I originally wrote this on Wednesday March 2nd, 2011. I posted it as a note on facebook, now I'm posting it as a blog.
Back in 1999, my grandma broke her ankle when trying to turn on a ceiling fan. She then came to live with us and she ended up living with us until her dying day (alzheimer's slowly crept in and with her diabetes she was unable to live by herself.) As she was living with us, she specifically told us "Don't go through my stuff! It's mine!" And so we never did.
June of 2008 came, and grandma went. She passed away. About a year later, I got the opportunity to move into her house. Dude.....talk about crazy.
First off, grandma grew up in the depression...secondly, grandma was a hoarder...and third, the last year she lived in her house was 1999, and guess what everyone was freakin' out about in 1999? Y2K. So grandma decided to be a busy chipmunk and stock up for the end of the world.
In other words...She kept EVERYTHING!
In the beginning, we couldn't walk through the living room because of all the stuff. At one point we loaded up our pick-up of old canned food (just can food) and took it to the dump...we weighed it...over SIX HUNDRED POUNDS!
What a waste.
Like I said, grandma had everything, and if she didn't have a use for it...she collected it for fun. Apparently, other than her famous elephant collection, she also had a collection of phone books, mattresses, water jugs, ice cube trays, combs, tupperware (oh goodness, so much tupperware!), boxes of fabric material from the floor to the ceiling, etc.
Some of the stuff she had are things I can actually use. I know I will never have to buy floss, light bulbs, or matches again.
Bottom line...there was a lot of stuff........in fact, I'm still going through things.
At one point, I came across an old piece of paper. I looked at it briefly and thought, "eh, must be some old family heirloom" and threw it in the 'keep pile' to look through later.
About a year later, in 2010, I came across that same piece of paper, and decided to inspect it. It said in big words at the top "Mineral Springs College" and then in big words in the middle, there was a "Bachelor of English Literature presented to Clarence B. Overholts on this day June ? of 1899."
I remember thinking "1899, that's pretty old, wait a second, who is Clarence B. Overholts?"
So many questions ran through my mind.
Who is Clarence B. Overholts?
Did he know our family?
Is he related to us?
How did his degree get into my grandma's house?
Why would she even have this? (oh wait, she kept everything, there was no logic behind that question regarding her.)
Nobody in my family knew who he was or how we ended up with his degree. My parents came to the conclusion that perhaps it was given to my grandma by another hoarder.
I didn't want the degree in my house because it has no sentimental value to my family or me (if it was my great-grandpa's degree I would keep it, but it's not). But I didn't want to destroy it either...I mean, it's a neat little piece of history. It wasn't very common to go to college back in the 18 hundreds, let alone actually graduate with a degree. I'm sure someone would like it...but who?
At the beginning of this year I started writing out my new year's resolutions. I decided I would add to my list "Return this 1899 bachelor's degree belonging to a "Clarence B. Overholts" to his family" because if I didn't make it a goal, it probably wouldn't get done, and I'm tired of holding onto it.
So I set out to find the relatives of Clarence B. Overholts.
First I decided to check out "Mineral Springs College" because knowing my luck it's a college in Ohio and all the relatives are in a different time zone. But no...there used to be a Mineral Springs College in Sodaville Oregon, which is in Linn County, our neighboring county. That was a good sign...it meant I was on the right track.
Then, I decided to look up Clarence B. Overholts...and the only thing I got was a "Clarence B. Overholts" listed as being buried in a "Wisner Cemetery" in Linn County, outside of Stayton. Coincidence?
He was born in 1872, and died in 1968. I thought, "mmm, if this is the right guy, then he would have graduated when he was around 28, I guess that sounds about right."
So I decided to look up his relatives...wife...kids...grandkids...whatever I could get.
And I got nothing.
Dead ends.
I was starting to feel hopeless.
So I asked my old college roommate Lizette if she had access to "Ancestry.com" and she said "my english teacher has an ancestry.com account! i can ask her to look!!!" And then we got a hit, a few hits actually. But none of those hits struck back. Until Lynn looked up and talked to a "Grandma Dart" also known as Linda Dart. Apparently, Clarence had a little sister named Vera who married someone named William Dart. Their great-granddaughter is Linda Dart. So I sent a few emails and apparently Linda is into genealogy and was very interested in the diploma.
Finally on March 1st 2011, I met face-to-face with Linda Dart. She was very excited about the document. She called her grandpa (Clarence's nephew, who is still alive at 91) and asked if he still remembered him, and her grandpa said that Clarence had never married (that explains the dead-ends) and that he was excited to hear about the document because apparently Clarence was his favorite uncle, and Linda said that he "choked up" when he heard about the college degree.
That did a little number in my heart when I heard that :D
She asked how I came upon it and I simply told her the same story from above and said "I honestly don't know how it ended up in my house, I just know it doesn't belong to my family and I want to give it back to the rightful family, it's too old and neat to be destroyed, figured someone might enjoy it."
In fact, after she took the document she said she was planning on heading over to her grandpa's house just to show him, I guess he likes to talk about "the good ol' days."
It felt really good, returning that 112 year-old piece of family history to its rightful owners.
The whole experience of searching and trying to find someone who was related to this guy who had been dead for over 40 years was definitely a challenge. But I succeeded. I can cross number 33 off my New Year's Resolution list, and can sleep well knowing I made a little difference in someone's life.
