All of my relatives were of Hungarian heritage (both my mother and father's families) and all of them settled on the East Coast, mostly in New Jersey.
My mother's family had a lot of colorful characters. My great-grandfather Janos von Gurdon was of royal blood. One of my great uncles, Frederick Lang, was executed for murder. My grandfather's mother, Sofia Knoll, committed suicide by drowning in the Raritan River.
I've always been fascinated with my family history.
My maternal grandmother, Anna Gordon Knoll, had several siblings who left New Jersey at an early age and ventured out west to the "bad lands" of New Mexico, to find adventure and a new way of life.
My grandmother's youngest brother George Gordon had a ranch near Clovis. One of her sisters, Mary, had ranch in Tucumcari. Some other relatives owned a resort in Red River.
The following photos are of my New Mexico relatives. I posted these several years ago on my old Texas blog Lone Star Concerto. I'm posting them again for those who haven't seen them - or have forgotten.
My great aunt Mary Gordon Forsthoffer was a flamboyant character. At the age of fourteen (in 1906) she witnessed her uncle Frederick Lang murder her sister Kate ( he shot her in the neck).. Afterwards, unhinged Fred chased Mary and shot her in the elbow, but she managed to escape (I wrote the details about this murder in two recent posts).
As a young woman, Mary married her best friend's brother. They moved to New Mexico and built a ranch near Tucumcari, where she became known as Tucumcari Mary. She was an excellent rider and sharpshooter - - and could blow the heads off rattlesnakes with one clean shot.
This photo is pasted in an album and was rather difficult to scan.
That's not a mountain - - it's a stack of hay!
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Mary in New Jersey, wearing a traditional Hungarian outfit.
My grandmother's youngest brother George Gordon, in Clovis, New Mexico. Roping a calf, I assume? Heck, I'm a city sissy.
Cattle at the Clovis ranch.
Chickens at the Clovis ranch
(hens? What do I know......)
(hens? What do I know......)
My great uncle George Gordon on horseback
On the Clovis ranch (above and below)
The driver of this contraption was my great uncle George's wife Mary (not to be confused with Tucumcari Mary)
George Gordon (left), and his friends Mary Glahn, and her husband Gary Glahn (right). Gary Glahn died of pneumonia at an early age. His widow Mary married my great uncle George.
Mary Glahn Gordon lived to be 90 and she used to tell me fascinating stories about life on the Clovis ranch. She died when I was sixteen.
George and his wife Mary in the 1920's.
Summer picnic somewhere near Clovis, New Mexico. George is in the foreground of photo, holding a bottle (soda? beer?). From what I heard, he never drank alcohol.
That's not a mountain - - it's a stack of hay!
My great uncle George Gordon all dolled up in his Sunday best (BTW, George was a cat lover, like myself. It runs in the family....)
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.......and as for me, I lived in Texas for more years than I care to remember. I was a faux cowboy - - a fake cowboy, a reluctant cowboy. What more can I say?
Jon
What a spitfire Mary turned out to be! I wonder if she learned to shoot so no one would EVER shoot at her again... I imagine she chewed tobacco too, or would have if she felt like it.
ReplyDeleteThe photo with the car and Bonnie and Clyde (smile) really fires the imagination. Where were they going? She looks like a flapper.
By the way, a reluctant cowboy is still a cowboy. :)
We have a family legend that one of our ancestors was a daughter of the Lloyds of London, rich as...well, rich, but left it all to marry the simple man she truly loved. That sounds like invented family folklore to be honest. We coulda been rich, but true love intervened... ha ha
Hey...why am I anonymous?? OK, now you have to guess who this is.
DeleteThere are several anonymous people who visit my blog. I'm guessing that you are John.......
DeleteNope! Ha ha
DeleteI'm not very good at guessing. John is always anonymous, but you aren't.
DeleteIt's amazing to look about on our families and see how different they lived to us. It seems more families were more colorful and had fat more interests then now. Made our future family members will find us colorful too.
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely colorful. I used to be colorful, but my colors are quickly fading. I'm now monochromatic....
DeleteYou'll always be colorful in my eyes! I saw your next post I do hope all is well and nothing too serious.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteGreat photos! The fellow roping the calf is in a rodeo event, calf roping, it's a timed event, and the arm up signals he's tied the legs and is done...so the judges can stop the stopwatch.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. I'd heard that my great-uncle was in a few local rodeos, but I wasn't quite sure.
