vehicle to the gold mines which are in Northern Fiji and is one of the third most valuable exports of the country...There we saw gold ingots, but we could not touch <grin>. Same with the natives....

When we got back to the ship’s dock we threw rocks at the coconuts, trying to dislodge some.

A man showed up in cutoffs and, “And what are you blokes doing?”, he asked. We told him and he shinnied up the tree like a native and threw down some coconuts.

When he came down we had a chance to visit with him. He had been in the R.A.F. in world war II and when he got out he bought a dairy in the northern part of the main Fiji Island. He sold milk and dairy products to Suva, the capital on the southern part of the island. He sent his children to New Zealand for schooling for their education since there was nothing around there he said.

In the fifty years since we were in the Fiji Islands a large tourist industry has sprung up.. When we were there in the late 1948-49, the islands were almost wholly owned by the natives themselves.

I have often teased my family with the idea of scattering my ashes there when I die, thus giving them an nice trip as part of their inheritance.

It made such an impression on me, when I was first there that I always hold it as one of those special places that one holds dear in their memories. Once in the 1960’s when a psychologist friend at the Kansas University Medical Center offered to try to hypnotize me, he suggested I pick the most tranquil, serene place I could remember and place myself there. I went to the northern coast of the Fiji Islands.

Another place that I visited just the other day was the Island of Bintan. I had a new found friend that I met in the Library who asked me to find some places in Indonesia for him.. He was going traveling. When I pulled up Indonesia with a new--(to me) search engine, I decided to try Bintan, and sure enough there is was. When we visited there on our trips around the world to pick up or deliver oil it was a very primitive thatched roofed buildings type of a place. I can even remember when one of our sailors got too much too drink and walked right through the wall of one of the huts. It caused quite a bit of international diplomacy by our captain to get him released to the ship and for us to get the hell out of there.

Any way, the view on the web was a beautiful resort like place although still somewhat primitive but a place that could call you back. It is just a short ferry ride from Singapore.

ON THE ROAD

There is a stretch of road between Eagle Nest and Cimarron which always holds a special place in my heart. A number of years ago we bought a condo at Angel Fire which is a beautiful place even though it has been a drain on us financially. (Our kids ask us not to will it to them, saying it would be child abuse) but it has been a nice place to go and enjoy the summers. Since we are not skiers, our favorite times of the year are the spring and fall and the 4th of July.

No trip there is complete without driving to Cimarron for some “cimarron rolls” in the early evening. I don’t think we ever made the trip without seeing a deer or two. The trees make a canopy over the highway and the sounds, other than the cars driving along are the sounds of peace and comfort. One can sing old family songs and enjoy the solitude and the wonderful coexistence between man and nature.

Needless to say, it is another place where I have thought about for my ashes.

DAD’S “SHARE”

A couple of years ago I got a book from Amy, with a title like “Dad , share your life with me”. Every page asks for some piece of data, some of which I could just answer but some of which I don’t think I could. As I get older my mind doesn’t remember everything any more and I didn’t keep a diary like my wife, Jane did, and I didn’t keep a journal when I was in the service or in the Norwegian Merchant Marine and I have regretted it every since.

PREFACE

The following is a time line of events which where going on during the time we are looking at. I inserted a few additional items/dates into thetime line from another time line to show a little bit about the writing of the time.

NOTE: This data taken from FREE-NET, The Freedom Shrine, Historical

Timeline.

Date: 30 Nov. 1991

Filename: TIMELINE Some historical events, chosen at random:

1810?- ROMANTICISM (Scott, Woodsworth, Byron, Shelley,

Coleridge, Jane Austen, Keats, Hugo, Goethe?, Whitman)

1811 Luddite movement destroys industrial machines in N. England

1812 Grimms Brothers Fairy Tales (they were 26 & 27)

1812 Byron (24): Childe Harold's Pilgrimage tells of a hero

who spent days similar to his own of 1808, when he

had a skull found by his gardener on the grounds

of Newstead Abbey polished and mounted as a drinking cup

and gave a farewell party of drinking, masquerading as monks,

romping with his tame bear, and entertaining his "Paphian girls"

