Thanks so much for sharing. I eat this stuff up... love it! He seems to have been a person well in touch with the inner human element within us all.
I am fortunate to have tons of family history of my mother's side of the family due to my mom living in the little mountain town she was raised in, Friendsville, MD. In 1972 the Friends Family Assoc. was formed and then came their museum and library in the old bank building. my mom became the librarian/curator there, is now the second oldest person in town, and is a wealth of knowledge of the town's history and it's people.
No illustrious history or big titles or famous people. Just an isolated town with a rich history dating back to 1765 when John Friend came up (actually south) the Youghiogheny River to this wonderful sheltered basin in the Allegheny Mountains that was a Shawnee summer camp the called The Hunter's Bowl. He asked their permission to bring his family, build a cabin, and settle. He did so on the piece of ground they selected. His forefathers arrived in New Sweden in the 1600s. They were woodsman and were wanted for their ability to live in the wilderness and could help forge West into the unknown lands. John was third generation, I believe. These men traded with the Native Americans, learned their language, and through a series of settlements up the Potomac River were of the first Europeans to set foot in this area. Pretty neat to have learned what I know, and my mom never knew until later in life
http://www.wvgenweb.org/clay/israel.htm