Hyde Park McKenna's

After two years of "No Postings"

2009-05-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

My chldren have convinced me by their wonderful bloggins, that this may be very benificial for our posterity. I've been trying to decide how and where to keep a journal and also start a personal history. Doing a blog may help to fill both of those requirements in the end. I also spoke with a cousin who said that you can make your blogs into books, which also excited me. I guess I am afraid that someday siper space will crash and then what? So with this in mind I will start anew. The problem at the moment is our good computer is in the shop, so all the pictures that need to be downloaded can't be. So this entry will be pictureless, but hopefully soon I will be able to get going again.

American West Heritage Museum-Corn Maize

2007-10-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

McKenna Agenda: On Saturday October 27, 2007, Mike's Birthday, we went on our McKenna Agenda adventure to the Corn Maize at the American West Heritage Museum. Here are some pictures from that excursion. If you don't see Dave it is because I could never catch him. Also, the camera we used for the family photo would not allow the photographer to zoom in, so the picture is a little blurry. Dad's hoping to get a better camera for Christmas.

Mike the "Birthday Guy" and his Aumanie.
Walker enjoying the adventure, always a smile and what curly hair.
Jorgen sitting on his some wheels holding Jaxon. Braxton and Eliza checking out this old auto.
Wade shooting a gord from the stationary launch.

Eliza hitching a ride on Poppie's shoulders.
A glove pointing the way through the maize.
Eliza, Oh Eliza she'll find the way out of this maize by herself if she has too.
Cooper taking a break on Poppie's shoulders.
Poppie and Kayla heading for the Maize.

Family Group. The only shot of Dave I got all day.
Super Cole letting Grandma take his picture on top of the hay bales.
Aumanie and Kayla resting after the Maize.
Cooper trying to find the trail through the maize.

Here's Eliza again, just walking and walking. Which way is out!

Jorgen hanging on the sign in this family pic.

Matthew helping Eliza on top of the Hay bale maize. The kids had more fun playing on top of it than finding their way through the Hay bales.

Another shot of Cole on the Big Hay Bales.

Wade in the Tunnel under the hay bales.

Braxton in the tunnel.

Cooper in the Tunnel.

Kayla picking corn.

Wade shooting gords with Cooper and Tyler looking on.

Tyler, Corina and Jaxon with a dried cob of corn.

Kim enjoying a rest after the Maze. This was a fun day. We were all a little tired from walking.

"Memorial Day" Weekend

2007-05-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Mom and I spent friday traveling to several cemetaries, decorating graves. This picture is of Mom by the graves in the Lapoint Utah cemetary.

What follows is a report of our activites and photos of the headstones with slight instructions on how to locate them. I hope it will be helpful.

On our way to the first cemetary we stopped to see the William Russel and Fannie Gagon Todd farm just outside of Roosevelt Utah. Thier grandson Craig and his wife Freeda live there now and raise cattle on the land. Craig was gone getting a mountain pasture ready for cows to arrive that afternoon. I failed to take a picture of the homestead but will try to add one later.

Lapoint Utah Cemetery is found on the north east side of town. If you are driving east on mainstreet, you see a sign for the cemetery just as you are leaving town. The cemeter is small and has only one pine tree among the graves and a few other small pine trees on the west edge. We came here to decorate the graves of Gilbert FrancisMcKenna and Almeda Allred. We also found Almeda's parents David William Allred and Sarah Elizabeth Burns burried just next to them. Because of a problem Almeda has two head stones. She was burried under the one with just her name one. There was no room to burry her next to her husband. Gilbert and Almeda are my fathers parents. We called them Papa & Nana. My older children remember them visiting us in Arizona, but the yonger children have no memories of them. This picture was taken for their 50th wedding aniversary.

We drove past the Tridel Utah Cemetary road because we were looking at the beautiful yard of a home on the east side of the road. The sign for the cemetary road was on the same side of the street but we didn't see it. Tridel is just a few miles west and north of Lapoint. We knew it was before you got into town, so we asked the first person we saw. He was a young boy on a four-wheeler. He pointed back out of town and so we turned around. The cemetery is on the top of a hill and we first saw the flagpole, and sure enough, the sign was on that beautifl lawn mom had pointed out on our way into town. We found several graves here from the Bartlett family. My wife LaNae is a Bartlett and Tridell is were several Bartlett families settled. This first headstone is of her grand parents. Their children are listed on the reverse side and Clyde is my wife's father. It looks like I forgot to photograph the front of the head stone.

