Dragging the Family Along for the Ride

This past weekend we traveled to College Station, Texas for a daytrip.  Daytrips are a great thing to build family spirit and we try and make at least one daytrip around Texas each month.  On this occasion, we were in College Station which is about an hour and a half away from home.  And when in College Station, I always love to hit the Texas A&M library to look for research on the trucking industry.

The only problem was that I had the family in tow.  Luckily, my family has been along for the ride on this genealogical journey over the past five years.   And we’ve done some pretty some extreme things.  

One day we had traveled to the Oklahoma Trucking Association and they allowed us to go through all their old issues of the Oklahoma Motor Carrier Journal.  I remember that day vividly because it was very early in my journey and I thought I could do it all by myself.  My family decided they would go out to eat and play in Oklahoma City after about an hour into the process; I called my wife to say “please come back and help me.”  We must’ve spent six hours in the meeting room that day going through about 40 years’ worth of journals looking for articles on Hugh Breeding Inc.  By the end of the search, our fingers were stained from the ink on those journals.

This past autumn, we had contacted Modern Bulk Transporter Magazine to see if they had kept their back issues into the 1940’s.  I had been to Texas A&M’s library and they had back issues to 1949 but I needed something back to 1937.  Luckily, the magazine’s publishers were located in Houston and allowed us to come see the back issues in the 1940’s.  So my wife and I went over to their offices and piled through ten years of journals looking for articles on my great-grandpa’s trucking company.

And (and it’s a big one), the family has accompanied me on so many visits and interviews with family members that they should receive some type of medal for dedication to the effort.

So on this day, we were at Texas A&M and I was trying to get copies of the listings of the top Tank Truck Carriers  from 1949 to 1980 and I would go and get the journals while my wife was in charge of making copies (with her digital camera).  We were able to progress through all the listings in less than an hour and this enabled me to go looking for a journal called Better Roads and Streets Journal.  I had never heard of this magazine…I had heard of Better Homes and Gardens, but….  I had recently talked to a relative of Jack Holland, who was the Safety Director at Hugh Breeding, and they had a trophy that he had been awarded by Better Roads and Streets Journal.  So I was hoping to at least find an article where he was awarded the trophy.  After searching for about an hour, I came up dry on that one and I also came up dry on finding some of the remaining Interstate Commerce Commission Filings that I was looking for.  

As a side note the Hugh Breeding ICC filings I am still looking for are (along with the surrounding filings that I already have):

#3: #2 was 2/17/42 and #5 was 3/27/42
#4: #2 was 2/17/42 and #5 was 3/27/42
#7: #6 was 3/27/42 and #9 was 5/14/43
#8: #6 was 3/27/42 and #9 was 5/14/43
#10: #9 was 5/14/43 and #12 was 7/1/43
#11: #9 was 5/14/43 and #12 was 7/1/43
#15: #14TA was 12/31/43 and #19 was 7/28/47
#16: #14TA was 12/31/43 and #19 was 7/28/47
#17: #14TA was 12/31/43 and #19 was 7/28/47
#18: #14TA was 12/31/43 and #19 was 7/28/47
#20: #19 was 7/28/47 and #22 was 5/31/49
#21: #19 was 7/28/47 and #22 was 5/31/49
#24: #23 was 8/5/53 and #25TA was March-April 1954
#34: #33 was 10/29/55 and #35 was 8/25/56
#43: #42TA was 12/57 and #44 was 3/26/58
#61: #60 was 7/26/61 and #62TA was 11/61
#69: #68 was 1/29/64 and #70 was 9/16/64

So, at the end of the day, the family had a pretty good time on our day trip and I came away with mixed results at the Texas A&M library.  I had been there two previous times and came away with great information, but on this third time, the results were mixed.  Thus, I may have exhausted all the research I am going to find at this library and it’ll be time to turn my attention to some other libraries in the area.  Regardless, of the research facility I’ll be going to, one thing is for sure and that is the family will probably be in tow.