1813 Robert Owen: A New View {?Outlook} of Society (UK)

1814 George Stephenson invents & constructs first practical

steam engine, near Newcastle, England

1815 On returning from Elba, Napoleon sends press-gangs

into the student quarter in Paris, trying to round up

an army; most escape and the tradition of anti-monarchy,

anti-enlistment is established among Parisian students

1819 recession

Maximum 12-hour work day for juveniles, England

Freedom of the press in France

1808 Slave importation outlawed. Yet, another 1/4 million brought in by 1860

1809 Abraham Lincoln, 16th President, born in Kentucky February 12; dies 1865

1809 Non-Intercourse Act, Mar 1, repeals the Embargo Act, which didn't work

1810 Census counts 7,239,881 persons in United States

1811 Madison allows 20-year charter of Bank of the United States to lapse

1811 Wm. H. Harrison fights Indians at Tippecanoe, near Indianapolis, Nov. 7

1811 New Madrid, MO earthquake DEC 16; forecast months before by Tecumseh

1812 War declared on England June 18, days after England repealed the cause

1812 John O'Mic hanged on Cleveland Public Square for killing 2 fur trappers

1812 Russians build Fort Rossiia (Ross) 90 miles north of San Francisco

1813 Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry "meets" British in Lake Erie Septa 10

1813 Tecumseh defeated in battle near Detroit, in Thames, Ontario

1814 City of Washington captured and burned by British, August 24

1814 Francis Scott Key observes flag over Fort McHenry at Baltimore, Sept 14

1814 Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812 on December 24, but fighting goes on

1815 Andrew Jackson defeats British at New Orleans Jan 8, after war ends

1815 USS Constitution defeats two British ships off African coast 20 Feb.

1815 Napoleon meets his "Waterloo" on June 18

1815 Village of Cleveland officially incorporated in Ohio

1816 Capitol of Ohio moves to Columbus

1816 Second Bank of the United States chartered, APR 10

1817 Work begins on Erie Canal

1817 First American school for the deaf, Hartford, CT, APR 14

1817 Secretary of State Rush and British Minister Bagot agree on Great Lakes

1818 Congress fixes stripes in flag at 13 to honor original colonies, APR 4

1818 Anglo-American Convention fixes 49th parallel as border with Canada

1819 SS Savannah makes transatlantic crossing under steam propulsion, a first

1819 Florida ceded by Spain to the United States, Feb. 22

1819 JOHANN HEINRICH GROTH(kroth) BORN NOV. 2. in Voelzberg, Germany (on a tuesday).

1819 Treaty of Saginaw; Indians give up one sixth of Michigan

1820 Missouri Compromise forbids slavery above 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude

1820 Federalist Party dissolves; without opposition, Jefferson Dems disband

1822 Grant, 18th President, born in Ohio; dies 1885

1822 Hayes, 19th President, born in Ohio; dies 1893

1823 Monroe Doctrine given to Congress December 2

1824 House of Representatives elects John Q. Adams president

1825 Erie Canal completed

1826 Jefferson, then Adams, die on 50th anniversary of Declaration, July 4

1827 Ohio Canal opened for business

1828 Noah Webster publishes "American Dictionary of English Language", APR 14

1828 George Worthington Co. founded in village of Cleaveland

1828 Baltimore & Ohio railroad, the first designed for passengers & freight

1829 Arthur, 21st President, born; dies 1886

1829 Estate of James Smithson funds Smithsonian Institution

1831 Samuel F. Smith writes "My Country, 'tis of Thee"

1831 Nat Turner leads slave revolt at Southampton

1831 Garfield, 20th President (and 3rd in a row from Ohio), born; dies 1881

1832 Abe Lincoln enlists in Illinois militia to help fight Sauk & Fox Indians

1832 Jackson vetoes rechartering of 2nd Bank, causes birth of Whig Party

1832 Jackson supporters counter with rebirth of Jefferson Democratic Party

1833 Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President, born; dies 1901

1833 First tax-supported public library, at Peterborough, NH, Apr 9

1833 Oberlin College, in Ohio, is first coed college in U.S.A.

1833 City of Cleveland buys its first fire engine for $285

1834 Death of Lafayette, Revolutionary War hero on two continents

1834 Charles Babbage demonstrates "analytic engine", a computer

1835 U.S.A. becomes debt free (briefly) for only time in history

1836 The Alamo. 6000 Mexicans defeat 190 Americans in 12 days on March 6

1837 Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President, born; dies 1908

1837 Sitting Bull born, dies in 1890

1837 Concord Hymn, by Emerson, commemorates battle of Concord NH in 1775

1838 Osceola dies in prison after being tricked by false white flag

1838 Trail of Tears. Thousands of Indians forced from their homes & die

1838 Black Hawk, famous Sauk warrior, dies of old age

1839 Abner Doubleday invents baseball at Cooperstown, NY

1839 Railway Express Co. founded in Boston

1840 JOHANN HEINRICH GROTH(kroth) migrated to American in June, married Elizabeth Harford in Louisville, Kentucky

1840 Chief Joseph born near Wallowa, OR. Becomes great chief of Nez Perce'

1841 Wm. H. Harrison catches cold at Inauguration, dies a month later

1841 Russia sells their Fort Ross in California to John Sutter

1842 Crazy Horse born in South Dakota

1842 Plain Dealer Publishing Co. founded in Cleveland

1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty defines Canadian-U.S. frontier, Aug. 9

