We have added new documents to the archive — a page-by-page description of a compiled research packet covering the Painter and Cranston lines from 1859 to 2008.
The packet itself is not one document but forty-three scanned pages gathered together over the years: four ranch stories written down by Robert L. Painter and Kenneth Haraldsen about Lewis Levi Painter, the old-time cowboy the hands called Jingo Bill; marriage licenses and death certificates from Ohio, Illinois, Nebraska, and South Dakota; Marion Painter’s own account of her childhood in a Harding County soddy; a letter Lewis Painter wrote his wife in 1906 about borrowed money and doctor bills; Christmas letters from Aunt Mildred; obituaries transcribed off microfilm by Helen Painter Watson in 1982; and photographs of the Willett home standing above the Little Missouri in 1908, with a stage coach fording the river below it.
The attached summary describes each page in order, so anyone working from the scan can find what they need. It also flags where the sources disagree — the marriage date of Lewis and May, the spelling of Jingo Bill, and the date of the Cranston wedding in Ohio — and notes which pages need re-scanning. The entire set of files is also attached. You can click on the links below to access the documents.
Among the documents is a letter from Ruth Painter Henrikson, written to the whole family in October 2008 after a reunion. Contact information for living family members has been withheld from the posted file.
Our thanks to Melinda Painter, who submitted these documents and shared them with the family. Material like this survives only because someone keeps it and then takes the trouble to pass it on. We are grateful for both.
Summary of Documents
