For Descendants of Christopher (Doc) Cranston & Bess Melby
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 […]
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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 […]
Read More…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 gave […]
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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 […]
Read More…Listen to this before you read . . . this is “make believe.” Mr. George Cranston of Edinburgh, late of the year 1873, addresses the assembled Cranston family of today. A note before the lights go down. What follows is an entertainment, and an act of affection — not a record. Every fact, every opinion, […]
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Ruth Doreen Painter Henrikson passed away peacefully in her sleep at home on June 1, 2026, surrounded by the love of her family. Ruth was born on September 13, 1951, in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, to Preston Elmer Painter and Marion Josephine Cranston Painter. She was one of nine children and spent her childhood on […]
Read More…Composition Last monday morning, after I came to school, I heard of the arrival of several of my friends from the country, whom I had not seen for a long-time; and you can immagine my impatience in being obliged to wait untill noon, when I went to see them. After learning that my relations and […]
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He started it with Bulgarian folk songs. He should have known better! Tip loved jokes – even those on him. This is a fun story – typical of the great sense of humor that was “purely my Uncle Tip.” It’s the record of a long-running practical-joke war between Tip and me. It began with music: […]
Read More…Lebanon, OR – Marion Co. Nov 23, 1851 Dear friends and relatives. We are all here and well every one of us. It has been almost two years since we have seen each other. I should be glad to see you all but in all probability we shall never see each other again in this […]
Read More…Mailed to Mr. Christopher Cranston in Woodstock, Ohio Near Fort Kearney, NE, May 22, 1851 Dear Friends – We have just arrived here all well without the first accident whatever all in good spirit after remaining all night in a storm without wood to make a fire to get our breakfast with so we ate […]
Read More…Letter from Ephraim Cranston – Oregon Trail – 1850 This is a letter from an ancestor, Ephraim Cranston, son of John Cranston. Ephraim left Woodstock, Ohio in 1850 and captained a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. This letter was written at a place approximately 100 miles northwest of St. Joseph, MO. The letter was […]
Read More…The Cranston Adventure of Moving from Rhode Island to Woodstock, Ohio in 1815 as told (I think) by Josephine Park Cranston sometime in the 1880’s from her memory of stories and records that she kept. The original documents in her own handwriting are below. * * * * * Early in the fall of 1815, […]
Read More…Here is a wonderful photo of our two cousins – Cathy and Susanne. This photo was taken at the ranch (Kelly Place) that Wood and Helen Jett were renting back in the very early 1940’s. It is located north of the Painter ranch and the Willett Place – somewhere a little west of Ladner.
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