Thursday, February 24, 2022

Randall Burt Kiesau, 10th Cousin


 Defensive back Randall Kiesau was one of the 31 victims when one of two chartered planes that were taking the Wichita State University football team to a game in Utah crashed in the Colorado mountains.

10th cousin once removed


 U.S. (Oklahoma) attorney and human rights activist killed in Iraq   Born in Bluejacket, Oklahoma, she shone socially and academically, becoming a homecoming queen and salutatorian at Miami High School earning a B.A, in psychology at the University of Oklahoma and graduating with honors from the University of Tulsa School of law before embarking on a successful career as an Oklahoma Lawyer.  Wanting to make a difference on a global level, Holland joined the Peace Corps in 2000, improved educational systems for children in Namibia and legal system for sexually exploited refugees in Guinea before fighting for women's rights in Iraq,  She labored bravely and tirelessly to set up women's centers in southern Iraq and train them in political and industrial skills, in spite of the danger she was in from those who disliked her work,  On March 9, 2004, she made a routine visit to the women's center in Karbala, which she had helped set up a month before.  While heading east from there back to Al-Hilla, where she was based, she was pursued by five Iraqi policemen in a van who swerved by her car and opened fire with their AK-47 machine guns, killing her and her companions:  Robert Zangas, a former Marine officer who returned as a civilian to work for the coalition, and Salwa Ourmashi, her Iraqi Translator and deputy,  Since Fern's death, Iraqi women have sworn to continue working for their democratic equality in the same spirit that Fern Holland had displayed with diligence and love.   Holland Posthumously received the Defense of Freedom Medal from the Army and the Heroic Oklahoman Award from Oklahoma Governor Brad henry, as well as a resolution from the Cherokee Nation of which she was a member, declaring that she "died as a warrior."  The legal aid Center she established in Guinea was renamed The Fern Holland Legal Aid Clinic of Nzerekore.

Monday, November 15, 2021

B. F. Burgess Civil War Veteran Dies (my 6th cousin three times removed)

Member of Famous 107th Volunteers Succumbs at Home of Son.

B.F. Burgess, G.A.R. veteran and the only Civil War veteran making his home in Olean who was a member of the 107th New York Volunteers, passed away Sunday morning at the six-fifteen o'clock at the home of his sone, Clarence A, Burgess, 216 West State Street.

Mr. Burgess was born January 9, 1844 in Trumansburg, N. Y. near Ithaca.  He enlisted with the New York Volunteers, Company D, 107th Regiment in Elmira, July, 1862.

The company left Elmira for Washington and took part in the following important battles and skirmishes:  Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Resea, Cassville, Dallas, Pine Knob, Kulpa Farm, Kennesaw, Peach Tree Creek, Siege of Atlanta, Ga., March to the Sea, Siege of Savannah, Rockingham, Averyboro and Bentonville.

While in action in the battle of New Hope Church, Mr. Burgess was wounded.  He was shot through the hand and the gun he held prevented the bullet from passing through his body.

Mr. Burgess, as a member of the regiment, walked 2,600 miles and was mustered out June 18, 1865,.  The 107th Volunteers were men who answered President Lincoln's call in '62 and the had the proud distinction of being the first of many regiments recruited under that call, fully organized and ready to take the field,  For this honor they received a silk banner from the State of New York.

The veteran was take prisoner October 22, 1862 and was held by the Confederates until march 1865, when he was released.

Mr. Burgess for many years was identified in the hotel and restaurant business in the section and came to Olean nineteen years ago from Titusville, Pa.  He was also interested in the oil producing business in Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania.

Surviving are one daughter Miss P.L. Siffrinn, this city; four sons Fred F. Burgess, Clarence A. Burgess, Oil City, Pa,  Dr. E. O. Burgess, Gerard, Pa, two brothers, Fred S. Burgess, Charles Burgess, Elmira; two sisters, Miss Harriett Burgess and Miss Rebecca Burgess, Elmira.  

Mr. Burgess was a member of B. D. Bayard Post G.A.R. this city and St. Mary of the Angels Church.


Friday, November 12, 2021

Good Advise

"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's living.  I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live."

Robert Duvall as Gus McCrae in the "Lonesome Dove."

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Veterans Day

Thanks to all veterans who have honorably served our country.

 I want to honor my 7th cousin twice removed, Lieutenant Warren Kenneth Wright, who was shot down on July 4th, 1944.  Following is a part of the story which was posted on Find-a-Grave.

Declared dead February 4, 1946

Graduate of Georgia Tech; entered service from Georgia; Plane shot down over Chichi Jima and he and gunner Fred Pryor did not return to USS Yorktown.  Book  "Flyboys:   A True Story of Courage" by James Brady describes witnesses seeing the plane shot down July 4, 1944 over Chichi Jim and one parachute deploying (not know which person it was).



Member of "The Wild Bunch" - My 8th cousin once removed

LAURA BULLION Laura Bullion (1890s) was born in Knickerbocker, Texas near Mertzon in Irion County, in 1876. The actual date of her birth is ...