Grandma's "Every-Day Cook-Book" #4: FOURTH OF JULY 1910

 (Smith/Post)

Happy 4^th of July, 1910

Tucked between pages 8 and 9 of my Grandma Smith’s “Every-Day Cook-Book,” is a small flag with the date ‘July 4^th 1910’ penciled-in along the margin. My grandfather, L. Vern Smith, would have been 13 years old at the time this Independence Day memento was given out, perhaps, at a Fourth of July parade in their hometown of Milan, Michigan. 

How Main Street, Milan Michigan looked circa 1910. (MPL)

Although it is difficult to tell, this 1910 flag has only 46 stars, representing the number of states that then made up the United States of America. (New Mexico and Arizona would gain statehood two years later; Alaska and Hawaii would join the Union in 1959.)

("America-My Country 'Tis of Thee") found on page 500 of my 1905 copy of The Methodist Hymnal

 

(Main Street photo-source: here) Milan Public Library

Grandma's "Every-Day Cook-Book" #3: WATSON CONNECTIONS

 (Smith/Post)

 (THIS IS A FOLLOW-UP TO Grandma's "Every-Day Cook-Book" #1: JENNY.)

Remember the mystery photo I discovered tucked into the old cookbook?

 I did a little search of my family tree and found only one relative from that generation who might be THAT "Jenny." Although I still may not have made the right connection, my search provided a peek into my great-grandmother Emma (Emerine) Smith's MATERNAL ancestry.

Here's what I found:

NOTE: Jennie Watson's father, Lewis H., was a machinist and inventor. Between 1884-1892, he held patents on almost a dozen inventions including an ironing machine. His son Nelson also patented various mechanical/electrical innovations such as his 1908 electric air compressor.

Among the numerous Watson, Emerine, and Smith family members whose graves can be found at the Denton Cemetery in Van Buren Twp., Wayne County, Michigan, are -from above- Walter and Rebecca WATSON, Marietta and John EMERINE, Emma (Emerine) and William R. SMITH, and Jennie WATSON Mason.

Many of the Smith family also interred there include Emma's husband William R.'s mother and father, Ishmael and Honour (Reynolds) SMITH and his grandparents, William H. and Sarah (Watts) SMITH.