We are very excited to make contact with so many relatives and individuals via the internet. As we move into this new era of genealogical research, we note how much things have changed over the last 10 years. We are regularly getting emails from individuals who tie into our lines. Research on Amelia Augusta (Anderson) MOWER is continuing and additional relatives are being identified in Sweden. I have made contact again with Michael GISIGER in Switzerland and he is working again to send information to us on the genealogy of our GEISSINGER line. I have identified a descendant of the Goetzis, Vorarlberg, Austria Geissingers living in Iowa and we have shared genealogical information. The Brill research is slow, but we remain hopeful. I will include in this letter a sampling of the emails we are receiving and then finish the John Lisbon Mower history which many have found interesting.
On my personal scene, my son Daniel is in southern Spain serving his mission. My son Matt is getting his mission papers in order to send in. My son Chris is Senior class president and up to his ears planning for graduation activities. He has received a speech scholarship to college. Holly is 15 going on 25. Tedi Jeen is working on researching her German ancestors in the German records and I am keeping names flowing to individuals where people want to do temple work. I am also searching internet sources, answering emails, and generally working 2 jobs to keep everybody going in their different directions. Mingled with all of this is my work in the high council and Tedi Jeen's work in the Stake Relief Society. Are we happy? You bet! Thanks for your support! Jerry and Tedi Jeen.
Subject: Brill
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000
From: Lee Andersen landersun@home.com
I have a question. On my pedigree chart from FamilySearch, it says that
Martin Brill is from Bockweiler,Germany. Is that true?
M. Andersen
[NO]
Subject: Brill
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000
From: Lee Andersen landersun@home.com
I can't tell you how shocked and pleased I was to find your web site! I, too, have been looking for Martin Brill and his decendants. Here's my relationship to Martin Brill:
Martin Brill
Christopher Brill
Samuel Brill
John Brill
George Brill
Walter Brill
Lela Brill Kidd
Marilyn Kidd Andersen
Walter Brill was born in Noble County, Indiana. His father, George, had a farm there. My mother, Lela, grew up on that farm outside of Wawaka, Indiana. The farm has been in the family for over 100 years. George Washington Brill married Charlotte Trittipo (Trittebach) of Lovettsville, VA in June of 1856 (LaGrange, IN). I have some info on the Trittipos. Let me know if any of this is relavant. Marilyn Andersen, Park Ridge Illinois
Subject: Gisiger Family-Tree
Dear Jerry
First I have to excuse myself for not sending you the promised family-tree for almost a year. I completely forgot about it until tonight, when I came along once again your homepage, where I found the entries of the newsletter 1 1999. Well, here I am again, willing to send you a copy, but unfortunately, I deleted the email with your adress long time ago. Could you please mail it to me. In that mentioned newsletter, I found the following passage, that caught my eye:
I would be pleased to here more about that, especially, if you found out about the Geissinger family through that one Anna Gisiger in your family-tree. We always knew, that our ancestors originated from Austria, but we could never find the "missing-link". Even though I have to admit, that I think the origin of my family's name is the village Gisingen (nowadays a part of the ciy of Feldkirch), first mentioned in 825 AD. Yours, Michael Gisiger
Subject: Re: Gisiger Family-Tree
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000
From: Michael Gisiger michael.gisiger@lycosmail.com
Hello again!
Well, I have to send you a photocopy, because there is no electronic data yet. I also have a profound collection of almost all the used sources from the archieves of the canton of Solothurn in German, compiled by the same Mr Ambros Kocher who made the family tree (he used to be the head of those archieves from the 50ies to the 70ies). In 1972, he also published a book about our family's homevillage Selzach (about 5 km from the city of Solothurn) with more than 700 pages. This book is also a very good source My family lives in Selzach since the beginning (as you may know, here in Switzerland we have a comlex system of citizenship: First, you are a citizen of a village or city. Based on that, you are a citizen of the canton, the village is situated in, and finally, based on that, you are a citizen of the Swiss Confederation.). Yours, Michael
Continuation of John Lisbon Mower history....
up. They all kept their records in little notebooks for all their records. I used to sit in the parlor and listen to them; I was quite interested in figures. Father owned a share in the old thrashing machine; it was run by horse power. Eight different men owned the thrasher. Each man put a team of horses on the old horse power and the eight teams went round and round all day in a circle pulling the horse power which made the thrasher go. My brother Winston stood up on the middle of the horse power, and he had to keep all thoses horses going at a certain speed. Preston Stewart, Amasa Terry, Ed Orkon, Winston, Uncle Will, and three other men owned the thrasher, but old Parley Young, and other men followed along with the thrasher as workers.