1843 McKinley, 25th President (5th from Ohio), born; dies 1901

1844 Samuel F. B. Morse opens telegraphic link between Baltimore and D.C.

1845 U. S. Naval Academy opens at Annapolis, MD

1845 Texas is annexed; war with Mexico follows

1846 Large crack in Liberty Bell gets too bad to permit ringing any more

1846 Potato famine in Ireland. Many flee to America for survival

1847 HENRY JOHANN KROTH (nee Groth) naturalized July 27 at Owen County, Kentucky.

1847 Brigham Young leads his followers into Salt Lake City, UT area

1847 Thomas Alva Edison born in Milan, OH February 11; dies in 1931

1847 American troops fight their way into the Halls of Montezuma in Mexico

1848 Treaty of 1848 gets CA, NM, AZ, NV UT, parts of CO and WY for the Union

1848 Cornerstone laid for the Washington Monument

1849 There's G O L D in them thar hills! Invasion of California begins

1849 Eastern Michigan University founded.

1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Sept. 18

1851 WILLIAM KROTH son of Henry born Jan 16 in Kentucky

1851 Isaac Singer granted a patent for his sewing machine

1853 Gadsden Purchase brings some Mexican territory into USA

1853 Commodore Matthew Perry opens trade routes with Japan, July 14

1853 Cincinnati is first city to pay firefighters a salary

1854 War between Cleveland and Ohio City settled by annexation of latter

1854 Kansas - Nebraska Act. Provides springboard for Abe Lincoln

1854 Republican Party formed in Ripon, WI 28 February, under John Fremont

1854 George Boole writes on theories of logic and probabilities

1855 Soo Canal opens upper Great Lakes to commercial navigation

1855 Longfellow uses name of real Six Nation's hero Hiawatha in mythical poem

1856 HENRY KROTH married Louisiana Loughmiller Sept 4

1856 Wilson, 28th President, born; dies 1924

1856 Western Union Telegraph Co. established in Cleveland

1856 Cocaine extracted from cocoa leaves, but has no legitimate use (ever!)

1857 Dred Scott decision handed down by Supreme Court, March 6

1857 Transatlantic cable begins; used briefly in 1858. Replaced in 1866

1857 Taft, 27th President (7th from Ohio), born; dies 1930

1858 Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President, born; dies 1919

1859 Abolitionist John Brown leads assault on armory at Harper's Ferry

1859 Colonel Robert E. Lee, U. S. Army, commands troops at Harpers Ferry

1859 Drake puts down first oil well in USA, Titusville, PA

1860 Annie Oakley born in Darke County, Ohio, log cabin, August 13

1860 Pony Express riders leave Sacramento, CA and St. Joseph, MO on 1st ride

1860 Edwin C. Higbee opens store on Cleveland Public Square

1860 South Carolina becomes first state to secede from Union, December 20

1861 Confederate States adopt Provisional Constitution, February 8

1861 Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC, April 12

1861 Ohioan Generals Grant, Sherman and Sheridan ride off to war

1861 Congress enacts first income tax August 2, on incomes more than $800

1861 U. S. Navy's first aircraft carrier launches hot air balloon Aug. 3

1861 First Congressional Medals of Honor awarded, to Union Navymen

1861 First transcontinental telegraph kills need for Pony Express

1862 The Homestead Act, May 20, contributes to development in ND, SD, and OK

1862 Duel between Merrimac and Monitor March 8; CSS Merrimac withdrew

1862 Battle of Shiloh, Apr 6

1862 Ohioans LTC R. B. Hayes and Sgt Wm. McKinley saw action at Antietam

1863 The Emancipation Proclamation

1863 The Gettysburg Address dedicated to more than two score thousand dead

1864 Lincoln posed for photograph which appears on $5 bill, Feb 9

1864 "In God We Trust" put on American coins for the first time April 22

1864 Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians at Sand Creek, CO, Nov 29

