Family Chronicles

Bridgeport Telegram April 1, 1925
Miss Muriel Read, daughter of Mrs. Paul Ricker of Marina Park is spending the spring vacation at the home of Miss. Henrietta Durant of Charleston, S.C. Miss Read and Miss Durant are classmates at the Finch school in New York.

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1928 Read – Landon
Miss Nuriel Read, daughter of Mrs. Paul Ricker of Marina Park, Bridgeport CT will be married to S. Gail Landon Jr. of Harrisburg, PA., this afternoon in St John’s Church, Bridgeport.

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Special to the New York Times
Bridgeport CT., February 10, 1933
Mrs. Muriel Read Landon became the bride of A. Fuller Leeds, son of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Leeds Sr., this afternoon at the home of her mother, Mrs. Paul Rocker of Marina Park.

The Rev. George Hugh Smythe of Scarsdale, N.Y., performed the ceremony. Mrs. Oakley R. Delamater was the matron of honor and M. Delamater was the best man. Only members of the family and the Busy Bees, a club in which Mrs. Landon has been active, attended the ceremony.

Mrs. Landon is a former president of the Bridgeport Junior League. She was a graduate from the Finch School in New York City and attended the Yale School of Fine Arts. Her marriage to S. Gail Landon of Sewickley, PA was dissolved by divorce in Reno in October.

Mr Leeds was a graduate from Choate School in Wallingford and from Yale University in 1929. He is with the Bridgeport City Trust Company.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Rock stars: Geologists testing aquifer rocks as containers to permanently trap carbon dioxide

MANHATTAN — Two Kansas State University geologists are part of a comprehensive statewide study on using rocks for long-term storage of carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is a gas that is a byproduct of respiration and burning fossil fuels and heat sources, among other causes. Studies have linked increased carbon dioxide production to climate change.

“Currently, more carbon dioxide is being produced by various sources, both natural and anthropogenic, and is going into the atmosphere,” said Saugata Datta, assistant professor of geology who is leading the university’s involvement in the project. “This study is not to look at what carbon dioxide does to the atmosphere, but rather how to sequester it and keep it from reaching the atmosphere in the first place.”

Datta and Robin Barker, master’s student in geology, Arnoldsville, Ga., are studying the geochemical effectiveness of trapping and storing carbon dioxide by injecting it more than 5,000 feet underground in the Arbuckle aquifer under Kansas. The aquifer has a thick layer of porous rock that scientists believe could permanently store carbon dioxide. It also contains groundwater with such high salt concentrations that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed it unsafe to drink.

According to Datta, determining whether the rocks of the Arbuckle are effective for permanently storing carbon dioxide could be beneficial to manufacturing and production industries, which currently monitor carbon dioxide production levels due to regulations.

The aquifer is one of 10 throughout the nation that is being studied. Scientists from other national institutions and universities are conducting similar projects in Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

The study at Kansas State University is threefold. For the first portion — already in progress — Datta and Barker are using water and rock core samples from the aquifer to look at the mineralogical composition of deep formation waters and rock, as well as how they interact. Ion chromotography and mass spectrometers are being used to study the organic and inorganic components of the water.

“We’re essentially tearing apart a drop of water for analysis,” Datta said. “Water is a really great indicator of what’s going on in the subsurface. It also indicated delicately what can happen in the subsurface after injection of carbon dioxide. By studying it, we can understand where it comes from, how the change in environment from adding carbon dioxide affected it and what will happen over a long period of time.”

The second phase centers on storage — injecting carbon dioxide into aquifer rocks. Researchers are using drill core samples collected from the aquifer, along with brine and carbon dioxide, to geochemically model what happens when carbon dioxide is injected into the aquifer rocks. With this, researchers can look at what happens to the groundwater before, during and after the carbon dioxide injection. Additionally, they can predict what will happen to the stored carbon dioxide decades into the future.

“We’re really looking into the geochemical feasibility of this as a solution,” Barker said. “So far, the preliminary conclusion is that geochemically, it appears that we will be able to safely sequester the carbon dioxide in the aquifer without affecting any drinking water sources.”

The project will enter its third phase beginning January 2013 with a large-scale experiment in Wellington. Researchers will inject 40,000 metric tons of compressed carbon dioxide 5,000 feet below the Arbuckle aquifer and 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into an overlying oil reservoir. Various sampling techniques will be used to study and model the carbon dioxide and its lifespan in the aquifer.

