If history will tell you anything it will tell you how quickly man becomes corrupted. Please read the Obituary below and then I will continue my story.

Ezra Dana Rodgers married Mary Hellen Sumner. The grandfather of Verne Coons.
Ezra Dana Rodgers Obituary:
Friday, May 29, 1908:
Another G.A.R. Member has been called home.
Ezra D. Rogers passed away last Friday.
Deceased was one of the oldest residents of Nemaha County and a Veteran of the Civil War- was beloved by all.
Ezra D. Rogers, an old and highly respected citizen of Nemaha county passed away last Friday, May 22, at about 9:30 o'clock, at his home on West Second avenue, at the advanced age of 76 years. He had been a sufferer for a number of years from an affliction which was pronounced incurable, but his condition was not thought serious until a couple of weeks ago, when he took considerably worse and failed rapidly until the end.
Ezra D. Rogers was born in Indiana April 7, 1832. His family moved to Illinois while he was yet a youth and later came to Hardin county, Iowa. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the 32nd Iowa Infantry. Eighteen months later he was honorably discharged on account of disability. He was married to May H. Sumner March 27, 1855. Eleven years later the family came to Nemaha county, which has since been their home. They have tasted the joys and sorrows of frontier life. With arduous toil and privations they have done their part towards conquering the wilderness that it might come down to us as a heritage of culture and beauty.
Mr. Rogers confessed his faith in Christ at Eureka, Ill., when about twenty-one years of age, and has been a consistent member of the Christian church ever since, being intensely loyal to the principles which it advocates. For years he was a faithful elder in the church at Nemaha. About ten years ago he moved to Auburn where he and his good wife have since made their home.
Eight children have been born to them: Mrs. Laura Coons, Mrs. Rosetta L. Shubert and William L. Rogers, living in Idaho; Mrs. Mary H. Rimel and Alva R. Rogers, living at Auburn; Leroy D. Rogers and Mrs Effie A. Deerfeldt, living on farms near Nemaha. One girl, Addie, died when a child. These seven children with the widowed mother, who has been a faithful helpmate for fifty-three years, remain to mourn his loss.
The funeral services were conducted last Sunday morning at 8 o'clock at the Christian church in this city by the Rev. Hugh Lomax, pastor, after which the remains were taken to the Prairie Union cemtery near Stella and laid to rest. The Carley Post, G.A.R., attended the funeral service in a body, the deceased having been a loyal member of that organization, and having served in the war gaining an honorable record. The many friends of the sorrowing relatives extend to them their sincerest sympathies in their hour of sadness.

I will continue this post at a later date.