1864 Lincoln proclaims last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day

1865 13th amendment abolishes slavery

1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox on Palm Sunday, April 9

1865 Lincoln shot by Boothe April 14, dies next day

1865 Confederate Army surrenders at Shreveport, LA; Civil War ends May 26

1865 Last shot of Civil War fired by CSS Shenandoah in Bering Sea, June 22

1865 Harding, 29th President (8th from Ohio), born; dies in 1923

1866 Ohio briefly adopts state motto: "Imperium in Imperio"

1866 Congress recognizes the Metric system of measurements

1866 Alfred Nobel invents something that is "dynamite"

1866 ASPCA organized, Apr 10

1866 First roller rink in the world opens at Newport, RI

1867 British North American Act creates the Dominion of Canada

1867 US buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million

1868 14th amendment prohibits voting discrimination, among other things

1868 House impeaches President Johnson. Senate acquits him by one vote

1869 Transcontinental railroad completed; Ogden, UT wins the golden spike

1869 Cleveland's first professional baseball team is The Forest City's

1869 Suez Canal completed

1870 "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", in a nuclear submarine

1870 15th Amendment gives blacks the right to vote

1870 John D. Rockefeller founds Standard Oil Company, in Cleveland, OH

1870 Robert E. Lee dies, October 12

1871 GEORGE HOWARD KROTH born June 19

1871 Dr. B. F. Goodrich opens rubber factory in Akron, OH

1871 Mrs. O'Leary's cow blamed for Chicago fire, Oct 8-11

1872 Coolidge, 30th President, born; dies 1933

1872 Susan B. Anthony leads protest for women at polling place

1872 Yellowstone National Park created; our first of many (but too few)

1873 Bellevue Hospital in NYC starts first school of nursing

1874 Hoover, 31st President, born; dies 1964

1874 Guglielmo Marconi, radio pioneer, born April 25

1875 Gold discovered in the Sioux holy grounds, the Black Hills of SD

1875 First running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchhill Downs, May 17

1876 Custer makes his way into the history books at Little Big Horn in Montana

1876 Liberty statue presented by France, construction requires ten years

1876 Internal combustion engine invented by N. A. Otto (pronounced "auto")

1876 Does the name "Alexander Graham" ring a Bell? Telephone invented

1877 Crazy Horse dies in a Nebraska prison from stab wounds

1878 First electric street lighting anywhere is on Cleveland Public Square

1878 First commercial telephone exchange is at New Haven, CT, Jan 28

1879 John D. Rockefeller organizes the Standard Oil Trust

1879 Charles McGill is last felon publicly hanged on Cleveland Public Square

1880 Case School of Applied Science established in Cleveland

1881 Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute for blacks

1881 Garfield assassinated. Arthur moves into the presidency

1882 F. D. Roosevelt, 32nd President, born; dies 1945

1883 Indonesian volcano Krakatau blows it's top; 35,000 die

1883 Brooklyn Bridge completed May 24. No, it is not for sale!

1884 Truman, 33rd President, born; dies 1972

1884 First "World Series" played

1886 Geronimo surrenders all Apache nations, September 4

1887 Susan Salter, Argonia, KS, is first woman mayor in U.S.A., Apr 4

1888 Electric streetcars introduced, in Richmond, VA

1889 Indian Territory becomes Oklahoma Territory, thrown open to landrushers

1889 First American skyscraper soars into Chicago skies, 10 stories

1889 Jefferson Davis dies at age 81 on December 6

1890 Eisenhower, 34th President, born; dies 1969

1890 First skyscraper in New York City is the World Building, 26 stories

1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee, SD, December 29

1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, July 2

1890 Leonidas Merritt discovers iron ore lode at Mesabi, MN

1892 First bridge to span the lower Mississippi river is at Memphis

1892 Rudolf Diesel invents internal combustion engine that runs on oil

1892 Pledge of Allegiance published. Changes made in 1954

1893 "America the Beautiful" written by Katherine Lee Bates

1895 George Howard Kroth Married Anna Katherine Venneberg on October 15.

1896 Plessy v. Ferguson establishes hated "separate but equal" provision

1898 Lorena Merle Kroth born on Oct 20

1898 USS Maine blown up in harbor at Havana, Cuba, February 15