“It has already been proven that certain minerals within rocks, such as silicates, are able to trap carbon dioxide and transform it into a solid mineral,” Datta said. “Ultimately what that means is that once the carbon dioxide is trapped as a mineral, there is very little chance of it being dissolved and being released into the atmosphere. This is essentially locking it up forever.”

The injection test will continue until May 14, 2014.

In addition to Kansas State University, scientists collaborating on the Kansas project are from: the Kansas Geological Survey, headed by Lynn Watney, geoscientist and project manager; University of Kansas; Wichita-based BEREXCO Inc.; Lawrence Berkley National Laboratories; and Sandia Technologies. Each institution is looking at a different aspect of the carbon dioxide sequestration, such as drilling and evaluating wells; monitoring the carbon dioxide plume; injecting carbon dioxide in an oil reservoir to test oil recovery; and ensuring containment of the carbon dioxide from leaking to surface aquifers.

Carbon dioxide will be transported by Abengoa Biofuels from an ethanol plant in nearby Colwich.

For its portion, Kansas State University was awarded four separate grants from the U.S. Department of Energy totaling more than $800,000 throughout the course of the study.

The project will end, and results will be released, in 2015.

This story also appeared in the Science Daily

Mrs. Daniel Strecker, sixty, Union Avenue, Bridgeport was instantly killed this afternoon in Devon when she was struck by and automobile truck while alighting from a trolley car.The truck was operated by Henry P. Nothnagle, well known Milford Resident.

The accident took place on Naugatuck avenue near Highland street shortly after 2 o’clock. Mrs Strecker was on her way to visit her daughter, Mrs. Victor Williams who lives near by. While alighting from the street car Nothnagle’s truck knocked her down.

She was taken to the office Dr. G.A Bragaw, who pronounced her dead. She had received a broken neck, compound fracture of the skull and severe bruises.

Nothnagle who operates an automobile express line between Bridgeport and New Haven claimed that he did not think the trolley conductor was intending to discharge any passengers but was only slowing down. He was released under a $1,000 bound furnished by his wife. He is being charged with operating a motor vehicle so as to result in a death, and passing a standing troley. He will appear tomorrow morning before Coroner Eli Mix.

For some time Mrs. Strecker’s body was unidentified. Finally Mrs. Williams and her husband went to the home of her sister, Mrs Louis Edwards of Bay View seeking Mrs. Strecker. Failing to find her at the Edwards home Mr. and Mrs. Williams turned back and on the way home learned of the fatality. They went to the morgue and identified the body.

Bridgeport Telegram
September 12, 1927
Died
Strecker – In Milford, Connecticut September 8, 1927. Julia A. beloved wife of Daniel Strecker of 532 Union avenue, Bridgeport, aged sixty-three years, six months and seven days.

She is survived by her husband, three daughters, Mrs Victor Williams, Mrs Louis R. Edwards and Mrs. Clayton S. Ball; and granddaughter, Mrs George F. Johnson, and two grandsons, Louis R. Edwards Jr. and Gordon Sherman Edwards.

Friends are invited to attend the funeral at the residence of her daughter, Mrs Victor Williams, 464 Fairview street, Devon, on Monday, September 12th at 2PM Rev. Herman Wehmeyer of the First German Evangelical Lutheran Zion church at Bridgeport will officiate. Interment in family plot, Westville cementery, New Haven, Connecticut.

Bridgeport Telegram – Wednesday, September 12, 1923

Announcement of Elizabeth Leeds’ Engagement Made At the fall meeting of the Service club held in Lordship yesterday afternoon at the summer home of Miss Elizabeth Fuller Leeds, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Leeds of Mill Hill avenue Miss Leeds announced her engagement to George Myron Barker of 128 Coleman Street.

Both young people are extremely popular, and the engagement is a pleasurable one to their large circle of friends. Miss Leeds, who is president of the Service club, attended the Miss Walker’s School, Simsbury, Connecticut, and L’Hermitage school, Versailles, France at which she was a student last winter.

