kuglen.com

Among the amazing pictures Mom and I found while going through boxes of old pictures are these two of Grandpap in World War I as a member of Gen.  Pershing’s staff.  The first picture is from a postcard from WWI – a real postcard!

Grandpap in uniform

This second one might take a little longer to load, but give it time – it is really an amazing photo and I didn’t want to adjust the size of the photo so you can see what I saw.  The original picture is 2 1/2 x 4 inches and the faces are hard to distinguish.  I looked at the photo with a magnifying glass and thought Grandpap was the man in the lower right.  Mom suggested that he was the man in the front row, third from the left (in the middle).  I brought the photo home and scanned it, which allowed me to see the faces at a bigger size and as soon as I looked at it Grandpap’s face jumped out at me as the last face on the left in the back row, with a cigar in his mouth. I am giving everyone a chance to see what I saw – to me there is no mistake.  The man with the cigar in his mouth is Grandpap.  Look at the expression on his face!  He’s got some swagger.

Grandpap rear left with cigar in his mouth

The original photo is ancient – nearly 100 years old and on the back, written in Grandpap’s cursive is “The ‘Gang’ at GHQ Dec. 1918.” This is an thrilling part of Grandpap, because he never spoke of it and I never saw these pictures before this summer.

I received this from Julie Kuglen in Austin:

You ask in the [previous]posting if the Sam Kuglen of steamboat legend is the same Samuel Kuglen as the one who built the house on Market Street. Based on records I’ve found on the Internet, I suspect he was. A Wheeling directory listing for 1890-91 lists him and Captain William Prince as proprietors of the Belle Prince Towboat Company with an office on Water Street.  An interesting point: The 1880, 1900, and 1910 census records*  show him living at (and owning) 23 7th Street, which is also listed in the historical registry [and he, his wife, his son Frank, daughter-in-law, and 5 grandchildren (the kids in the photo) are listed as living there in 1900], so I’m wondering if he ever lived in the house on Market Street.  He is also described as a landlord in some of the records–perhaps he built the Market Street property to rent it to others.  I’m wondering if the photograph was taken at the house on 7th Street. (*Most of the 1890 census records were destroyed by fire.)   Other info about him:

–the paternal grandfather of the children listed in the photograph you posted

–of the first generation of Kuglens born in the United States

–born Nov. 1841 in Ohio, married Elizabeth Elbert in 1866, died Feb. 1917 in Wheeling

–some of his occupations, as cited in the U. S. Census records and Wheeling directory include “works in rolling mill” (1870 census), “tinsmith” (1880 census), “sheet ironworker” (1888 directory), “landlord” (1900)

Here is the way the National register of Historic Places describes 23 7th Street:

23 7^th Street, circa 1880’s – The date of this building is not firm but based on similar structures in the district.  The house is three-stories tall, the third story being behind a Mansard roof, thus the architecture is called Mansard, sometimes referred to as Second Empire.  The building is brick with stone foundation and slate roof.  Window hoods are segmental arches.  A handsome two-story bay window appears at the west side.

Nice work Julie! The Kuglens are all over Historic Wheeling.

Here are my questions – is the man you are talking about the grandfather of the five Kuglen children in the photograph or is he the father?  Is Frank Kuglen our great-grandfather and partner in Duffield & Kuglen or is there someone else?  Is the first-generation-born-in-America Samuel Kuglen our great-great-grandfather?

1900 Kuglens

Here are the young Kuglens – for most of us, our Grandparents – out side the house in North Wheeling.  I can’t tell if they are in the front of the house or the back of the house, but I am sure someone will look at it and be able to tell.