1898 Spanish - American War. Teddy Roosevelt rough-rides his way into Cuba

1898 Independent republic of Hawaii annexed

1900 Boxer Rebellion against foreigners in China begins

1900 circa Kroth family left in a covered wagon for the Cherokee strip

1901 Mary Esther Kroth born Dec 19.

1901 McKinley assassinated, Theodore Roosevelt moves into presidency Sept 14

1902 State of Ohio authorizes a state flag on May 9

1902 First 4-H Club anywhere is in Springfield, OH

1903 Milton George Kroth born Dec. 11

1903 Wright brothers prove they are right for aviation, Kitty Hawk, NC Dec 17

1903 Great automobile race from New York City to Pittsburgh takes eight days

1904 Chief Joseph dies in exile in Washington state, fighting no more, forever

1904 Ohio adopts Scarlet Carnation as state flower to honor McKinley

1904 Grandpa George Kroth attended the Great World’s Exhibition in St. Louis Mo.

1906 Great San Francisco earthquake April 18 kills over 500 people

1908 Anna Myrtle Kroth born Aug. 19

1908 First Model T rolls off the Ford assembly line

1908 U.S. Governors issue Declaration on Conservation, May 15

1908 L. B. Johnson, 36th President, born; dies 1973

1909 Great White Fleet of 16 battleships completes trip around the world

1909 Robert E. Peary (a white) & Matthew A. Henson (a black) reach North Pole

1909 NAACP founded by W. E. B. DuBois

1910 Boy Scouts of America founded, Feb 8

1911 First transcontinental flight takes 82 hours, over nearly 2 months

1911 Reagan, 40th President, born

1912 Girl Guides (Girl Scouts) founded March 12

1912 Garrett Morgan of Cleveland invents the gas mask

1912 Titanic hits iceberg, April 15. 1503 lives lost

1913 Harriet Tubman, heroine of underground railroad, dies; buried in Ohio

1913 Nixon, 37th President, born

1913 Ford, 38th President (1st non-elected), born

1913 16th Amendment establishes income tax

1913 17th Amendment changed election rules for Senators

1914 Panama Canal completed

1914 American Radio Relay League (ARRL) founded in Newington, CT by W1AW

1914 World War I begins in Europe; President Wilson declares neutrality

1915 SS Lusitania sunk May 7; 1100 lives lost

1916 General John "Blackjack" Pershing chases Pancho Villa deep into Mexico

1917 After scores of U-boat incidents over last 3 years, U. S. enters WW I

1917 Kennedy, 35th President, born; dies 1963

1917 Russian Revolution; they enjoy brief democracy for only time in history

1917 Father Edward Flanagan founds Boy's Town, December 1

1918 The American's Creed adopted April 3

1918 Armistice ends WW I on 11th hour of 11th day of 11th month

1919 18th Amendment introduces prohibition of intoxicating liquors

1920 19th Amendment brings women the vote, Aug 26

1921 Man O' War retires to 26 years at stud

1923 Garrett Morgan of Cleveland invents traffic signals

1923 Teapot Dome scandal involves illegal lease on Navy oil reserves

1924 Carter, 39th President, born

1924 Bush, 41st President, born

1924 Congress confers citizenship on (some) Native Americans, June 15

1925 First municipal airport in the world is Hopkins, at Cleveland, OH

1925 First female as a state governor is Nellie Taylor Ross, in Wyoming

1925 John T. Scopes convicted of teaching evolution in Dayton, TN, July 24

1926 Richard E. Byrd flies over North Pole May 9

1927 Lucky Lindy lands in Paris May 21 after non-stop flight from New York

1927 ROGER KROTH born in Boston, Mass.10/10. Son of Hazel and Milton Kroth

1928 Richard E. Byrd flies over South Pole November 28

1929 St. Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago; rival bootleggers shoot it out

1929 Great Depression begins after bank and stock failures in October

1930 DORIS JANE MAJORS (kroth) born in Roff, Okla 3/21.daughter of Jesse and Flora Majors.

1930 DuMont's television broadcast in NYC to private homes, August 20

1931 The National Anthem finally adopted by Congress March 3

1931 Empire State Building opens May 1

1932 20th Amendment established starting date for Presidency & Congress

1932 Welland Canal bypasses Niagara Falls for shipping

1933 First woman in Presidential Cabinet is Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins

1933 Emergency Banking Act, March 9

1933 Civilian Conservation Corps, March 31

1933 Federal Emergency Relief Act, Agriculture Adjustment Act, May 12

1933 Tennessee Valley Authority Act, May 18

1933 Farm Credit Act, June 16

1933 21st Amendment repeals prohibition amendment

