For Descendants of Christopher (Doc) Cranston & Bess Melby
Jingo Bill Painter and his son Joe, mounted on Chaska and Upset, driving the Fosberry bull toward the Little Missouri with pitchforks braced against their saddles. Harding County, South Dakota, circa 1912. Illustration. Transcribed as written – in Bob’s voice , with only minor punctuation cleanup. Provided by Melinda Painter. * * * * * […]
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It was sometime in the fall of 1947 or thereabouts. I was six years old and at the Battle Mountain Auto Camp, alone in the office. My grandfather, Ole Melby, was outside tending the gas pumps. My grandmother, Bess, was somewhere in the house. All of a sudden a man walked into the office. He […]
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Dan Painter – Sealing to His Parents (Logan Temple, June 29, 2006 — four months before his passing) Daniel Preston Painter is pictured in the chair in front. In the photo – from left to right: Marla McKain (sister in law) · Mary Lou Jacobs (sister) · Claire Painter (sister in law) · Clark Henrickson […]
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Here’s “The Gang” along with Wood and Stuart Jett in the early 1930’s in the Badlands.. From left to right we have: Tip, Wood, Bill, Marion, Helen, Stuart.
Read More…This recording was made during the summer of 1956 in Galesburg, Illinois. Helen, Susanne, and Charlie visited Grandpa Christopher “Doc” Cranston at his little home near the Willsies in Galesburg. The recording quality isn’t so good – I apologize. We were limited by the technology of the time. I did a “best effort” to transcribe […]
Read More…This recording was made in 1956 when we visited Knoxville, Illinois. Susanne, Helen and Charlie visited “Doc” in Galesburg and went to Knoxville to see Auntie Pearle and Uncle Frank. Here’s the best effort for a transcription of the recording. Galesburg, Illinois, 1956 Auntie Pearle, Uncle Frank, and Jane Swanson Best-Effort Transcript Source: […]
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See if you can recognize some of these characters and put the names in the comments.
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The Place Bess and Ole Melby Bought when they Sold the Ranch This is a mini-history of what the parents of Marion, Helen, Bill and Tip did when they sold their ranch and left for the Black Hills to enter the tourist business. The Battle Mountain Auto Camp (BMAC) sat on the north side of […]
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In the early 1960’s, Ned and Dan Painter played football for Lead High School. Dan was honorable mention All-Conference.
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Chris and Charlie Pick Up a Body in Rapid City Rapid City, South Dakota — Summer, 1958 The summer between my junior and senior year I worked at McColley’s Mortuary in Hot Springs, South Dakota. It was steady work. Some of it was interesting and some of it was creepy, and a boy of seventeen […]
Read More…CAROL PAINTER A Record from the Newspapers, 1966–1973 Part Four of Four · 1971–1973 Daughter of Preston E. and Marion Painter of Rochford, South Dakota Clippings submitted by Melinda Painter The four items below carry Carol Painter from her last spring at Lead High School to a gallery wall in Rapid City, a wedding at […]
Read More…CAROL PAINTER A Record from the Newspapers, 1966–1973 Part Three of Four · 1970 Daughter of Preston E. and Marion Painter of Rochford, South Dakota Clippings submitted by Melinda Painter The three items below all fall in 1970, from July to December, and together they mark the high point of Carol Painter’s record in these […]
Read More…CAROL PAINTER A Record from the Newspapers, 1966–1973 Part Two of Four · 1969–1970 Daughter of Preston E. and Marion Painter of Rochford, South Dakota Clippings submitted by Melinda Painter The three items below cover November 1969 through May 1970, the year Carol Painter turned from a 4-H club member into an officer, a Girls […]
Read More…CAROL PAINTER A Record from the Newspapers, 1966–1973 Part One of Four · 1966–1968 Daughter of Preston E. and Marion Painter of Rochford, South Dakota Clippings submitted by Melinda Painter The three items below cover the earliest surviving notices of Carol Painter, from August 1966 to March 1968, when she was a girl on her […]
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A Photograph from Moscow I served aboard USS Ray, SSN-653, a fast attack nuclear submarine, during the Cold War. Years later I wrote a book about it. I called it Super Nuke! The book was never about me. It was about the crew. Men who stood watch in a steel pipe under the ocean and […]
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On a Monday evening in January of 1938, Ruth sat down after a long day of teaching and wrote to Tip. She had traveled all night by bus to get back to her school — a stage from Deadwood, a late connection at Cheyenne, a wash and a comb at the schoolhouse before the children […]
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In January of 1975, at the ranch outside Crawford, Nebraska, Marion sat down to tell her cousins that her husband was gone. Preston had suffered a stroke on Tuesday the seventh and died on Sunday the twelfth. What survives is seven handwritten pages — a letter to Cousin Frances dated January 29, a second letter […]
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The Saga of Johny Jergeson meets Uncle Tip A holograph account by Bob Painter · Scottsbluff, Nebraska · May 19, 2016 Transcribed from the two-page manuscript. Original spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing retained. In the spring of 1937 (I think if I remember correctly) Uncle Tip came home to the ranch in Harding County (the old […]
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Charles Edward and Keturah Cranston Charles Edward Cranston was born April 19, 1833, at Woodstock, Ohio, Champaigne County, and died at Galesburg, Illinois, on August 5, 1805. He married Keturah Taylor Parke on March 15, 1860 in Milford Center, Ohio. She was born on March 30, 1835 and died on September 18, 1902. A certified […]
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Homeward Bound Words and music by Marta Keen Thompson Melinda Painter suggested this piece for Dan’s page. It was a favorite of his, and it belongs here. People often take it for an old hymn or a traditional folk song. It is neither. Marta Keen Thompson wrote both the words and the music in 1991. […]
