But I'm getting ahead of the story -- of the beginning. Looking above at the TREE, the father of the first JOHN, whose name is unknown, was said to have died on the way home from the REVOLUTIONARY WAR. JOHN was this nameless one's first son. John's work back then was farmer and blacksmith. At age 24 he married MARGARET GREEN in the winter of 1793, Shenandoah Valley, PA. Four years later son WILLIAM was born and was age three when the Century turned 1800. WILLIAM 's first wife died in 1826, leaving him with 3 young daughters. It took him five years to find and marry FRANCES NICELY.

William and Frances' first son, JAMES WILSON GOHEEN, grew up in Indiana where his parents had moved from PA. Back then it was horse drawn wagons used to hit the road. At age 22 JAMES married MARYANN BURRES in 1854 and they produced eleven children. EDWARD ABSOLUM GOHEEN was the middle child. At age 22 he married NANCY NETTLETON and moved to South Dakota.

My father, GRANT, was the third child in this bitter ending match which produced one girl and five boys. GRANT married HULDA HELEN RAUGUST in 1919 on this return from World War One. He started his huge family of 13 children in Bismark, North Dakota. He and company moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota around 1930. Those were the hard depression days and GRANT was forced to take many types of work: driving horse drawn ice wagons, landscaping, custodian for the Postal Service, you name it. Grant died in 1966, age 70.

HULDA HELEN RAUGUST