While Mom was in Wheeling last week, George Carenbauer took her to Historic North Wheeling and the visited the house.  For those of you who don’t know, George is my mom’s nephew, an attorney in Charleston W VA, and the man who keeps unearthing information about the Kuglens in Wheeling.  He discovered that the house is part of the Historic North Wheeling, and that “…629 ½ Market Street, circa 1885 – Samuel Kuglen, who built 629 ½ , was a noted businessman in Wheeling.He was a builder of boilers for steamboats among other products manufactured by the firm of Duffield & Kuglen. The house is Greek Revival in style, with much of the original fabric remaining. There is a wide frieze at the cornice with sodillions and dentils, a gable dormer with closed pediment, and fluted columns at the windows. The pediment is filled with a sunburst design. Lintels and sills are stone and the building is brick with a stone foundation. All windows have operable shutters.”  While he was with mom,  ”We were at an antique store yesterday, where the shopkeeper is a steamboat buff and has written 2 books on steamboat manufacturing in Wheeling.  He said he believes Kuglen & Duffield was a subcontractor to Phillips (sic) the major manufacturer, which had its shipyard at 6th street on the Ohio Rive, only 2 blocks down from the house.”   I remember hearing when I was little the legend of Sam Kuglen, who shuttled the capital of West Virginia on a steamboat back and forth on the river (I am guessing the Allegheny)  during the Civil War.  Is this the man or is he one more generation removed?

Here are some up close photos of the house taken last week:

Kuglen House backyard

Steps leading to the back door of the Kuglen house

The door to nowhere

A view of the street

629 1/2 !!

Joan and Dick in front of the Kuglen house

I couldn’t think of enough superlatives to thank George for doing this – taking the photos, taking Mom and Dick down to the house and showing it to them, and gathering the information.  I went to the dictionary and looked under

AWESOME

and this is what I found :

Thanks George – we think you are the best!

629-1_2-market-st-wheeling-wv-with-notes

If you click on the link, you get a bigger view of the house and you can actually read all Tom’s notes.

“629 ½ Market Street, circa 1885 – Samuel Kuglen, who built 629 ½ , was a noted businessman in Wheeling. He was a builder of boilers for steamboats among other products manufactured by the firm of Duffield & Kuglen. The house is Greek Revival in style, with much of the original fabric remaining. There is a wide frieze at the cornice with sodillions and dentils, a gable dormer with closed pediment, and fluted columns at the windows. The pediment is filled with a sunburst design. Lintels and sills are stone and the building is brick with a stone foundation. All windows have operable shutters.”

Tom Kuglen did all the work (He went overboard, sending and resending me the picture until I finally got an image I could download on my archaic PC). He google mapped the address from the previous post, then he actually looked up the all the terminology that helps to identify the house, which out great, or great-great grandfather, added to the house when it was built in the 1880′s. George Carenbauer, who is not actually a Kuglen, has promised me he will take a few pictures of the old Kuglen homestead the next time he visits Wheeling, which will be in a few days to see Aunt Joan! I suppose the next step is to find out more about the firm Duffield & Kuglen and if the story I heard about Samuel Kuglen moving the capital of West Vitginia on steamboat during the Civil War (on the Allegheny River, I am guessing) is true!

The Kuglen House in North Wheeling

TOM, you ROCK ‘N” ROLL

Joan is on her way to Wheeling, among other places, and she and Dick are taking a slow drive across the country, stopping in places that I am calling “destinations,” places like Denver, Kansas City, to see the KC Greenes, and Wheeling.  They have a lease on a Sonata, but there is only 5000 miles on the car, so they decided to mosey across the country and put some miles on the car.  I asked them to send me pictures and keep me up-to-date, so here is a picture of Mom (I call her mom, you can call her Aunt Joan, Joanie, or anything else you like) in a place called Fort Cove, in Cove Creek, UT.

MOM – if you are reading this, I now have an assignment for you and Dick once you get to Wheeling.  I know you have plans to spend your time there visiting with Eddie, Ellen, Carl, and the rest of the Carenbauers, but I want you to go to 629 1/2 Market Street in the North Wheeling Historic District BECAUSE (and this is pretty exciting to all the KUGLENS out there…) George Carenbauer sent me a link  to a document about Samuel Kuglen ca. 1885.