1933 Ohio adopts the Cardinal as the "Official Bird"

1934 Securities and Exchange Commission created June 6

1935 Works Progress Administration approved by Congress, April 8

1935 Wagner-Connery Act establishes National Labor Relations Board, July 5

1935 Social Security Act, August 14

1937 Amelia Earhart Putnam disappears during attempt to fly around the world

1937 Adolph Hitler tells his generals of his plan to take over Europe, Nov 5

1939 Geological Surv. final report on cost of Louisiana Purchase $23.2 million

1939 After attacking other nations, Hitler starts WW II by attacking Poland

1939 Bill of Rights finally ratified by Massachusetts, Georgia & Connecticut

1941 Lend-Lease Act became law March 11

1941 Churchill & Roosvelt develop The Atlantic Charter, Aug 14 in Argentia

1941 December 7, the Day of Infamy, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, HI

1942 Executive Order 9066 imprisons many thousands of Nisei for three years

1942 Jimmy Doolittle bombs Tokyo, flying B-25's from USS Hornet, April 18

1942 The Battle of the Coral Sea, May 7-8

1942 The Battle of Midway, June 4

1942 The Battles of Guadalcanal: ashore, August 7; at sea, Nov 12-15

1942 First self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, by Fermi, December 2

1944 Landing at Anzio Beach by the Allies, January 22

1944 D-Day at Normandy! The Longest Day begins, June 6

1944 The Battle of the Philippine Sea, June 19

1945 Marines raise the flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, February 23

1945 First atomic bomb exploded anywhere is at Los Alamos, NM, July 16

1945 B-29 'Enola Gay' drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Aug 6

1945 Last atomic bomb then in existence dropped at Nagasaki, August 9

1945 World War II ends: first in Europe, May 7; then in Japan, Sept 2

1945 United Nations chartered in San Francisco; in 1950 moves to NYC

1946 Taft-Hartley Act outlaws certain practices of trade unions

1946 Roger Kroth enlisted in the Navy

1947 Truman Doctrine opposes Communism in Greece and elsewhere, Mar 12

1947 Marshall Plan helps rebuild Europe, June 5

1947 Transistor invented at Bell Labs, in New Jersey, Dec 23

1947 Dec. Roger Kroth on the USS Siboney (aero 3/c) discharged.

1948 Roger enrolled in the University of Iowa.

1948 Roger and David Burns hitch to California and sign on the Mosbay a Norwegian Tanker as hands to start a trip around the world.

C. DAVID BURNS

12 Sparrow Lane

River Ridge, LA

70123‑2033

A Synopsis of the

Kroth/Burns Itinerary 1948‑50

(504) 738‑6342

FAX (504) 738‑3540

burnscd@aol.com

Sep 28, 1948 Departed Winfield, Kansas

Sep 30, 1948 At San Pedro, California

Nov 16,1948 Sailed to San Francisco, California

Dec 7, 1948 At Manila, Philippine Islands

Dec.14,1948 At Cebu Island, Philippine Islands

Late Dec, 1948 At Tandjong Oeban, Bintang Island

Jan 2, 1949 At Sydney, Australia

Jan 9, 1949 At Melbourne‑, Australia

Mid Jan, 1949 Uncharted mine field near New Guinea

Jan 21, 1949 At Sorong, Now Guinea

Jan 30, 1949 At Palembang, Sumatra

Feb 1, 1949 At Oeban

Feb 14,1949 Sydney, Australia

May 21, 1949 Left Sydney for Brisbane, Australia; Singa

pore; Palembang and Oeban

Jul 18,1949 Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan; Singapore;

Oeban; Singapore and Bombay, India

Jul 30,1949 Palembang and Oeban

Aug 5, 1949 Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka)

Aug, 1949 Singapore (dry dock)

Sep 14,1949 Showa,Japan

Oct 10, 1949 Melbourne, Australia

Dec 2, 1949 Singapore; Fiji Islands; Palembang; Oeban;

Singapore; Karachi, Pakistan; Bombay, India;

and Abadan, Iran

Dec 7, 1949 Karachi

Jan 23, 1950 Durban, South Africa and Ras‑at‑Tanura,

Saudi, Arabia

Feb 20,1950 At Melbourne

c. Mar 10, 1950 Oeban

Mar18,1950 Bombay, India

Mar 30, 1950 Aden, Yemen and Massawa, Eritrea (Ethiopia)

c. Apr 23, 1950 Through the Suez Canal; Port Said, Egypt;

Mediterranean Sea; Atlantic Ocean; Boston,

Mass., USA, and New York City, NY, USA

c. Apr 30, 1950 Arrived in Winfield, Kansas, USA

Kroth/Burns Itinerary 1948‑50

(504) 738‑6342

FAX (504) 738‑3540

burnscd@aol.corn

Jan. 26, 2000

Sep 28, 1948 Departed Winfield, Kansas.

Sep 30, At San Pedro, California. Waited

out a long strike by longshoremen.

Nov 16, 1948 Sailed aboard T/2 Mosbay, a Norwegian

tanker, for San Francisco enroute to

the Philippines

Dec 7, 1948 At Manila, Philippines for a six day

stay.

Dec 14, 1948 At Cebu Island, P.I. for 2 days.

