It wasn't too long ago, just yesterday as a matter of fact*, that I found out what happened to Uncle Cornelius' grand daughters, Bessie, Rhea and Carrie. They are the 3 young ladies with X's above their heads in the back row of this photograph. Uncle was the older brother of my Great Grandfather, David. They were born in Adams County, Pennsylvania. David started out for California when he was about 20 to prospect for gold, but settled down to farm instead in Lee County, Illinois, after working in Rockford as a carpenter for awhile. His family was German Baptist Brethren (now Church of the Brethren), and there were a number of that group in the Franklin Grove/Ashton area. For awhile, Cornelius also lived in Lee County. One of Cornelius' daughters married a Sarchett, the other a Deardorff. At some point, the Deardorffs moved to California, and people sitting on my branch of the family tree back in Illinois and Iowa didn't know what became of that branch.
Yesterday I received a packet of information from a 2nd cousin once removed in Iowa from a third cousin once removed in Virginia. She has written an article for a Chinese American history journal, but when I checked the web, I see she'd also added something to the web about the Berean Bible School in Los Angeles, which is where I found this photo. This school was modeled after the Bethany Bible School in Chicago of which my grandfather was a trustee. Both of these schools had very active missions among the Chinese in their respective cities.
*I actually learned about this family in 2004, but hadn't put all the pieces together and had lost the e-mail of the source.
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