We want to see pictures!

Here’s the link, and the piece of info is on page 18 - http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/ohio/88002693.pdf

BUT

Here’s what it says:

“629 ½ Market Street, circa 1885 – Samuel Kuglen, who built 629 ½ , was a noted businessman in Wheeling. He was a builder of boilers for steamboats among other products manufactured by the firm of Duffield & Kuglen. The house is Greek Revival in style, with much of the original fabric remaining. There is a wide frieze at the cornice with sodillions and dentils, a gable dormer with closed pediment, and fluted columns at the windows. The pediment is filled with a sunburst design. Lintels and sills are stone and the building is brick with a stone foundation. All windows have operable shutters.”

George - you are da bomb!

I don’t know about you, but I want to see if I can figure out what a sodillion looks like, along with dentils, dormers and lintels.  I teach English, as you know, and you have to use and see the words at least 8 times before they begin to become a part of your vocabulary.  I know what a gable is because I visited The House of the Seven Gables while I was in New England!  (What would I have seen if Hawthorne had written a book called The House of the Seven Sodillions?)  Who knew architecture had such specific vocabulary?

I have about 40 first cousins – 13 on my mom’s side and 26 (I think…) on my dad’s side of the family.  I can’t even begin to factor in the number of first cousins once removed – that is, the children of my first cousins – or the cousins of my parents – Craig Kuglen, for example. or Lawrence Harkleroad.  I am almost afraid to ask if Mom has any first cousins, but I am pretty sure she does somewhere in West Virginia or the Ohio Valley.  And then there are the nieces and nephews – I have 10, all of whom, I hope, look in regularly to see what is happening.  Seeing all the Carenbauers in all their incarnations last week was truly an awesome experience for me.  I am familiar with most of my Kuglen cousins and see most of them on a semi-regular basis, the two exceptions being Joe Weisen (although Joe gave me his email address a few weeks ago – SCORE one for Kuglen.com) and Michael MacDonald, Gordon and Maureen’s brother and Rory’s uncle, who I hope has somehow gotten the blog link and checked us out.  (Gordon mentioned Michael was coming to New Hampshire for a visit, so I am hoping Michael takes a look at the blog while visiting Gordon). I see my Greene cousins much less frequently, although Teresa loves coming to San Diego with Paul and her two daughters to visit mom; someone always makes a point to have a get together when the Toplaks visit San Diego.  In true family style,  while I was visiting one set of Greene cousins last week in Maine on July 3rd for Erich’s wedding, my sister KK was throwing a little party at her place in Poway for a different set of Greene – Teresa, Paul, Eva and Tessa.  So far, it has been a good summer for people coming together and connecting.

Then there is the “gee, it’s a small world after all….” – hearing from both Gordon MacDonald and Christine Hamm that Gordon had interviewed Klaus Hamm for a job a Nixon/Peabody in New Hampshire a few years back – Gordon from the Kuglen side of my family and Klaus from the Greene side of the family (You have Sam and Joan and the six kids in common!), and that Gordon and Christine both know the other’s reputation in New Hampshire politics, but have yet to meet (which has to change soon!). Is it random connectedness or are there just so many offspring of BomBom and Grandpap and Grandma and Grandpa Greene that we are taking over – New Hampshire, at least?

It’s easy to get the Kuglens together – all anyone has to do is say “Party!” and easily 50 people show up. Gordon even asked if there was anything coming up!   I am not the person to do it, but a Greene party (“Greene party,” – get it?) would be AWESOMELY AWESOME. Is it even possible?  Is anyone even interested?

Here is a picture of Joan with the Las Vegas Greenes – they are all in the picture, except Paul – Joan, Christina, Teresa with Tessa on her lap, Eva, and Aaron.

Aunt Joan with the Vegas Greenes

Finally,  here is a picture of Oly Kuglen, with a paycheck for $100.00 she earned for writing – she was in a focus group giving ideas for a TV show called “Sonny With a Chance.”  (if they use her ideas I hope she gets residuals) I think she has made more money as a writer than I have so far this year. . . good for her!!