Mr. Barker is a graduate of Hotchkiss school, Lakeville and of Yale University, class 1921. At present he is connected with the Bridgeport Trust company. Following the club meeting, tea was served. The guest were: Miss Phyllis Kumler, of Dayton, Ohio, Miss Elizabeth Barber, of Mauch Chunk, PA, Mrs. Otto Hafner, of Norotor, Mrs Ralph Barker, Mrs. Hubert Morfey, Mrs. G. Sherman Hafner, Mrs. Philo C. Calhoun, Mrs. Robert Weed, Miss Harriett Windsor, Miss Sally Lavery.

Mr and Mrs Norman Leeds, Mr and Mrs George Barker, Mr and Mrs John Farist Windsor, Judge and Mrs William B Boardman, Mrs George Windsor, A. Fuller Leeds, and Miss Harriet Windsor returned Sunday after attending the wedding of Norman Leeds, Jr. and Miss Elizabeth Barber in Mauch Chunck., PA Saturday.

Mr. and Mrs Norman Leeds, Jr., whose wedding took place Saturday in Mauch Chunk, PA are spending their honeymoon in Hot Springs, VA

“Robert Barker in 1643 was a member, with his brother John Barker, of the Marshfield military company under Lieutenant Nathaniel Thomas. He was a surveyor of Marshfield in 1645, 1648, and of Duxbury in 1654, 1672, 1677, 1679; constable of Marshfield 1645, 1648; grandjuryman of Marshfield, 1669, and of Duxbury 1684-85; and was admitted a freeman in 1654. Robert Barker was licensed 7 July, 1646, to keep an inn in Marshfield to retail wine, which was cancelled 5 June 1666. The course at Plymouth on 5 March, 1667-68, granted him nine and one-half acres of meadow at Robinson’s Creek, North River, Duxbury. He married Lucy Williams and died between 18 Feb., 1689, when his will, which mentions his children was, made and 15 March, 1691-2, when the inventory of his estate was taken. His estate was valued at 142£. His wife died between 7 Mar. 1681-2, when she was fined for selling cider to the Indians, and 18 Feb. 1689. They lived in the old Barker house at Duxbury (in that part which was set off as Pembroke in 1712) which was made a garrison house about 1679; the room and the firstplace at the right of the front door as you entered was said to have been built about 1630.”

The link between the lines of Robert Barker of Plymouth Colony, his brother of John of Duxbury, Mass and the English ancestors is clearly shown by the coat0of-arms used by these brothers and their father in England. This coat-of-arms was found on the seal on a deed signed by Robert’s descendants of Scituate, Mass in 1694 and was originally granted to Robert of Kent, England when knighted by James I in 1602. The arms were described in heraldic terms as Barry of 10 and sable, over all bend gules. Crest: Out of a dual coronet, an Eagle displayed sable, beaked and legged gules. Robert jr. bore the same arms as his father but his brother John differenced his by “Over all a bend or.”

This connecting link has caused an intensive search among the records to the earliest known English ancestor and briefly brought down to the present day.

The principal visitations of Shroshire, England commenced the pedigree of the BARKER family with Randulph de Calverhall, tenant in fess of the Manor of Calverhall in 1200, his son was William Fits-Ralph de Calverhall, Blancminster in 1219, his son was William de Calverhall 1255, his son was William de Calverhall 1284, his son was Randulph or Richard de Calverhall 1319; “In the summer of 1278, a royal writ by Edward I. ordered all freeholders who held lands to the value twenty pounds to receive knighthood,” so Randulph de Calverhall bore the known Barker arms, described as: Azure, 5 escallops in cross, or. Crest, on a rock argent, a Falcon close, or.

Randulph’s son was William de Calerhall: “The Manor of Calverhall in the time of Edward II. formed part of the possessions of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, upon whose attender and execution the tenants of the Manor would share in his disgrace and fall. William de Calverhall seems to have fled southwards, and reappeared at Hallow, under the of William de Barker. The name Calverhall, after bsing dropped by the family for more than 200 years, appears to have been resumed as an alias upon their resuming connections with the north of the country, where

William de Calverhall now was William le Barker of Hallon, his son was Roger le Barker, died 1368, his son was William Barker of Hallon, died 1411 his son was Henry Barker of Hallon, died 1438, his son was William of Hallon, died 1480, his son was John  of Hallon, 1507, his son was John of Aston 1531, his son was Humphrey of Aston 1538, his son was William of Claverly, who married Margaret, dau. and heir of John Goulston of Goulston, parish Chewardine, England, their son William of Colhurst married Joan, dau. of Wm. Horne, their son John of Colchurst married Eliz., daughter of Hugh Sandford, their son George of Colhurst married -Catherine, dau of Thos. Buckley, their son Robert married Catherine, dau. of Geo. Ackworth of Kent. Their sons John and Robert were said to have gone to New England about 1628-1630.