Father always raised a bumper crop of certified potatoes. In the fall we dug wagon loads (double beds) of the best varieties, usually blue mashantio. He always fattened five big hogs for butchering; they were so big and fat they could hardly walk. Uncle Hon Titcomb always did the butchering; he would always butcher them about Christmas holiday time or a little after. In the spring he always hired the hams, shoulders, and bacon smoked. In later years a son-in-law, Urban Hartley, did the butchering for them.
Father had a big herd of milk cows, as well as his beef cattle. The whole milk from the cows was sold to the creamery, where it was separated, and he received the skim milk back to feed the pigs. Later the creamery was forced to close, so Father bought a DeLavel cream separator and sold the cream to the Fairview cream stations. He raised many stacks of hay, as well as two barns full, which he fed to his cows, cattle, and his horses. He never sold hay. He grazed his beef cattle on the mountains during the summer. He owned a large cattle permit, and when the cattle came from the mountains in the fall, they were ready to be sold for beef. He always kept three fine teams of working horses, as well as several riding horses. He took great pride in his beautiful horses.
He took great pride in feeding all his animals all they could eat. Then he liked to stand and watch them eat. He always overfed all his animals; there was feed before them always. He even overfed his big flock of gray Plymouth Rock chickens. Wheat was always on the ground before them, and all the birds and neighbor's pigeons ate right along with the chickens. There was always plenty of eggs produced from these chickens for cooking and eating. They never had to save and sell their eggs as neighbors did.
Father had planted a big orchard of fruit and berries of the finest variety, which the whole family enjoyed all summer and winter. Father had studied and understood the soil on his farm, and he fertilized it early each spring with the piles of manure from his animals with a big manure spreader drawn by horses. He always did his own irrigation, and he always rode his riding horses and carried his shovel up over his left shoulder when he went to irrigate his different streams of water. He was always very kind to his horses. After using his riding horse he would always water it and tie it at the barn to eat, before he came to the house to eat his own meal.
John Lisbon and his good wife Amelia (Emily), shared their hospitality with everyone. All the travelers and peddlers made their home a stopping place. Amelia always had to prepare plenty of food, for it didn't matter who came along at mealtime, or while the family was eating, John Lisbon would insist that they set up and eat a bite. He would always say "Now make yourselves right at home." And a nice, clean, soft bed was always ready for relatives, friends, peddlers, and even tramps who stayed for lodging for the night.
He always lived the fifth commandment, that of honoring and respecting your parents, right to the letter. His mother moved to Oak Creek in her later years. She lived in a little log home, where Opal Barton's home now stands. Each night during the warm months of the year John Lisbon would make a trip to her home each night to cut wood for her stove and visit a while with her. When cold weather came, his mother and her little adopted daughter Emma Jane would move in and live with her son John Lisbon and family all winter until spring came, in their one log room. My mother said she had never had a word with her husband's mother in all the time that they were acquainted and living together. And I have never heard my mother say a disrespectful word about Grandma Mower during my whole life; everything was honor and praise for her My mother said she was the most perfect and good woman. And my father treated my mother's mother with just as much honor and respect, love, and kindness.
In the winter of 1922 (in January) my father fell ill with the influenza. He developed a bad cough and never did completely recover. His heart became affected, and his liver enlarged. He was never able to work again. He was confined to the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake several times, and was under the best doctor's care. He was tapped for bloat in his body and legs; he also had all his teeth removed. And he suffered terribly with nervousness.
It was at this time that he took his wife, and they went together to the Manti Temple to become endowed and sealed. They were endowed and sealed on March 8, 1922. One of his greatest regrets in this life was that he had waited so late in this life to have this greatest of all works accomplished. He said, "I have been so busy in life, and have put off and neglected the greatest blessing that I should have taken care of years ago." At the time of his long illness his dear wife still stood faithfully by his side to aid him in every way and make him comfortable, as she had always done throughout their married life. It was at this time that he told her, "I have always been proud of my wife and so satisfied."
He passed away in death at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 16, 1923, at his home. He was sitting on the side of the bed eating some soup that Marie Nordhoek Anderson had just brought in for him. His brother Cheal was sitting in the bedroom talking to him. It seems strange that these two brother that had been so close all through life should be together at his death. While Amelia had been expecting his death, she still wasn't prepared for it, and it was a great shock to her. She lived 14-1/2 years after his passing, but she always said that the longer he was away, the more she missed him. Amelia passed away in her sleep Sunday forenoon October 10, 1937. They are buried side-by-side in the old city cemetary in Fairview beside their five children that had passed on before them. John Lisbon was 64 years old at the time of his death, and Amelia was 73-1/2 years old when she passed away.