Olympia scores as a writer!

And for all you Kuglens out there – I have some AWESOME Kuglen stuff coming up.  Stay tuned. . .

I just had the opportunity to spend a couple days at Gordon MacDonald’s place in Deeering, New Hampshire.  I had a great time with Gordon, his wife Jennifer and their BEAUTIFUL daughter, Nellie.  I also got to meet Jennifer’s mom, Eileen.  They were all so kind and generous with their time and their home.  (I feel like I need to apologize for my use of adjectives and adverbs – the words I come up with don’t accurately capture the experience I had, which was memorable and truly special.  I have to rely on these cliches, even though they don’t actually capture the depth of the experience for me) 

Before I left on the trip I went to Mom’s place in San Diego and we spent an afternoon (from 12 – 6:30)pm) going through boxes of pictures, looking specifically for pictures of Aunt Marcelline I could give to Gordon.  It took us a while, but we hit the jackpot, the best find being an actual original picture from Marcelline’s graduation from the Mount.  We found some excellent pictures of my father’s generation of Kuglen siblings, which included some pictures of Aunt Marcelline when she was a girl and a young woman – including another gem for Gordon, a small black & white photo of Aunt Marce holding a baby ( we assumed it was Gordon) with Bom Bom in the background.  I was fortunate enough to present Gordon with some original pictures of his mother as a young woman, along with a copy of our Kuglen family DVD, which has some other glimpses of Marcelline from my parents’ wedding all the way through Aunt Emily’s wedding.  He showed me a few pictures his Grandmother MacDonald had given him, including a remarkable picture of the four Kuglen sisters at Aunt Emily’s wedding – and I told Gordon he was over at our house on Kerwood, with all the other kids, helping us decorate the car for Aunt Emily and Uncle Carl’s getaway.  As we were talking, Gordon spoke of the “family reunion” we had a few years back to celebrate Uncle Bob and Aunt Carolyn Salle’s fiftieth wedding anniversary.  Aunt Mary Anita and Aunt Carolyn had been telling him about Marcie and that meant a lot to him.   He asked when we would be having another – he wants to bring Nellie and Jennifer to meet the family!

Bottom line for me is that Gordon is a great guy, a great husband and a wonderful father - all in addtion to the fact tha,t for me, he is nearly a dead ringer for Grandpap!

Since I didn’t get any pictures of Gordon, Jennifer and Nellie, I am going to try and compensate for my negligence by showing you a few of his place – an old colonial house.  He showed me the foundation last night – made of solid granite, and 23 1/2 inch wide maple floor beams (if they were 24 inches, beams were sent to England for shipbuilding).  Pretty cool. 

Here are a couple views of the barn – a 90 foot beam runs across the ceiling.

Oh yeah – the sky is amazingly blue. He aslo gets his water from an underwater well – you can see it in the next photo. 

This last picture is “the backyard” but it actually surrounds the property.  This is what he gets to see every day out his kitchen window! 

Thanks, Gordon, for sharing a small part of your life with me.  It was a wonderful opportunity for me and I am glad I had the chance to take advantage of it!

I heard from Rory – sounds like he is doing well and getting settled in.

Here’s what he writes:

Being at Berkeley has been extraordinary. I would say that so far I’ve
spent about 95% of my time here partying, exploring the Bay Area, hanging
out with new friends, and eating amazing food; the other 5% of the time
I’ve been studying and attending lecture. Of course, the academics here are
particularly intensive and competitive, but nothing I’m not able to
complete successfully. The professor is extremely intelligent and
well-spoken, and I’ve been very impressed with my classmates in the way of
intelligence and character. Interestingly, most people in my dorm building
are international students from France and South Korea. (Naturally, I’ve
been enjoying practicing my French.) Some of the other people on my floor
are visiting students from Columbia, Cornell, and Harvard who all tell me
they’d love to come to Berkeley as full-time students.