DeleteYour Great-Uncle George was dapper! I see Bonnie and Clyde in that photo, too. I have heard a lot of family lore, but my mother didn't have a close relationship to the truth, so I think most of it was not true. She did tell truth now and again, so who knows? You have a colorful family history and I do believe it would take an awful lot to turn you monochromatic!
ReplyDeleteEver since I had all of the health problems I felt monochromatic. At least my relatives were colorful. Those photos of great-uncle George does remind me of Bonnie and Clyde.
DeletePerhaps I am colorful....but I try to be modest *smile*
I should have said "do" instead of "does". My grammar ain't too good.
DeleteI so enjoy your photos and comments! Not sure where I came to believe, but retelling these stories -- saying their names -- is one of the nicest ways to keep someone's memory alive. An honor, I think.
ReplyDeletePS - I agree about Bonnie and Clyde. Great-uncle George could be Warren Beatty's doppelganger.
PPS - One of my few remaining friends from high school lives on a ranch in Clovis.
Gosh, I'm the only one in the family who cares about our history. My feeble blog posts have only scratched the surface. I wish the older people hadn't died when I was so young. There are SO many questions I'd want to ask.
DeleteDoppelganger is an amusing concept.
I'm surprised that there are still ranches around Clovis. That sleepy little town seems to have deteriorated a lot.
thecontemplativecat here. My brother Bill was a cowboy from his young years. We lived on a farm, and he got a 2 yr. old quarter horse. He move to Texas where he developed a Texas accent. I miss him. I have b/w photos from my parents and grandparents. Also have letters and newspaper articles. they are treasures. Go to see you writing.
ReplyDeleteThe life of a cowboy is difficult but also intriguing. I'm sure that your brother enjoyed his life in Texas. Photos, letters, and newspaper articles are treasures. They reveal so much of the past which is now forgotten.
DeleteThanks for your comment.
What a colorful and interesting family history, Jon, and it made me wish I knew more about my own now deceased family members. It’s my regret that I was never curious enough to ask questions years ago.
ReplyDeleteI also regret that I wasn't able to ask questions. All of my elderly relatives died when I was very young. Unfortunately, none of my other relatives had any interest in our family history (except for my mother).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that I did a lot of extensive research, which wasn't easy.
Thanks for your comment, Dorothy.
My Swedish relatives were mostly farmers in Minnesota and the U.P. (Michigan). Similar types of pictures but without the cowboy hats. Our "cattle" were dairy cows--lol!
ReplyDeletePeople used to dress up to get photos taken...or to go to town or to church. Different times. The old photos are priceless! :)
I think I'd prefer dairy cows to cattle. I love old photos and they are definitely priceless. They seem to have more character than photos have nowadays.
DeleteWhat a handsome gentleman your great uncle George was, I see a resemblance.
ReplyDeleteYou have a very colorful ancestry one you are proud of, well maybe not so much the tempers 😊
Mary looks like a beautiful lady, and quite the horsewoman.
Our Cicadas are thinning out, hope yours are too !
Hugs,
Jo
My great-uncle George was kind and generous, truly a wonderful person. I really do have a colorful array of ancestors - - who never fail to fascinate me.
DeleteThere were very few cicadas around my area of TN and so far no lightning bugs. The days are finally sunny with no rain......yet.
Hungarian blood is thick like Hungarian bikaver/ bulls blood wine !
ReplyDeleteMy maternal grandmother was born in New Jersey of a Polish-Slovakian-Hungarian father ( what a mix ) and a Hungarian mother and both of them born in Budapest. Newark NJ was quite diverse with Portuguese living on the east side, Germans, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians on the west side, Jews and African Americans on the south side, the Wasp establishment on the north side and the Irish and Italians in the center.
They lived on Avon street and attended Blessed Sacrament Catholic church.
( Catholic Churches were very ethnic-centric then and you would catch hell if you were not of a churches dominate ethnicity - St Rocco, St Lucie -Italian, St Stanislaus -Polish, St Patrick -Irish, St Mary’s -German) So off they went to Blessed Sacrament.
During ww2 gran and great gran would cook and bake Hungarian and Polish specialties for the USO canteen.:)
They had to go easy spicing up the paprikas and goulash for the sailors and soldiers.
Must say your ranch family are like the csikos of the puszta in Hungary. :)
Egeszesegedre ! -Rj
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and very interesting comment. There was an enormous amount of ethnic diversity in New Jersey, which makes it so interesting - - and you're right about the ethnic-centric churches.
ReplyDelete