I personally would like to thank Lizette and her teacher Lynn for all their help. If it weren't for you guys I'd probably still be looking and finding dead-ends. Thanks a lot, you guys helped bring a special heirloom back to their family, and I'm sure it really made a difference to Linda's grandpa, a guy who knew and loved Clarence very much. :]
Back in 1999, my grandma broke her ankle when trying to turn on a ceiling fan. She then came to live with us and she ended up living with us until her dying day (alzheimer's slowly crept in and with her diabetes she was unable to live by herself.) As she was living with us, she specifically told us "Don't go through my stuff! It's mine!" And so we never did.
June of 2008 came, and grandma went. She passed away. About a year later, I got the opportunity to move into her house. Dude.....talk about crazy.
First off, grandma grew up in the depression...secondly, grandma was a hoarder...and third, the last year she lived in her house was 1999, and guess what everyone was freakin' out about in 1999? Y2K. So grandma decided to be a busy chipmunk and stock up for the end of the world.
In other words...She kept EVERYTHING!
In the beginning, we couldn't walk through the living room because of all the stuff. At one point we loaded up our pick-up of old canned food (just can food) and took it to the dump...we weighed it...over SIX HUNDRED POUNDS!
What a waste.
Like I said, grandma had everything, and if she didn't have a use for it...she collected it for fun. Apparently, other than her famous elephant collection, she also had a collection of phone books, mattresses, water jugs, ice cube trays, combs, tupperware (oh goodness, so much tupperware!), boxes of fabric material from the floor to the ceiling, etc.
Some of the stuff she had are things I can actually use. I know I will never have to buy floss, light bulbs, or matches again.
Bottom line...there was a lot of stuff........in fact, I'm still going through things.
At one point, I came across an old piece of paper. I looked at it briefly and thought, "eh, must be some old family heirloom" and threw it in the 'keep pile' to look through later.
About a year later, in 2010, I came across that same piece of paper, and decided to inspect it. It said in big words at the top "Mineral Springs College" and then in big words in the middle, there was a "Bachelor of English Literature presented to Clarence B. Overholts on this day June ? of 1899."
I remember thinking "1899, that's pretty old, wait a second, who is Clarence B. Overholts?"
So many questions ran through my mind.
Who is Clarence B. Overholts?
Did he know our family?
Is he related to us?
How did his degree get into my grandma's house?
Why would she even have this? (oh wait, she kept everything, there was no logic behind that question regarding her.)
Nobody in my family knew who he was or how we ended up with his degree. My parents came to the conclusion that perhaps it was given to my grandma by another hoarder.
I didn't want the degree in my house because it has no sentimental value to my family or me (if it was my great-grandpa's degree I would keep it, but it's not). But I didn't want to destroy it either...I mean, it's a neat little piece of history. It wasn't very common to go to college back in the 18 hundreds, let alone actually graduate with a degree. I'm sure someone would like it...but who?
At the beginning of this year I started writing out my new year's resolutions. I decided I would add to my list "Return this 1899 bachelor's degree belonging to a "Clarence B. Overholts" to his family" because if I didn't make it a goal, it probably wouldn't get done, and I'm tired of holding onto it.
So I set out to find the relatives of Clarence B. Overholts.
First I decided to check out "Mineral Springs College" because knowing my luck it's a college in Ohio and all the relatives are in a different time zone. But no...there used to be a Mineral Springs College in Sodaville Oregon, which is in Linn County, our neighboring county. That was a good sign...it meant I was on the right track.
Then, I decided to look up Clarence B. Overholts...and the only thing I got was a "Clarence B. Overholts" listed as being buried in a "Wisner Cemetery" in Linn County, outside of Stayton. Coincidence?
He was born in 1872, and died in 1968. I thought, "mmm, if this is the right guy, then he would have graduated when he was around 28, I guess that sounds about right."
So I decided to look up his relatives...wife...kids...grandkids...whatever I could get.
And I got nothing.
Dead ends.
I was starting to feel hopeless.
So I asked my old college roommate Lizette if she had access to "Ancestry.com" and she said "my english teacher has an ancestry.com account! i can ask her to look!!!" And then we got a hit, a few hits actually. But none of those hits struck back. Until Lynn looked up and talked to a "Grandma Dart" also known as Linda Dart. Apparently, Clarence had a little sister named Vera who married someone named William Dart. Their great-granddaughter is Linda Dart. So I sent a few emails and apparently Linda is into genealogy and was very interested in the diploma.
Finally on March 1st 2011, I met face-to-face with Linda Dart. She was very excited about the document. She called her grandpa (Clarence's nephew, who is still alive at 91) and asked if he still remembered him, and her grandpa said that Clarence had never married (that explains the dead-ends) and that he was excited to hear about the document because apparently Clarence was his favorite uncle, and Linda said that he "choked up" when he heard about the college degree.
That did a little number in my heart when I heard that :D
She asked how I came upon it and I simply told her the same story from above and said "I honestly don't know how it ended up in my house, I just know it doesn't belong to my family and I want to give it back to the rightful family, it's too old and neat to be destroyed, figured someone might enjoy it."
In fact, after she took the document she said she was planning on heading over to her grandpa's house just to show him, I guess he likes to talk about "the good ol' days."
It felt really good, returning that 112 year-old piece of family history to its rightful owners.
The whole experience of searching and trying to find someone who was related to this guy who had been dead for over 40 years was definitely a challenge. But I succeeded. I can cross number 33 off my New Year's Resolution list, and can sleep well knowing I made a little difference in someone's life.
I personally would like to thank Lizette and her teacher Lynn for all their help. If it weren't for you guys I'd probably still be looking and finding dead-ends. Thanks a lot, you guys helped bring a special heirloom back to their family, and I'm sure it really made a difference to Linda's grandpa, a guy who knew and loved Clarence very much. :]
That's terrific:) And definitely worth posting about. Thanks for sharing it on your list!!
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