Anyway, I’m attaching a photo of me and some of my new friends at the top
of Sather Tower.

Rory and friends at Cal

Also:

I am leaving a red eye tomorrow night and arrive in Boston EARLY Tuesday morning.  I am excited and looking forward to connecting with everyone back in New England.  I am bringing the laptop and the camera, so I will be taking LOTS of pictures and I am going to try and make a few blog entries while I am back there (you know, those late nights, when it is 11 pm in New England and I am still at 8 pm California time!)  Does Booth Bay have the internet yet?

I get to see cousins from both the Kuglen and Greene sides of the family, so just to let you know. . . I will be taking pictures of you and disseminating them, so start working on your smiles!  I have to figure out how to work the timer on the camera so I can jump into some of the shots.

I am hoping to visit the Emily Dickinson house in Amherst and possibly see Walden Pond,  but I don’t know if it is drivable in a day or two.  Of course, I am also hoping to LIVE FREE OR DIE! in New Hampshire.

If I get stopped by the NH Highway Patrol, and they ask me why I am speeding, can I say “I am living free?”

Last night, Wednesday, I took Rory and Maureen MacDonald out to dinner to celebrate Rory finishing up at Pierce College and moving on to the University of California at Berkeley.

Rory went out to Tina’s condo in Canyon Country over the weekend to attend Mahiah’s promotion from sixth grade to middle school.  According to Tina, “Rory just spent the past few days with us.  He attended my daughter Mahiah’s graduation.  She graduated from elementary school – the 6th grade – and received a Presidential Award for Academic achievement – plus was asked by her teacher to read the speech she wrote – at the promotion ceremony.  She also just received her class award for “Most Creative”…

Mahiah is only 12 but alread stands taller than I.  She will be attending La Mesa Middle School out here in Canyon Country, CA. in the Fall.  Her Auntie Charlotte (Carneiro) sent her an event box full of party decorations for the grad. pool and pizza party we gave for Mahiah and her 10 girlfriends here at our condo.”

Good Job, Mahiah!

Rory, Maureen and I went to Mazzarino’s, a nice neighborhood Italian joint, where we feasted on calamari, pizza, chicken picatta and amazing canoli and tiramisu for dessert.  We talked about politics, education (Maureen and I are both teachers), the drive up to the Bay area and Rory’s take on being on his own for the first time.  He is taking a Statistics class over the summer, so the school is allowing him to move into the dorms (Unit two) so he can right to work, then taking a full load of classes when the fall semester begins in September, with the goal of completing his B.A. in the next two years.  He is thrilled to have received the Regent’s scholarship, which pays all his expenses, and he has already heard from Francesca, who has offered to take him shopping for essentials.    He already knows he can take BART anywhere with his student ID, (there is a BART station on campus) so he is also ready to explore the Bay Area.

I loved college and know how exciting moving away and exploring the world on your own.

Have a great time, Rory!

Craig Kuglen, of the Texas Kuglens, emailed this photo of the five Kuglen siblings from around 1900.  (I cropped the photo a bit and changed the size to fit in the blog space. )

Here’s what he says:

Unfortunately in my generation there are only 2 of us Kuglens left (Caroline and I.)  Of my 7 grandchildren,  4 are Kuglens and 3 of those are male.

[here is] a photo, which you may already have, but I think it is interesting – the only one showing all of my parents’ (your grandparents’) generation in a group.

The picture was taken at 23 7th Street in Wheeling, West Virginia.

The five Kuglens are:

Anita

Edward (Grampap)

Marcelline

Charles

Harold

1900 Kuglens

Rick Rigali as a child is a dead ringer for young Edward.  Their images are practically interchangeable.

I’d love to see and early photo of Frances Riggs as a young girl. or Grandma Greene or Grandpa Greene.

Anyone out there have a photo they’d like to share?