Side Benefit: Aunt Ota, We Hardly Knew You

Ota Mae Breeding Miller
in the 1970's

While at the Dallas Public Library recently, I went in with the full intention of making copies of various city directories.  A City Directory like Tulsa can be quite large and it is simply cost prohibitive to make Xerox copies; so I always try and use a digital camera to take pictures of the pages I’m interested in.  And when taking pictures of a city directory that has over 1100 pages (like Tulsa) you have to have an incredibly large memory stick in your digital camera.  Also, the camera has to be reliable…

While at the library in Dallas, I discovered that I could take about 1100 copies on my digital camera before it decided to throw up (i.e lock up) and ultimately to go into Operation Shutdown.  From that point on, I had troubles with my camera but I was still (although slowly) able to piece together both the 1966 and 1972 Tulsa directories and the 1968 Ardmore City Directory.  However, by the end of the day, I freely admit I grew quite weary as my camera continued to act out and didn’t work like it did early in the afternoon (I even ran out of battery at one point and had to re-charge). 

Ota Mae Breeding on right
in early 1904 (she is pictured with
her older brother Delson (standing)
and younger sister Eva, (sitting)

Instead of waiting around for batteries to re-charge, I decided to look around through the library’s other holdings and wouldn’t you know that the library also had various city directories for Denver, Colorado!  My great-grandpa Hugh Breeding had a younger sister, Ota Mae, who lived in Tulsa for a brief time in 1920 and worked as a stenographer and then she disappeared from the family for almost 45 years before she reached out to her younger sister Eva.  We did know that she got married in 1942 to Harold Miller but we knew little else.  In fact, our biography on her (in our family book) is one of the weaker chapters we have as there are few remaining living relatives that remember much of her, if anything.  With that said, though, I was able to find the Denver, Colorado city directories, which is where she lived from 1920 until she passed away in 1993 at the age of 96 years old (she lived the longest of her generation of Breeding’s).  From the city directories, we were able to piece together her movements and occupations for her many years living in Denver, Colorado (and that of her two husbands, Ivan Cartana and Harold Miller). 

So while technology sometimes lets you down, the lesson to be remembered here is that if you can maintain a positive attitude and keep your investigative perspective, good things can happen to you.

1921 Denver City Directory

I J Cartana  Truck Driver Sinclair Refining Co. rms 1853 Welton

Ota M Breeding Steno Todd-Voice Inv. Co. rms 1415 Cleveland

1922 Denver City Directory

I J Cartana (Ota M) Slsmn r30 2514 Champa

1923 Denver City Directory

I Cartana (Ota M) Driver Sinclar Oil h24 2514 Champa

1924 Denver City Directory

I Cartana (Ota M) Driver Sinclar Oil h24 2514 Champa

1925 Denver City Directory

I Cartana (Ota M) Driver Sinclar Oil h24 2514 Champa

1926 Denver City Directory

I Jas Cartana Watchman Sinclar Refining Co. h24 2514 Champa

1932 Denver City Directory

Cartana Ota M Mrs. Steno Cashman & Evans rs 1560 Lincoln

1934 Denver City Directory

May Cartana Steno h11 1851 Logan

1935 Denver City Directory

I Jas Cartana Foreman Champlin Refining Co. r4057 King

O Mae Cartana Mrs. Steno h26 1671 Washington

1936 Denver City Directory

Ivan J Cartana (Helen M) Foreman Champlin Refining Co. h16 1326 Welton;

Ota Mae Clk WPA r26 1671 Washington

1941 Denver City Directory

Ota M Cartana e1671 Washington

1942 Denver City Directory

Ota M Cartana Steno H30 1671 Washington

1945 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota) Opr Denver Mach Shop h638 E16th Av Apt 4

1947 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota) Opr Denver Mach Shop h638 E16th Av Apt 4

1948 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota) Opr Denver Mach Shop h638 E16th Av Apt 4

1950 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Mae) Mach h1825 Logan Apt 24

1951 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) Mech Denver Machine Shop h1620 Clarkson Apt 7

1953 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) Pntr h1620 Clarkson Apt 7

1954 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) Mech Gates Rubber h1620 Clarkson Apt 7

1957 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) Mech Gates Rubber Co. 346 S Clarkson

1958 Denver City Directory

HT Miller (Ota M) Mech Gates Rubber Co. h2226 S Marion

1959 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) Mech Gates Rubber Co. h2226 S Marion

1960 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) Mech Gates Rubber Co. h2226 S Marion

1962 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) Mech Gates Rubber Co. h2226 S Marion

1964 Denver City Directory

Harold T Miller (Ota M) retd h2226 S Marion

1966 Denver City Directory

Ota M Miller (widow Harold T) retd h2226 S Marion

1971 Denver City Directory

Ota M Miller retd h1424 Pennsylvania St Apt 206

1979 Denver City Directory

Ota M Miller retd h1445 Corona St Apt 451