We found this unique headstone for Gwena. LaNae told me when we got home that her father remembered the day she died and how he heard his father chiseling this marker late into the night. When he came to find the marker just a few years ago it was burried in the dirt so he cemented it into the ground.

On our way to the Roosevelt Utah cemetary we passed the elementry school named after William Russel Todd ...

and the home where Gilbert and Almeda McKenna lived.

The Roosevelt Utah cemetary is easy to find. Gilbert McKenna was asked in the 1970's to do the rock work on the pillars at it's entrance.

The Todds and the Eldredges are burried next to each other. This is great for me because my wife LaNae is a descendant from the Eldredges. The Todds are my mothers family.

Fannie Gagon and William Russel Todd are my maternal grandparents.

Fannie and Russel only had 6 children to live into their adult years. Glen Owen Todd was my mother's 16 year old, older brother who died from Polleo.

The following are children of Fannie and Russel who died either at birth or shortly thereafter.

Max Russel Todd is my mothers brother who passed away in 1997. His family are the ones who took over the family farm that I spoke of in the begining of this entry.

Fannie and William also have a son-in-law who is burried to the south east. His name is Peter Wendel Johnson and is the husband of their eldest daughter Norma.

Thomas Todd Jr. and his wife Harriet Richardson are burried next to their son William Russel and his wife. They homesteaded in the Uinta Basin, coming from the Heber valley.

Mary Agusta Goodrich and William Highland Gagon are also burried in the Roosevelt cemetary.

William and Mary had a daughter who was also burried here.

The Eldredge famile has several headstones here.

Before finding the Heber Utah cemetary, we passed the home built by Thomas Todd Sr.

The Heber cemetary had no directory so Mom and I had to search for the headstones that we wanted to find. We were looking for the graves of Thomas Todd Sr, his wife Margaret Shankland who imigrated from Scottland and William Richardson, his wife Joann Fortheringham, who also immigrated from Scottland. We parked in the upper, middle section of the cemetary and began to search down towards the gates. We found the Todd markers, within a few moments we found the Richardsons just to the north across the road.

The Logan cemetary is one of the most beautiful because of the trees that line its roads. We have come here for a long time because Gilbert McKennas mother is burried here with her twin daughters, who died. Margaret Amelia Jorgensen, wife of Albert Franklin McKenna; is also burried next to her parents Jacob Jorgensen and Melvina Margaret Munk. You can see the headstone of her grandfather Hans Jorgensen behind her marker and to the right. His wife Dorthea is burried to the left of him. They immigrated from Denmark. We had not noticed the connection until this year.

Her mothers parents are to the east, just across the next road. They are Hans Jorgen Munk and Pettro Nelle. They immigrated from Denmark. We had not found their markers until this year. It appears tha Nelle died early and Hans remaried. Nelle is burried between Hans and his second wife.

Margarets mother in law is also burried in this cemetery. Her name is Sarah Singleton McKenna. She is burried just north of the first short road that heads north from the cemetary office. Her grave was not marked until recently. Elaine McKenna Allred organized a fund raising effort to place a marker for her. Sarah and her husband Thomas McKenna immigrated from Ireland. After her death Thomas married again and moved to Idaho.

It was quite a day. Over 30 graves decorataed in just over 12 hours. We started the day, leaving Logan Utah about 5:00 am and returned just after 5:00 pm.