Late Dec,1948 At Tandjong Oeban, Bintang Island.

Jan 2, 1949 At Sydney, Australia.

Jan 9, 1949 At Melbourne, Australia.

Mid Jan, 1949 Traversed uncharted mine field near New

Guinea.

Jan 21, 1949 At Sorong, New Guinea.

Jan 30, 1949 At Palembang, Sumatra.

Feb 1, 1949 At Oeban.

Feb 14, 1949 Signed off Mosbay in Sydney, Australia.

May 6, 1949 Still in Sydney. Ted gets married.

May 21, 1949 Signed on the M03bay. Left Sydney.

(Next 3 weeks) Travelled to Brisbane, Australia,

Singapore, Palembang & Oeban.

Jun 12, 1949 Sailed past Luzon Island, Philippines,

enroute to Japan.

Jul 18, 1949 At Bombay, India after docking in Yoko

hama and Tokyo,japan,and Singapore,

Oeban, and Singapore.

Jul 30, 1949 In Oeban after leaving Palembang.

Aug 5, 1949 In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for a couple

of days then headed for Singapore.

Aug, 1949 In Singapore for a two week dry dock.

Sep 9, 1949 Off the coast of Okinawa headed for

Japan. (Rog, was this where we got hit

by the typhoon?)

Sep 14, 1949 In Showa, Japan.

Sep 21, 1949 Still in Japan.

Oct 5, 1949 Eastbound off the coast of Fremantle,

Australia.

Page two

Oct 10, 1949 In Melbourne, Aust. (Roger's birthday

today ‑ mine tomorrow!)

Oct 29, 1949 At sea enroute to Singapore.

Dec 2, 1949 After Singapore we went to the Fiji

Islands,then to Palembang; Oeban; Sing

apore; Karachi; Bombay and Abadan,Iran.

Dec 7, 1949 In Karachi, Pakistan.

Dec 31, 1949 Enroute to Durban, South Africa.

Jan 1, 1950 Southbound between Madagascar and the

east coast of Africa.

Jan 23, 1950 After Durban we went north to the

Persian Gulf and stopped at Ras‑at

Tanura, Saudi Arabia.

Feb 15, 1950 After leaving Ras‑at‑Tanura, we plied

the Indian Ocean sailing southeast to

the southern coast of Australia on our

way to Melbourne.

Feb 20, 1950 In Melbourne. Leave shortly for Sing

apore.

Mar 14, 1950 After Oeban we sailed west into the

Indian Ocean on our way to Bombay.

Mar 18, 1950 In Bombay. Signed off the Mosbay and

signed on the SS Exchange, an American

freighter (American Export Line).

Mar 30, 1950 In Massawa, Eritrea (Ethiopia)on the

Red Sea after stopping in Aden, Yemen

c.Apr 23,1950 In New York City after travelling

through the Suez Canal.Stopped in Port

‑ Said, Egypt, then into the Mediter

ranean, past Gibralter, across the

Atlantic to Boston, Mass., USA!!

Apr 23, 1950 Left NYC by bus. About a week later,

arrived in Winfield, Kansas.

Kroth&Burns Itinerary 1948‑1950

__

1948 Foreign Assistance Act funds the Marshall Plan, April 3

1948 Organization of American States (OAS) formed, April 30

1948 United Nations creates Republic of Israel out of Palestine

1948 Berlin airlift begins nearly a year of relief to overcome blockade

1948 Native Americans allowed to vote (finally) in New Mexico and Arizona

1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization born, April 4

1950 Roger and Dave complete trip and take a bus from New York to Winfield Kansas from where they started 17 months earlier.

1950 North Korea invades South Korea, June 25

1951 22nd Amendment limits president to two terms. 1st proposer: Jefferson

1951 Roger Kroth married Jane Majors on June 4

1952 Michael Steven Kroth born Sept 1

1953 Most "declared" hostilities end in Korea, 38th parallel becomes DMZ

1953 Ohio adopts the Buckeye as the "Official Tree"

1954 Marianne Kroth born on Jan. 21

1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturns Plessy v. Ferguson

1954 Remington Rand sells a UNIVAC system to General Motors

1955 Dr. Jonas Salk proves his vaccine against polio virus is safe

1956 David Scott Kroth was born on Oct. 8

1957 Sputnik

1958 Amy Jane Kroth was born on July 18

1959 Ohio adopts new Official Motto: "With God, All Things Are Possible"

1959 St. Lawrence Seaway opens the Great Lakes to foreign shipping, Apr 25

1960 23rd Amendment granted Electoral College representation to DC

1962 Ohioan John Glenn is first U. S. astronaut to orbit earth, Feb 20

1962 Military aid begins in South Vietnam

1963 Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. announces "I Have A Dream" on August 28