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This photo was taken around 1920. The photo includes (from left to right) Marion, Helen, Bill, and Tip
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Tip’s Story The Recollections of Sidney “Tip” Melby — A Life on the Northern Plains As told to John Ashford Tip Melby was born in 1915 in a sod house on the line between North and South Dakota, the son of Christopher Cranston and Elizabeth Lillian Campbell. He was raised on horse and sheep ranches […]
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Tip’s Musings for His Grandchildren A Grandfather Sits Down to Talk In the early 1990s, Sidney “Tip” Melby sat down and began to write to his children and grandchildren. He was born in 1915 on the high plains where the two Dakotas meet Montana, the son of Christopher Cranston and Elizabeth Lillian Campbell. What he […]
Read More…These are notes taken by Carol Painter from a phone conversation with Bob Painter. From January 14, 2012. Carol’s Notes from Bob Conversation with Bob — 01/14/2012 Transcription of two pages of handwritten notes — Cranston/Painter/Borell family papers Page 1 T/C Bob 01/14/2012 Mae Borell — 2 sisters 1) Maude Borell Richards — Elmer Richards 2) […]
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“Dear Family” A Letter from Ruth Doreen (Painter) Henrikson to her family Bountiful, Utah — October 2, 2008 ARCHIVIST’S NOTE: The following is a verbatim transcription of a letter written by Ruth Doreen (Painter) Henrikson (b. September 13, 1951) to her brothers and sisters and their families, dated October 2, 2008. Ruth was one of […]
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Helen Josephine Painter was born March 5, 1947, in Hot Springs, South Dakota, the fifth of ten children of Preston and Marion Painter, cattle ranchers in the Black Hills. She graduated from Lead High School and attended Black Hills State College, where she met James (Jim) Watson; they were married nearly fifty-three years. After a […]
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Mary Lou Painter was married to Cliff Swanson in Durango, Colorado on January 31, 1972.
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On November 22, 1965, Mary Lou Painter was selected as Twin Cities Junior Miss.
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On Wednesday, September 29, 1965, Mary Lou Painter was named the 34th Lead Golddigger Homecoming Queen!
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The Old Willett Place stood along the Little Missouri River between Camp Crook and Buffalo, South Dakota. It was the ranch house where the Melby family ranched during the latter half of the Second World War, and where Patrick Melby spent the first three years of his life before the family left in 1947 and […]
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Dan Painter went to Lead High School in South Dakota. He had never wrestled before, but he went out for the team anyway. As a junior in high school, Dan won the South Dakota state high school heavyweight wrestling championship in 1963. He was runner-up as a senior in 1964. Dan always seemed to be […]
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This is a poem that was written by Elizabeth Clark Hardy, and was read at the memorial service for President Woodrow Wilson. I found among my father-in-law’s papers – Robert Holden – he was the Dean of Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When my first wife (Marcia) died in 2005, this poem […]
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I’m putting a short video on here that (hopefully) gives you some idea of how this website is set up. This might make it easier for you to find what you are looking for and/or just plain explore. Have fun! ~ Charlie
Read More…The Estate of Christopher Cranston (1858) Probate Court, Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio — Final Record of Estates, Book No. 1, p. 560 Transcription of the manuscript probate record, 1858–1862 (settled 1862; certified 1898) Record of Administration Christopher Cranston’s Estate. Be it remembered that on the 15th day of Nov. A.D. 1858, In the Probate Court […]
Read More…The Last Will of John Cranston, 1823 When John Cranston of Wayne Township, Champaign County, Ohio, sat down to dictate his will on March 22, 1823, he described himself as “in an advanced age but of a Sound mind and memory,” and made plain his purpose: to “order my business So as to prevent trouble […]
Read More…Karen Ann LaVelle (Melby) was the proud daughter of two teachers, a loving wife and mother to five children, a grandmother to twenty-two grandchildren and a great-grandma to fourteen great-grandchildren. Mom served as a registered nurse in many capacities including supervisor at St. Pat’s in Missoula, MT and eventually retired as a home health care […]
Read More…In this personal account, Cold War naval officer and USNA ’64 graduate Charles C. Jett sets the record straight on an untold chapter of submarine history: how his innovations developed aboard USS RAY (SSN 653) and later at the US Naval Submarine School where he taught tactics and Soviet Naval Ship Recognition to prospective nuclear submarine commanding officers— commended by Vice Admiral E. P. Wilkinson and the Secretary of the Navy, and endorsed by Admiral Bruce DeMars and Rear Admiral Albert Kelln — provided Tom Clancy with the foundation for both the character Jonesy and the original Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October. As shipmate Dennis Parker wrote: “A little bit of the Ray, and a little bit of Charlie Jett, lives on in every U.S. nuclear attack submarine since.” At 85, Jett finally places this story where it belongs: in the record.
Read More…Former longtime Durango resident Catherine Elizabeth Dodd passed away peacefully on Sunday, November 7, 2021 in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Born to Preston and Marion Painter in Harding County, South Dakota on October 9, 1939, she was raised on the family ranch with her four brothers and four sisters. Cathy married Richard Dodd of Spearfish, South […]
Read More…Jan G. Painter, 78, of Scottsbluff, died October 15, 2016 at the Residency Care Center in Scottsbluff. Funeral services were set for 10 a.m. Saturday, October 22 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Scottsbluff, with Bishop Randall Mills officiating. Burial was to follow at 3 p.m. at the Glenn Cemetery near […]
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