Checking in and Checking Up

I heard about another book on Valley County, Idaho history and thought I would check it out.  The book is "Free Land! Hopes and Hardships of Pioneers of Valley County, Idaho."   It is a Valley County History Project published by them in 2009.  The Valley County History Project is composed of writers and researchers who donate their work to this non-profit organization.  I could have bought the book directly from this group, but chose to order it online from Amazon.com. 

The book is full of nice pictures, maps, and lots of information, but it is lacking information on my Dexter forefathers who were early pioneers of Valley County and the information they have on the Logue's (also early settlers) is grossly wrong.  I'm not sure who supplied them with the information but they sure got it wrong. 

First, see my posting of March 21, 2012, for information on the Dexters and their journey to Idaho's Long Valley.  I used this information to file for a pioneer certificate from the Idaho Genealogical Society. 

Pioneer Certificates

Pioneer certificates are issued to direct descendants of persons who lived in Idaho before Statehood, 3 July 1890.  Applicants must prove direct descent from a person who was in Idaho Territory prior to statehood.  The ancestor need not have been born here; they need not have stayed here but applicants must prove they were once here.

As for the Logues (also early settlers), in the tables starting on page 240 (Valley County Genealogy, compiled and edited by Eileen Duarte), they list George A. Logue as follows:
GEORGE A. LOGUE came to Long Valley in 1901 and met his wife SARA who came here with her family in 1889.  (WRONG - George A Logue (born 25 Dec 1840) married Sarah A Sweet, in Pennsylvania before 1869 and was father to Thomas E Logue, Johns S Logue, and Fred S Logue, all of whom moved to Idaho in 1901 - see Our Logue Family History by Wesley Craig on the Valley County Genweb page.  He lost his first wife, Sarah, in 1882 and remarried Aurilla Ervay, having a daughter Bessie with her, still in Pennsylvania.)  They homesteaded in Crawford. George's brother THOMAS ELBRIDGE LOGUE born 1870 married MARY WINNIE DEXTER of Crawford and ran the FS Logue & Bros Store in Thunder and died 1954.   (WRONG: Thomas E Logue was George's oldest son.  He did marry Mary Dexter - of the above mentioned Dexter family - but did not run the store in Thunder.  His two younger brothers, Fred and John were owners and operators of the store.  In checking out land records, a brother of George, Washington S Logue, also filed for a homestead in Valley County and is listed on the 1920 census living next to George's daugher Bessie and her husband, John P. Lampie.  Other Logues listed in the land records are Ezra Logue, a cousin, Thomas, John and Fred.)  George's son Merton was born in 1910 (George would have been 70 years old then) became a logger and later was Sheriff and died 1987.  Another son Cecil was born 1907 married Rachel Crawford 1933. George's son Walter was born 1909, married Vava Marguerite Jones 1902 and their daughter Leona born 1918.  (WRONG:  Cecil, Walter, Merton, and Leona were children of Thomas E and Mary Winne Logue.)  

Why these errors surprise me is that the authors use a lot of information from Wes Craig (my cousin and grandson of George's daughter Bessie Logue) as sources for their Logue information and he is the author of the Logue Family History which proves that their data is incorrect.


One other small error noted: In the same table as above the authors list my uncle Joe Crawford (wife Mable) as brother to Otto W Crawford.  They are not brothers (his brothers were Will, Walt, Ernest and Cash) and I have not found any connection between these two Crawford families.


I apologize for neglecting my blog.  I invested in the 2012 Family Tree Maker because I thought it would be great to have software that would sync with my family tree on Ancestry.com - maybe save some time rather that have to enter the same data twice.  WRONG.  I've totally messed up my Family Tree Maker database and I've spend hundreds of hours trying to get it back to where I had it.  Doesn't leave much time to post to my blog.  I hope to be at a comfortable place with the database where I can take time to post regularly.