Bergmann story, cool read

Century farm contains family memories
By Herman J. Lensing
Ken and Marilyn Bergmann don't farm, but they still own the 122 acres of farmland, north of St. Rosa, which has played a big role in his family's history.
"My father and mother had a family of 14 children," said Ken."Thirteen of them reached adulthood."
Bergmann bought the farm from his father, John. His father had acquired it from Ken's grandfather, August, who had obtained the land from John Hoeschen more than a century ago.
"The farm has an interesting history," said Ken."Originally there were two parts that were homestead, but when August purchased it in 1893, there was just one farm."
August, like a number of early settlers of land north of Melrose, was a native of Germany. "He was born in Allenstein, East Prussia," said Dave Bergmann. "He was born on a farm about 40 miles west of the border with Russia."
August's mother died when he was about 18-months-old. His father remarried and his stepmother raised August.
INHERITANCE
"At that time in Germany the oldest son had the right of inheritance," said Dave. "After August left the German Army, in 1884, he decided to move to the United States. It wasn't until 1893 that they sent his personal belongings over."
August left Germany to avoid bitterness, which might have resulted had he insisted on his getting the family farm, according to the Bergmann family history. At that time a number of people from Germany were coming to the United States, and August had friends who had settled here. He also had one other reason for deciding to immigrate to the United States.
"We have his discharge papers from the German army," said Dave. "In those papers it states that he was discharged, but he was subject to recall if he immigrated to any country around the Black Sea. If he came to the United States and established a family, he was not subject to recall."
August Bergmann did come to the United States. He married Gertrude Bormes, of Freeport, and they had a family of 12 children."
"We have always said that he came here because he wanted to move someplace where the weather was as miserable as where he grew up," said Ken. "The land here is like the area where he grew up. There are hills and lakes, and cold weather. But he knew some people who had settled in this area."
Prior to moving to the farm near St. Rosa, August had lived for a short time in Meire Grove. He left his mark on the site he had purchased.
"August built the barn and the present house," recalled Dave. "Before that they had lived in a log house south of the present house. There was also an older log cabin, a one room building, that was here before he was. We used that as an icehouse. We used to have ice in the summer time."
The farm, located between a lake and a swamp, always had water, even in the dry years in the 1930s, Ken and Dave recalled. The present house on the farm was built in 1908 by August.
"August and Gertrude moved their family in here, but she only lived in the house about six months. She died because of complications from childbirth," said Dave.
August and Gretrude's son, and Ken and Dave's father, John, purchased the farm after John was discharged from the U.S. Army.
"It was sort of funny," Ken said. "Grandpa had been drafted into the German Army and dad was later drafted into the U.S. Army.
FATHER
Their father served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and took over the farm in 1919. In 1921 he married Hilda Bruns and they started their family. Their 14 children were: Irene, David, Norma, Melvin, Duane, LaVerne, Eugene, Loren, Joan, Ken, Audrey, Janet, Ellen and Darlene. The farm provided a variety of growing experiences for the family. Ken and Dave recall hunting ducks and pheasants on the land, the various crops they grew and the work they did.
"Did you ever have to ride the horse, or hold the cultivator?" asked Dave of his younger brother Ken. "Cultivating was one of the first things we did after school was out."
Ken never had held the cultivator, but he did have to ride the horse as they cultivated corn rows.
"They usually had the little kids ride the horse when cultivating," said Ken. "That way the person holding the cultivator didn't have to steer the horse."
The cultivator had to be guided between rows of corn. If the lay of the land was hilly, the person on the horse had to steer the horse to help keep the cultivator straight to the rows.
"If you didn't, you could get hit with clumps of dirt," said Ken.
Fun as riding horse sounds, Ken noted at the time he felt he was working.
"I would ride the horse all morning. Dad would let us have a little nap after we had cultivated in the morning and when I got up I would be so stiff I didn't want to move," he recalled.
The horses were used on the farm until the 1950s, according to the brothers.
"Dad liked them," Ken said. "They didn't leave tracks in the fields like tractors did."
But as the horses got older, and tractors became common, they did have a tractor on the farm.
"The only tractor we had was a Ford 2N," said Ken. "It is still in a shed here. We would hire others with tractors to do work, but the only tractor bought for the farm was that Ford."
Corn wasn't the only crop raised. Oats, alfalfa and meadow grass were also harvested for farm use. Flax and clover were grown for cash crops.
"The clover was popular because you could take a cutting for hay, and then later harvest it for seed," said Ken. "All I really remember of the flax is that they told us to not play in the flax bin in the granary. Apparently you would just keep sinking in the flax."
POND
Dave and Ken both recalled that at one time there had been a pond to the east of the buildings on the farm, but it has shrunk in size. The pond was home to ducks and turtles during the year. Ken thinks that it may well be that draining some of the farm's meadows to the south of the building affected the pond size.
In recent years, he has seen an increase in the number of deer and coyotes in the area. The deer increase is interesting because one of the stories his father (John) told was how excited August would get when he saw a deer track.
The Bergmann farm helped to produce crops and families, and it also helped preserve part of the family heritage segment of the family, which stayed in Germany, according to David.
David has an interest in the family history and for a number of years had searched on maps for Allenstein. He could not find it.
"I thought it was a small town, like St. Rosa, which might be too small to put on a map," he said.
One day while talking with a friend, who had escaped from eastern Germany just ahead of the Russian Army during World War II, he asked if she had ever come across Allenstein. It turned out that she had been raised in the town, and knew Bergmanns from that community.
She helped them locate Bergmanns who had since settled in (then) West Germany after World War II. The Bergmanns were able to get in touch with the German side of the family, and even provide photographs of mutual ancestors.
"What they were really interested in was the discharge papers (of August)," recalled Dave, who along with Ken had attended a family reunion in the 1990s in Germany.
While none of John's sons farm the land (it is rented), Ken and Marilyn have kept the farm and use the ancestral home.
"Some people wonder why I keep it," he said. "It is in the family."
The farm, land, buildings and family farm stories associated with them helped to complete a cycle of family memories.
It may be because of those memories, that Ken holds the farm. In their family, the farm provides a link in the family history and culture. It has been the site of reunions and get-togethers for the family.

Ludwig Friendley

Well as some of you know I haven't been coming around these parts lately. See, I've been side tracked I must confess to where even my reading has taken a hit. I have been putting together my sons family tree. A hefty challenge since much of my wifes family are unfamiliar to us. To quote my grandfather, "Well if at first you fail get back on that bike before I kick your f***ing ass." Well he didn't say that but if you knew him you would know it sounds just like him.