Robert Barker and his brother John were among the early adventures in Plymouth, Mass., being young men of some means, they soon became dissatisfied with the dull life they were leading and resolved to start out into the wilderness for a new home. The took a negro as an assistant, bought a boat at Plymouth and sailed along the coast until they came to the Great River (later North River) which they entered and sailed up to the Namassakeeset stream. Arriving at Indian Pond, in the late autumn and demming this place to meet the requirements for their purpose of establishing a Trading Post, they built and hut for the winter and as soon Spring came commenced of there house in what is now the town of Pembroke, Mass. This house was built of flat stones, laid in clay mortar and covered with shed roof. It was 15 feet square, 6 ft high,  and containing but one room with a huge fireplace, later a frame addition was made and the home was used by descendants of the family until after 1883. It was adapted for defense as well as trading, the strength of the building, its central position, the existence of a well within its walls caused it to be made a Garrison-House during King Philip’s war in 1679, the old port holes existed until the house was taken down years ago.

Julia arrived in America, from Germany, with her parents when she was an infant. Many did not think she would surive the rigors of the trip. Her first husband was to a Yankee by the name of Gier, who was an alcholic.

Julia had one child, Trena, with Mr Geer and then divorced him. She later married Atchinson O’Brien and they had two children, Augusta Bessie and Julia Mae.

After Atchinson died she married a third time to a Russian – German by the name of Daniel Strecker, he was as old as her oldest daughter. Julia died instantly from injuries that were sustained from being hit by a truck as she stepped off a trolley car.

The man who hit her felt so bad that he also died shortly after the accident. Julia never attended school and never learned to read and write.

From the Bridgeport Post
October 12, 1927
Death Car Drivers Given Jail Terms in Superior Court

Henry Nothnagle, fifty-four of Milford, whose automobile caused the death of Mrs. Julia Strecker of 532 Union avenue on September 8 in Devon, was sent to jail for six months by John Rufus Booth of New Haven yesterday.

From the Bridgeport Post
November 18, 1927
Nothnagle Denied Commutation

Henry Nothnagle Mildford expressman who was sentenced several weeks ago in criminal Superior of New Haven to six months in jail following the death of Mrs. Daniel Strecker, 532 Union Avenue, Bridgeport, resulting when a truck operated by Nothnagle struck her in Devon, lost his plea on Tuesday for commutation of sentence.

Following the accident, Coroner Mix found Nothnagle criminally responsible for the accident. When Nothnagle was sentenced he made a plea that sentenced be deferred until he could make arrangements for the handling of his business; he plea being denied by Judge Rufus Booth of New Haven who sentenced him. Nothnagle is now serving his sentence at the county jail, and is a trusty in the fireroom force at the county court house.

I have found several spellings for his first name Achinson and Atchinson.

Atchinson was from a prominent family from Northern Ireland and was studing to be a lawyer. He fell in love with a Catolic severant, who he married. His father, an orangeman from the north hated Catolic’s like poison, disowned Atchinson and made him leave the family. Atchinson and his wife sailed to American. His wife died in America giving birth to a 17 pound baby, Robert. Here in America Atchinson worked as a motorman and ran a trolley car in Connecticutt. After his first wife died he remarried Julia Bloss Geer, and their union provide Augusta Bessie and Julia Mae. Achison died of a heart attack shortly after accidently running over someone, and killing them, with his trolley.

From the 1900 US Federal census;

Atchinson O’Brien – head of household, age 48, born Aug 1851 in Ireland, father and mother and were also born in Ireland – immigrated to America in 1881. Occupation motorman.

Julia – wife, age 37, born July 1863 in Germany, father and mother were also born in Germany – immigrated to America in 1872

Trena Gier – step daughter, age 8, born in CT, father born in CT mother born in Germany

Robert O’Brien – son, age 17, born in Illinois father and mother born in Ireland – occupation druggist

Bessie O;Brien – daughter, age 6