Relatively Speaking is a throwback to another time in the world of genealogy. These are anecdotal stories to inspire those who search for their ancestors. Although, many of these stories are from before the world of computers and certainly the age of the internet, I believe that all of us have benefited from serendipity in our research.
Fenstermakers In Nevada History
For years I secretly hoped to find an ancestral connection with Nevada history. The discovery came in a most unexpected place.
One evening when I was camping in central Nevada, I sat down to plot the next day??ª?s travel on a new BLM map. As I traced my finger northward, I suddenly came upon words I could hardly believe, ??ª?Fenstermaker Wash,??ª? ??ª?? Fenstermaker, the name I had spelled a thousand times for salesclerks. From that moment on, my travels had a singular purpose ??ª?? to unravel the mystery of that silent monument mapmakers had left to a forgotten pioneer.
Two years passed before the story came to light. A little lady sorting vegetables in a general store was the last link to those pioneer Fenstermakers. Her aunt had married Henry Clay Fenstermaker who came West after the Civil War. They homesteaded at Fish Creek 20 miles east of the wash.
Henry received a bullet wound in a scrape with an Indian and became a local legend by solving his Indian problem without further bloodshed. Covered with a white sheet, he appeared in the Indian camp one night advising them to move to Duckwater where they still reside.
Each time I see the sun reflecting on Henry??ª?s tombstone on the hill above Fish Creek, I??ª?m proud of the small part Fenstermakers played in Nevada history.