Upon researching my wifes geneology I found interesting things. On her fathers side it starts with Ludwig Friendley born in 1725 in Pennsylvania. Her grandmothers side are mostly from England and planted themselves in Utah, and many of them were mormon. Her grandfathers side was full of farmers, tanners, and such from Kansas. There was however a Viola C Berry who is my wifes great great great grandmother. Her father was Ludwig Friendley and one record shows Ludwig Friendley as being George Washingtons bodyguard (so to speak) for six years during the revolutionary war. I have to do some searching to double confirm this claim, but given what I've been able to confirm up to this point has been factual. We shall see, and we may never truly know. I would love to be able to tell my son that his distant relatives job was to help general Washington though. I know God calls all men but it can't hurt knowing you have men of courage and integrity in your geneology. It's a confidence thing.

Some of my sons relatives (Ludwigs children and grandchildren) look like they set up a church as well. Now I have to tell you I almost totally abandoned this project based on what I was learning from my side of the family. Lots of drunks and scam artists. My great uncle Odean pushed his sister Elaina out a two story window just because he wanted to. She developed seizures from it and later died at the age of 35 from having a seizure in bed. Her head got caught in the bars and she broke her neck. My great uncle Odean also helped my great aunt Opal hang herself in a cemetary bathroom. She had cancer from what I hear and wanted to end it. Odean was promised money if he helped her. My great uncle Norman was said to have robed a couple of banks. My great aunt Alys was a Jehovah Witness at one point but also a Quaker. She charmed snakes in some of her religious practices. During world war 2 Alys was in Europe and went blind. She was in Greece and told my mother that she saw something so horrible that she developed hysterical blindness and never saw again.

Getting back to Odean!!! This guy was a true scam artist. He used to pretend to preach the word of God I was told to rob people of their money. A couple of his sons were murdered early in life as well. My mothers cousin Patricia told me, "You could see the devil in his eyes. He was pure evil." My great grandmother Hannah called my aunt mary (her grandaughter) to take her to the hospital after Odean did something to her when she wouldn't give him money. My great uncle Robert (whom they called mud turtle) once got so mad he picked up a shot gun and started firing through the floor when he knew the family was below. He was called mud turtle because if you visited the bars in Sterns Minnesota you would eventually find a drunk named mud turtle. My grandfather was the sane one and he beat his children with crow bars. My family for the most part are a long line of trailor trash straight out of Norway. Things look more promising from my grandmothers side. I'm traveling down that road next but from what I have so far is great. Real God fearing and great people.

Greg Oden

Now I usually stay away from blogging about sports figures and such. There are way too many people doing it, and most of them can do it better than I can. However, I have to say I feel for this kid Greg Oden. He is a seven foot center drafted number one by the Portland Trailblazers in June 2007. His rookie season ended with an ACL injury after he fell off the couch (or so I heard). His second season was spent mostly learning the NBA game and getting his form back. His third season started with great promise and then.........

He went up to block a shot by Aaron Brooks and broke with patella (thats the knee folks). He is now out for yet another season. That means three years in the league with one season played. I feel bad for this young over payed athlete. Why? Because he actually seems like a nice kid, and he genuinely wants to represent the city of Portland Oregon well. He's not all about himself. When he was initially injured in 2007 he lamented to the Trailblazer staff and the fans about how sorry he was. He wanted to live up to the expectations set before him as the number one pick. Sadly, I don't know if that is going to happen. When someone gets multiple injuries as he has it can mean they are prone to them. For his sake I hope thats not the case. To be honest I'm more concerned about the kids spiritual journey through life than I am his NBA game. Even as a basketball fan I put people over sports as any sane person should.

I'm going to say a prayer for Greg Oden tonight. Not for his NBA career but for his spiritual relationship with God. If he doesn't have one I can't think of a better time than the present for him to connect with God. Either way if this kid is going to have a lot of negative media, and having a solid relationship with God would be a good place for him to start (if he hasnt' already).

We should all say a prayer for others we know lost in this world. Everyone needs God.

Interesting week

I want my free propaganda health care

I was watching the propaganda box the other day (also known as the television set). Very interesting conversation came up on health care. They were discussing the current health care bill and how it would demand that: A) Everyone gets health care, and B) No one can be denied insurance based on preexisting conditions. So in other words insurance companies have to cover everything regardless who, what or why. Sounds nice right?

