Cool Kephart Cars

I was going through some old photos today and I thought it might be fun to share some photos of some of my Kephart family--but with photos that all have cars in them. I really don't have a lot of old photos that have vintage cars in them too, so it's always a treat when I find one. These photos are the majority of what I have! Most of these include siblings of my maternal grandmother. Just a couple of them though have my mom and uncle in them.

First up: a photo of my maternal great aunt, Lorena Faye Kephart. Not even sure how old she is in the photo, but it was taken in Wellston, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. She was born in 1921, and if I had to guess, she was five or six in this photo. 

Grandma Kephart's Cook Books

I was looking through my cook books this morning and became a little bit nostalgic. I have 4 generations of cook books in my kitchen, and some recipes that go back even farther than that. So, I thought I'd highlight a few of those for this week's Tuesday Treasures post. 

These are just three of the cookbooks that originally belonged to my maternal great grandmother, Della Mae (Swinford) Kephart. She was born in Vandalia, Missouri on May 13, 1888; she died in Wellston, Oklahoma on April 7, 1976. These cookbooks were passed down to her daughter, my grandmother, Della Maxine (Kephart) Hammersmith, who then passed them to my mother, Carolyne (Kephart) Gould. My mom gave them to me many moons ago, and they're always in my kitchen. And every once in awhile I like to pull some out and see what looks good to make. But the history in these cookbooks is also really cool, so I thought it'd be fun to share them here.

Wednesday's Child - Ruby Christina Kephart

I've pretty much gone by the name, 'Tina' my whole life. But my given name is Christina, and I was named after one of my maternal great aunts, Ruby Christina Kephart. So, I thought I'd make Aunt Ruby the spotlight of this week's Wednesday's Child feature. 

Ruby Christina Kephart was born September 29, 1909 in Wellston, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of John Arthur Kephart and Della Mae (Swinford) Kephart, and she was the first born of 11 children born to my great grandparents. She also happened to share the share the same birthday (though 18 years apart) with my grandmother, Della Maxine Kephart. 

You have to admit, she was such an adorable baby! She was quite pretty as she grew older as well. Just look at her, wearing perfectly awesome bows in her hair--long before someone named 'Jo-Jo' got famous doing it. ;) 

I didn't get to see my Aunt Ruby much when I was growing up, since we lived in different states. But I always loved the fact that I was someone's namesake. I thought she had to be very special for my mom to have named me after her. Whenever I did see her, she was always very kind and sweet to me. And the cool part is, my sister named her first daughter Christina as well, so really, we are both namesakes of my great Aunt Ruby! I am so thankful I have these photos of her, and glad to be able to share them as this week's Wednesday's Child.

Lincoln County Oklahoma History

In my last blog post, I wrote about a recent photo discovery made of an old photo gallery built and owned by my great grandfather, John Arthur Kephart. It was so great to get that from the kind researcher at the Lincoln County Historical Society in Chandler, Oklahoma. So I asked her what book she found the photo in, and she told me it was from the Society's history book of the county, called Lincoln County Oklahoma History. That book is no longer in print, but I found a copy on Ebay--all 1,572 pages of it. I have so many ancestors from Lincoln County, I knew I had to have, so I'm glad I won that auction!

Believe me when I say that I've not yet read this beast of a book. I'm skimming and scanning my way through slowly. But I did check the index straight away to check for ancestor names, and they were there! In particular, I have found a couple of great photos and articles, both written by my great aunt, Ruby Christina (Kephart) Stephens, who is my namesake. Much of the content of the book about various local families was written by living family members, who I'm sure also provided many photos. I so love the photos! Yay!

The photo below is of my great, great grandmother, Susan Eleanor (Templeton) Kephart. Next to her is her granddaughter, my great aunt Ruby, when she was a young girl.

Nellie (as Susan was often called) was a prize-winning gardener and canner, among many other things. So I love that this photo in the book shows her with some of her canned goods. 

This next photo from the book is of my maternal great grandparents, Della Mae (Swinford) Kephart, and John Arthur Kephart. 

Until I saw this photograph in the book, I had forgotten that I had seen a real one many times before--in my grandparents' home. As soon as I saw it I could picture it hanging on Nana's wall. I love that photo of them! I only wish I had a real copy of the photo myself.  But this one is better than nothing, and it sure was nice to find it in the book.

And since my great grandfather was a photographer back in the day, and one of the only ones in Lincoln County for quite awhile, he is credited for taking some of the photos in the history book as well. As I go through the book I am bookmarking pages and making notes, and I hope to share more information from it here on the blog in the future. I have some other Swinford ancestors in the book as well. So who knows what else I may find.

I wish every county had books like this. It really is a wonderful way to travel back in time and visit the places so many of my ancestors lived. What a treasure for a genealogist like me!