1963 John F. Kennedy assassinated, Johnson moves into presidency

1964 24th Amendment killed "poll taxes"

1964 Civil Rights Act put teeth in Federal enforcement of anti- discrimination

1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Aug 24; repealed in 1970

1965 Ohio Flint adopted as the Official Gem Stone of the state

1967 25th Amendment allows President to step aside temporarily, then resume

1967 Thurgood Marshall is first black to become a justice on Supreme Court

1968 Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. murdered in Memphis

1969 Ohioan Neil Armstrong took one small step for a man, onto the moon

1971 26th amendment gives 18 year olds the vote

1972 Equal Rights Amendment proposed by Congress; never ratified by states

1973 Vice President Agnew forced to resign, Ford becomes 1st non- elected VP

1973 Roe et al v. Wade decision starts bitter abortion/anti-abortion debates

1974 Nixon resigns in disgrace, Ford moves into the presidency

1975 The fall of Saigon, South Vietnam

1980 Mount St. Helens volcano erupts

1981 First female Supreme Court Justice is Sandra Day O'Connor

1984 Geraldine Ferraro is first serious female Vice Presidential candidate

1986 First true community computer system goes online in Cleveland, Ohio

1986 Rutan and Yeager took a one-tank-trip around the world

1986 Shuttle "Challenger" exploded on takeoff, 7 astronauts perished

1987 Second Community computer goes online in Youngstown, Ohio

1989 Ohio adopts new words to official State Song

1989 Cleveland Free-Net II goes on line with 1.2 Gigabytes of storage

Adds this Freedom Shrine to a long list of accomplishments

1990 More community computers in: Cincinnati, Peoria, Ill, and Medina Ohio

1990 Communist dominoes fall -- backwards! World rejoices!

----------------------------------------------------------

Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300)

Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the

National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN).

Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise

redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin

credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public

Telecomputing Network.

Downloaded by: Cliff Manis

Cliff Manis K4ZTF Manis/Manes Family History

Searching: MANIS MANES MANESS MANAS WHITEHORN CANTER BIRD CORBETT NEWMAN

USMAIL: P. O. Box 33937, San Antonio, Texas 78265-3937

BITNET: cmanis%csoftec.csf.com@NDSUVM1 Caretaker of GENEALOG

INTERNET: cmanis@csoftec.csf.com GEnie: A.Manis

FIDONET: Cliff.Manis@f607.n387.z1.fidonet.org

"He who careth not whence he came, careth not whither he goeth" W.M. Taylor

As you can see, a lot happened in the 108 years from when my Great Grandpa (groth) Kroth was born and I was born and even more happened by the time you all became adults with your own families. I will leave this time line here and from time to time we can all add to it, recording our births and deaths and other significant events of our lives. By the time I write this, 178 will have passed since my Great Grandpa was born and now. What marvelous things have transpired during that time!!!!

We are closing in on the year 2000, and so it is important for you to see what productive things have happened and how many social ills have prevailed, and why it is important to understand your roots and how they may help you hold you firmly anchored as time moves on.

A number of years ago I went to a lecture by Morris Massey, “What You are is Where You Were When...” His general thesis was you could tell a lot about a person if you knew where that person was when he or she was about 10 years old. Maybe that will help you understand me better and maybe it will help me understand my own upbringing. But we have to go back to understand a little more.

You will notice on the timeline that about the time that Johann was a youngster, the Brothers Grimm were writing their famous fairy tales. And the were writing them in the area where he was born and brought up. I don’t know if he ever heard them but I bring it up so that you might forgive me some poetic license of writing some undocumented “fairy tales” of my own during the gaps in our histories where we do not have any documentation.

My great grandfather, Johann Heindrich Groth came over from Germany in 1840 when he was about 21 years old. When he was naturalized he became Henry Johann Kroth. He had one son, Will, by his first wife Elizabeth Hartford. When she died he married Louisiana Loughmiller and then a procession of Kroth kids began. By this time they were living in Kansas. As you can see we Kroths were a traveling bunch.

My grandfather George Howard was born in 1871, married Anna Katherine Venneberg in 1895. These were my dad’s parents and I remember them. We used to go visit them when I was a kid. But a little more history first---

George and Anna headed out to the Indian territory in Oklahoma in a covered wagon, and that is where my dad (Milton) and two of his sisters were born in what was called the Cherokee Strip. Grandpa Milton was born near Clinton Oklahoma in 1903, in Arapahoe County.