Does anyone remember the housing bubble? Ya know when they forced the banks to give loans to people who couldn't pay the mortgage. Oh except this time the bubble will be much bigger and will bankrupt all the health care providers. Of course next comes the bailouts which is just a fancy word for government ceasing control of them. Am I the only one who sees this?

Hmmmm gotta get that swine flu vaccine

A dear friend of mine was set to get married this next year. His fiancee not wanting to get sick due to underlying conditions got the flu mist for H1N1 swine flu. According to my friend she told the health care provider about her condition and they opted to give her the live virus due to vaccine shortages. Well two days later she ended up in the Emergency Room on a ventilator. She died the same day. Reports showed that she had a bacterial infection that had weakened her immune system prior to getting the live attenuated (weakened) swine flu virus. Her body couldn't handle it and it killed her. According to my friend this is from the report. He also stated that the health care worker was informed of her condition but chose to give the live virus anyway. A recent article reported elderly people especially were making trips to the Emergency Room after getting the swine flu mist. This can't be the only example out there. But how many will we hear about?

$50 Dollar Washer

My wife being the frugal soul that she is found a fifty dollar washer on Craigs list. Now let me start by saying I HATE CRAIGS LIST. I have for a long long time and unlike her I'm not fond of it at all. My wife set up a time for a washer to be dropped off. OK, first off I don't like strangers coming to my house from CRAIGS LIST, and who sells a washer for fifty dollars. Not wanting to argue with my wife I acquiesced and figure I'll test it first. They showed up, dropped it off, the phone rings (my wife set up another appointment to pick up our tred mill she wanted rid of). I went in got the phone cut it short said, "Ya get her by." Came back out and dudes were gone. Along with my old washer (which was broken and I said they could have as long as the new one worked). Well they were gone and the new washer works worse than the old one. I spent the next two hours cleaning water off the floor from the washer tsunami that followed. Now you might be thinking, "It's your own fault." And yes to a degree you would be right. I allowed my wife to do this over my best judgement. I allowed her to set up two appointments at once which ended up screwing me in the end, and I allowed these guys to take our old washer trying to save myself from listening to my wife bitch about getting rid of it. You don't get something for nothing and I knew better. However, what these guys did is not right and I can only hope that they will change or be properly punished at a later date. By the way I was so pissed I slept on the couch. I hate being had and I do a pretty good job of not getting myself into those situations. Now I just need to get my wife to do the same. At the end of the day I'm the man of the house so its my fault.

Gold

Gold is reporting to be worth $1100 an ounce right now. I could have gotten it for $250 an ounce seven years ago when I was looking at it. We were going to nursing school so it wasn't a good time. I did purchase some for $750 an ounce a little over a year ago. Gold is expected to raise even more in the future. Why am I still not allowed to buy it?

This ends my week. Ahhhhhh

I got most of the following from this site http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=129
**This doesn't mean I agree with them all the time. I actually disagreed with this teaching until my own study and looking at the results of those who went down this road. So this is just a FYI that there are alternative views (with some being stronger than others) to many of the passages you quoted above. Even if you don't believe the validity of these statements being aware of them is good. I highly suggest reading the article above. I did not learn this teaching from these people as I came to it previously. (I will put my own quotes with **) **

Isaiah 26:19 (ESV)Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.
John 3:13 (ESV)No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man

Do Christians go to Heaven if they die?
Difficult Scriptures Explained
[This article was taken from chapter 7 of our book Is There Death After Life?]
A vital principle of Bible interpretation that must be upheld in handling any subject in God’s Word is that any verses that are harder to understand must be analyzed in light of clear verses on the same subject. “Clear” verses are not just those that agree with one’s theological position. They are those that seem to be straightforward and literal statements of fact. Figurative expressions that seem to be contradictory can best be handled after the literal, factual position is determined. The Bible should be accepted literally whenever possible. When verses seem to contradict previously established facts, one is justified in exploring other possible meanings that are consistent with the whole Bible.
We have laid the solid biblical foundation that death is the total absence of life, that there is no part of a person (either “soul” or “spirit”) that “goes to heaven” when he dies and that the dead are actually dead and “sleeping” in “gravedom” until Christ’s appearing. We now turn our attention to some sections of Scripture commonly misconstrued to indicate otherwise. Let us remember that they must harmonize with those parts of God’s Word that we have already examined.

