Life is Hard

 There are times when exploring genealogy you stumble on a story that grips your heart and causes you to pause.  This is one.  

Our family has two photo albums that get dragged to every reunion and although I digitized them years ago, I am in the process of adding notes and arranging them chronologically as best I can.  I have to refer to my Ancestry.com tree (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/5599212/family?cfpid=-1065239315 ) frequently. But of the most help is the notes attached to each picture, painstakingly added by Uncle Vic and without such, to me, they would be just faces.  But with the notes come a link to a name and now history is alive.  Thanks Uncle Vic.

Well, anyway, as I'm working on these I come across this picture with the caption "Dee, DeEtte & Children (Warren, and ?").  

Feb 8, 1955. Dale, DeEtte & Children (Warren & ?)

So why the "?"?  Uncle Vic knows the family pictures better than anyone (certainly anyone alive anyway).  Why didn't he have memories of her? That sent me wondering.  I checked my tree and found there was already a Natalie there but no dates or information.  However Ancestry has these handy hints so I started looking at them and found her name was actually Nathalia DeEtte Icke and she was born in 1953 but died in 1960 in Wisconsin.  What could have happened?

Dale was the younger son of Grandma Rachel's brother John Icke (pronounced "Ike") and sister in law Velma.  He was born in 1932 and later joined the Air Force apparently stationed in Japan for a while.  He married Jessie DeEtte Davison in Oklahoma on April 22, 1952.  The picture above was taken in 1955, after the Korean War, and shows a happy family of four.  In 1960 he was stationed at Traux Lake Mills (WI).  Sadly on a Friday evening in early June, not long before her upcoming seventh birthday, Nathalia was riding her bike when an automobile collided with her and she was killed.  One can only imagine the grief of that day and the days to follow.  They took "Our Darling Cissy" back home to Oklahoma where she is buried at Memorial Hill Cemetery in Waynoka.

It would be crass of me to begin philosophizing on such things as I have never lost a child.  I can only imagine that loss.  But I do know it's part of life and people deal with it.  For some it takes years to "get over it"-that thing we call getting on with life without the loss being the focus of each day.  I grieve as I can with those in my family who have suffered this loss, as the Ickes did.  I pray that the Lord will sustain them until that day when the sweet memories of the life lost overcomes the grief of their loss.  

Dale lived on until 2014, a long life of 88 years, and I wonder how many days he thought of her. Most of them I would guess.  Her mother DeEtte and brother Warren are, to my best information, still alive.  I hope this little note encourages them that their family hasn't forgotten the life of their beloved darling Nathalia.

May the promises of eternal life and sustaining grace through our Lord, Jesus Christ, sustain and comfort them until the day of reunion.

Father Stu and Suffering

I was set to pondering the idea of suffering again as I watched the movie Father Stu, starring Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson, and Malcolm McDowell. Its a great story of a going nowhere boxer from a dysfunctional family who meets a girl and follows her to her church (where has that story been told over and over?) where he finds a relationship with the Lord and decides to become a priest. I won't give it away but as part of his life he experiences much suffering and points several times to the fact that as Christ suffered, so must we. There's a lot of solid doctrinal truth in it. I highly recommend the movie but a warning that the language is coarse in line with the characters. It's a true story and one that many believers would find rings true with their experience, and the experience of others in church history.

That said, I was reading Spurgeon today and he used 1 Peter 5.10 as his the reference for his morning reflections today. "After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you". The Bible tells us over and over, the path to peace and contentment doesn't lie through ease and entertainment, but suffering. Christ told us if the Master suffers, so must the students. If we would be established, strengthened, and settled, it requires discipline in suffering and faith in the One who allows it. Why do we think that's abnormal? Because we are still selfish, sinful human beings, wanting ease over discipline. It's rampant in our society. 

 History shows us there is a cycle to society: Oppression where we become unhappy with our circumstances; Liberty where we sacrifice whatever's necessary, even our lives, to throw off the chains; Enlightenment where we enjoy the liberties we have, expanding art, knowledge, and technology as we have more leisure time; Dissipation where we now are entitled, expect more leisure, are unhappy and bored with all of our toys and demand more and more entertainment. I fear we are in the last stage, where nothing is worth dying for if it intrudes on our pursuit of happiness, our own selfish wants and desires outweigh the needs of others, and we are undisciplined and lazy, abhoring any type of suffering for the sake of good: ours and others. We are unfulfilled in our search for happiness, looking for something to fill that hole. Unsettled as we look for that one thing that will satisfy. The thing that will finally scratch that itch. 

 But once again Father Stu, mirroring what Christ and the apostles say, reminds us there is no easy path to contentment. Submission to Christ as King and Lord and His will, whether it is a good day and we praise Him for our blessings, or suffering where we praise Him that He cares enough to bring us through suffering to contentment, is the only way. Even the course of history tells us that it requries struggle to get liberty and liberty allowed to languish undefended leads to dissipation and, ultimately, oppression again. "Those who chose to ignore history, are destined to repeat it". And those of us who don't ignore history are destined to raise the alarm but, sadly, watch as society devolves into dissipation. 

 God help us. He is our only hope. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" John 3:16 

OFFICIAL TRAILER

 

BTW-Rotten Tomatoes professional critics say, in typical form: "A socially conservative, faith-based biographical drama, and an unconvincing, broadly played, sinner-redeemed story with shallow characterizations and the pick-up line: "I'd wait 40 years in the desert for you." and "Mark Wahlberg is convincing and committed as a foul-mouthed Father, but this is ultimately just religious propaganda — preaching exclusively to the converted." But those of us looking for a good movie with uplifting themes. The guy on the street likes it. I do.