Thomas McKenna's body

2007-04-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

A second article described the discovery of his body.
The Roosevelt Standard 1937-05-27
Bodies Of Green River Victims Discovered Near Drowning Place
Funeral services for Hank Stewart held Thursday in Roosevelt.
Thomas McKenna buried at Leota Wednesday after a weeks intensive search.
Bodies of hank Stewart and Thomas McKenna who were drowned in green river Tuesday, May 18th about six miles below Ouray when the boat in which they were crossing with farm machinery capsized, were found this week.
The body of McKenna was located about half a mile below the place of drowning floating in midstream Tuesday evening, and Stewarts corps was discovered about 1 ½ miles below the place of drowning by Matthew Curry of Ouray. Funeral services were held in Leota Wednesday for Mr. McKenna and burial also was in Leota. Services were held for Mr. Stewart in the Roosevelt ward chapel on Thursday burial took place in the Roosevelt city cemetery. Mr. Stewart was born at Mona Utah on may 1st 1868, a son of Dr. Simeon and Mary Ellen Sullivan Stewart, with a brother George he spent most of his boyhood in the Pugent Sound Country. Living with an uncle and aunt. Later the family moved to Tinuc and the boys attended all hallows college in Salt Lake City.
Moved To Carbon
In 1897 he moved to Carbon county where he married Minerva Van Wagoner from whom he separated a number of years ago. They settled in the nine mile country where he became a rancher. Later he became interested in placer mining in the horse shoe bend of the green river and purchased a large holding of land at the mouth of willow creek where
he operated a ferry and ranched. Surviving are his widow Mrs. Elsie Wardle Stewart a daughter Mrs. Eva Ashton Vernal, national committee woman of the American Legion Auxiliary, and former president of the Utah legion auxiliary, two sons Ardon Stewart, vernal and Van Stewart Brigham City, circulation manager of the tribune telegram in box elder County, a brother George E Stewart Fort Duchesne and two grandsons.

Thomas Mckenna's Death

2007-04-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

I was searching the digital images of the Salt Lake Tribune last week for any articles refering to "Thomas McKenna" hoping to find anything that would add to our understanding of the first McKenna in our history to immigrate to america. I found instead an article discribing the drowning of his grandson, Thomas at age 25. Thomas is the brother to Gilbert Francis. They married sisters Fannie and Almeda respectively. In the article it described the accident that caused his drowning. He was trying to rescue an older man who had fallen into the water. Both bodies were found later down stream. The following is the text of the article
The Roosevelt Standard 1937-05-20
Treacherous Waters Of Green River Take Two More Victims.
Search for bodies of Hank Steward and Thomas McKenna who were drowned in green River Tuesday continues
The swollen treacherous waters of the green river claimed two more victims Tuesday when Hank Stewart 70 and Thomas McKenna about 25 were drowned in its swift currents. Stewart, a ranch owner and veteran of the river, and McKenna employed by Mr. Stewart had crossed the river near the Stewart ranch at willow creek to the Almiller farm on the opposite bank and were returning with some farm machinery when the boat capsized as it struck a whirlpool in midstream. Mr. Stewart was standing up in the boat to steady the cultivator and planter. When the boat upset the weight of the machinery apparently stunned him and he went under with the boat load. McKenna who was rowing grabbed Stewart by the hand when he came up and started to swim to shore but was unable to make it. He then tried to save his own life and was thrown a rope by Almiller who was standing on the bank. He missed the rope by about 12 feet. And being completely exhausted went under and was not seen again.
From the banks of the river Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. McKenna watched the tragedy. Mrs. Stewart attempted to get to the men on horseback but was ordered back on account of the futility of reaching them.
Father Of Eva Ashton
Mr. Stewart is survived by his wife Mrs. Elsie Wardle Stewart and son Arton Stewart of Myton. Another son and daughter by a former marriage, Van Stewart of Brigham City, Mrs. Eva Ashton of Vernal and a brother George of Ft. Duchesne. Mrs. Ashton who was vacationing in California prior to sailing for Honolulu with her husband and family received word of the accident Wednesday and will arrive in vernal Thursday night.
Mr. McKenna is survived by his widow Mrs. Fannie Allred McKenna a four year old son and three month old daughter.
Search Hampered
Immediately on hearing of the
Drowning, searching parties were organized in Roosevelt, Vernal, and Ouray. But due to the swollen muddy waters of the river the search is difficult and as yet no trace of the bodies has been discovered. Drag hooks and river equipment is being brought in from Salt Lake City and shore patrols and searching parties are patroling the waters for many miles.