1 Samuel 28 (The woman of Endor)
As previously noted in Chapter One, 1 Samuel 28 describes the woman of Endor conjuring up “Samuel” from the dead for King Saul. It is important to note Saul’s original request: “Seek me a woman that has a familiar spirit” (1 Sam. 28:7). The context, specifically verses 7-9, along with other Old Testament verses already cited, shows that she did, in fact, perform this spiritual phenomenon through “familiar spirits.” These were evil spirits that manipulated her and impersonated Samuel, with whom they were “familiar.”
A key to understanding this record in Chapter 28 is in verse 13.
1 Samuel 28:12 and 13(12) And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.(13) And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
In verse 13, the Hebrew word for “gods” is elohim, a word used in various ways in the Old Testament. Here it refers to an evil spirit that the woman saw, one that was impersonating Samuel. In verses 12-20, God’s Word reports this incident as the participants perceived it, and refers to this spirit as “Samuel.”
What “Samuel” (the familiar spirit) told Saul was not from the Lord, for 1 Samuel 28:6 says that God did not answer Saul at all. Only when Saul went to a woman who dealt with familiar spirits did he get an answer, but that answer was not from God. In fact, Saul’s going to the woman at Endor partly contributed to his death.
1 Chronicles 10:13So Saul died from his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it.
This conjuring up of familiar spirits is the same method used today for “communicating with the dead,” by which some find false and misleading comfort. The results can be as devastating as they were for Saul.
Matthew 17:1-9 (The Mount of Transfiguration)
Matthew 17:1-9 describes a scene at what is called “the Mount of Transfiguration,” where Jesus conversed with Moses and Elijah. God was preparing Jesus for the challenge of his upcoming suffering. This scene was not a literal reality, but what Jesus plainly said was a “vision.”
Matthew 17:9And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.
Biblically, a vision is a spiritual phenomenon in which God causes something to appear to a person, either in his mind’s eye or to his physical eyes. (Some Scriptural examples are 2 Kings 6:17; Acts 10:9-20; 2 Cor. 12:1-4.)
Being a vision, it in no way means that Moses and Elijah made a special guest appearance from heaven where they had been hanging around since leaving earth. To be consistent with the biblical evidence, including Jesus’ statement that no man but he “hath ascended up to heaven” (John 3:13), the same must be said of Moses and Elijah as was said of David in Acts 2:34—they are not “ascended into the heavens.”
**Now the above I have some issues with. It could be a vision or it might not be. I'm not totally convinced of their argument. That being said I'm not willing to totally discredit it either.**
Matthew 22:23-32 (God is the God of the living)
In Matthew 22:32, Jesus said that “God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Some teach that this verse means that there are really no dead as far as God is concerned. The text more accurately reads, “God is not the God of dead people, but of living people.” As we have seen, “dead people” will become “living people” only when Jesus Christ comes to resurrect them.
In fact, the context surrounding this verse emphasizes the resurrection (see verses 23,28,30), when all shall be made alive.
Matthew 22:31 and 32(31) But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,(32) I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
God is not the God of dead people, because as Psalm 115:17 indicated, the dead cannot praise God, and Ecclesiastes showed that the dead cannot do anything for Him. They are, however, still in the mind of God, and at the resurrection, they will be made living people again, and He will again be their God.
Two verses in Romans go hand-in-hand with Matthew 22:32, and also indicate that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who will raise the dead.
Romans 14:8 and 9(8) For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.(9) For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
** Should you just accept this? Heck no!!! I didn't. You may come to a different conclusion. However, as I said previously you should at least look at it. If it makes sense to some degree your better off for it. If you can totally disprove it than your still better off for it. I researched this about 8 to 10 years ago. I need a refresher as well as my conversation with you here showed me just how rusty on this topic I am. God Bless you my friend. This will be my last post here as it's profit for us and others reading this I feel has come to an end. I did enjoy this and your points did not fall on deaf ears

Alex Jones "Fall Of The Republic."

Alex Jones Fall of The Republic is the best documentary on this subject matter I have seen. What makes it so compelling is that he allows the internationalists to speak for themselves through video clips. He has articulate scholars from economics, climatology, and others speak on their area of expertise. The production and editing are outstanding, and Alex Jones speaks to his audience in an interview style that sheds furter light on what others have stated.

What makes this film so different from others he has produced is that he allows others to dominate. Alex has always been a passionate speaker and gifted film maker. However, by allowing others to dominate this film he has created fact machine that will prove next to impossible for anyone seeking truth to find fault with. If you really want to understand what is happening in the world minus the spin from the talking heads on television, watch this film. 5 stars hands down.

P.S. You can watch this for free on you tube like I did if you so desire.