 What's In a Name?

The Bible says "A good name is more desirable than great riches" in Proverbs 22. Many times a name described a person and in some cultures the child would not be named until they exhibited particular traits.  Or they were named for the character the parents desired for them. Some were even renamed after particular traits emerged.  So what has brought me to this discussion?  Well, I've been thinking about a certain person and the connection back through time. 

The was a man with the name of Henry first name George.  I don't know a lot about his life story except he was a general at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.  He earned the dismay and estrangement of his family when, as a Virginian, he stayed with the Union.  He was one of the Union generals at a battle along a creek in Georgia late in 1863 named Chickamauga, just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

By an error in giving a command (not by Henry) (that discussion will last through the ages) a unit was pulled out of the Union line and at the same time Confederate general James Longstreet attacked exactly at that point, routing the Union army.  The saving of the day came when Henry mustered the Union forces at a place called Snodgrass Hill.  The rebels attacked over and over, attempting to take the hill and finish off the rest of the retreating army, but they were unable to break the Union forces.  Around dark the Union army finally retreated back to Chattanooga, taking up residence there, and saving the army.  For his efforts George Henry THOMAS was named the Rock of Chickamauga.

MG George H Thomas (Am Battlefield Trust)

Part of the crowd that day, in fact one of the units pulled from the line, was the 59th Ohio Voluntary Infantry Regiment of which my great great grandfather, William H (Henry too but for Henry Harrison after the president-another story) Bartlow was a member.  Some of his unit may have stayed to fight on Snodgrass Hill, most didn't and fled a race back to Chattanooga.  I wonder though how much he thought of Henry when he was safely in Chattanooga.  By the way, the 59th, and many others of that rout, regained their face when a year later they charged a hill around Chattanooga named Missionary Ridge, and drove the Rebs back, eventually to Atlanta, and then the sea.

What makes me think William thought about Henry? Well, after the war was over, he moved, along with his wife and six children (along with many other soldiers and their families) west to Chase County Kansas looking for that free land and space.  In 1869, his first child, a son, was born there and he named him, yes you guessed it, George Hamilton Thomas Bartlow (I suspect he was guessing at the middle name but no doubt what he was thinking about with the George and Thomas part)

The family eventually moved to Winfield in Cowley County, in southern Kansas close to the opening Oklahoma Indian territory, eventually ending up in that same Oklahoma and George marrying a girl from Illinois, Louisippi Steele (the daughter of another CW soldier). They had three children, Francis, Lucy, and Earl-with a twist of the Rock. His name was Earl Irwin THOMAS Bartlow.  Sadly Lousippi died at a young age leaving George Hamilton with young kids. Thankfully they were helped in those years by William's wife and his mother Sarah (William having left for the gold fields).

George Hamilton Thomas Bartlow

Earl married my grandmother Rachel Icke and they began having children. A girl, a boy, a set of twins and then another Hamilton-my uncle Rex.  I never knew my great grandpa George since he died long before I was born, but Rex tells of his remembrances of his grandpa in "Zero To Eighty in Thirty Seconds, My Life Story", his unfinished, unpublished book.  I'm not sure if he knew of the Rock connection but he was proud of his tie to his grandpa Hamilton because of the character he saw there.  He was also proud of the Hamilton in his name.  He says, "He was my Hero and I am proud to have his name, (Hamilton). I hope that my Children, Grand Children and Great Grand Children can see just a little of Great Grand-Pa George in my life, because if they do they will see a little bit of what Jesus is like. I still love you Grand-pa."

Grandpa George with the grandkids and his Model A

So where does that bring me? A great story and very interesting but my name has no Hamilton or Henry, but it does have a Bartlow.  The Rock of Chickamauga intersected with the Bartlows in Georgia, 1863, due to a man of great character who didn't forsake his country and stood firm when things were hard. A man of character.  That effect has flowed down through my family history to today.  People taught to work hard, fear God, love their country to the point of sacrifice, and love their neighbor.  

And so the final chapter.  As you might know, I retired in July 2022, and looking for something to do, it was suggested by my cousin Brad (Rex's son) that I might volunteer at the Kansas National Guard Museum in Topeka on the maintenance crew https://www.kansasguardmuseum.com/.  So I did and the guys have welcomed me.  Men of character and honor who all served our great country.  They have my respect. But a strange thing has been occurring over and over.  I will be introduced as Rocky to new people around the museum and while they are all kind and welcoming it's not until someone says "his last name is Bartlow" that the smiles come out and the hand gripping begins.  "Are you related to Rex?"  And I can proudly say, "Why yes, I am".

Bartlow brothers. All (+ my dad Norman) served

The four Korea brothers at the Ks Nat Guard Museum

You see in that moment what the Bible says rings true.  That is worth more than riches can buy. Some have suggested to me in the past some shady ways to get ahead or make some money and I can safely say those things offered were never worth the price of my good name.  The name of Bartlow.  The Henry/Hamilton connection.  Maybe even the Rock of Chickamauga.  

Col Rex Hamilton Bartlow KSARNG

But of greater name than them all is the name of Christ, whose name I bear.  I hope to keep that name unsullied above all as I finish out my years.  I hope you're encouraged to take the high road and retain your good name.  Or if it's been damaged, start the road back to restoration.

Thanks for preserving a good name Uncle Rex.

Rex and Ardena Bartlow

Ks Adj Gen Lee Taffanelli presenting the flag to Ardena at Rex's funeral Jan 3, 2014