My Grandparents

My Grandpa Amos was a well known Realtor in New York.   His office was located on the lower end of 5th Avenue, on the third floor of a building, I remember being near Trinity Church.  From Grandpa’s office window,  in 1926 we watched the parade celebrating Admiral Byrd’s flight over the North Pole, and in 1927, the parade celebrating Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight.

The video above is how I remember the parade, from my Grandpa’s office window in NYC, celebrating Lindbergh.  Although this was not taken from our exact location, this is how I remember the celebration as a child.

Grand Adventures

At age nine, Grandpa Amos took our entire family on a grand voyage.  We traveled on, what at the time felt like the biggest ship I’d ever seen, the SS Virginia, on a trip to California.  My Dad (Max), Mom (Dorothy), brother (Don), and Grandmother (Salome) and me, of course, drove home from California in an 7 passenger canvas top open car.    The photo on the left is of Grandpa Amos in his favorite car, on the streets of New York.

The ship travel was amazing as we traveled to Havana, Cuba and through the Panama Canal eventually landing in Los Angeles.  From there we drove to Can Francisco, over to Sacramento and to Grandpa’s birthplace in Mokelume Hill is near Angles Camp, California.   From there, we drove to San Diego, as Grandpa had some business he was working on there, and then home to New York.

While we were all in California, we met a Dr. Sam Wells, an old friend of Grandpa Amos.  We were in Sacramento and Amos went up to Dr. Wells’ door and said…

“Hello Sammy!” and Dr. Wells said “Amos Lamphear, I’d recognize you anyplace!” 

It was like Grandpa had just seen his old school friend shortly before.  I learned a lot from Grandpa and how he built strong, warm and lasting relationships that lasted for years.  The photo on the left is of Grandpa Amos.

After visiting Dr. Wells in Sacramento, we drove to Mokelumne Hill, wehre Grandpa Amos was born.  It was there that my Great Grandpa, Daniel Crosby Lamphear, met Mark Twain in the gold country.  After visiting Grandpas birth place, we visited an old friend’s ranch – the McSorley’s.  At the ranch, we met the entire family and an old ranch hand, Bob Walker, who had ridden the pony express mail across the  badlands and had been chased by Indians, and I’m sure a lot more too!  The McSorley’s even showed my brother Don and I how to pan for gold in one of the streams on the ranch.  We did find a few small nuggets but nothing of any great value at the time. 

After that experience, we went to visit the Peak Inn, also started by my Great Grandpa Daniel Crosby Lamphear.  I have a photo of us all, out in front of the Inn, which I’ll have to find and have included in this site. 

The Drive Home from California

The trip home to New York,  in that fabulous old car took us three months!  I vividly remember driving along the famous Route 66, which was a hard dirt road through Kansas.

It was a long time ago and I can’t remember the exact route we took home except I believe it was through Arizona and Taos New Mexico.  The entire trip back home to New York was one exciting experience after another.  In Gallup we met a couple of cowboy guides, one was Dick Mattox – who took Grandpa Amos down into one of the forbidden Indian underground religious cave.   The Taos Indians, who we were visiting, were the only tribe to build two story pueblos in the region. 

Now, during our time spent with Dick Mattox, we all talked about a fellow friend of my Amos’, Bob Walker (you know how conversations and stories can drift).  Bob lived in Mokelumne Hill, California.  After hearing Bob’s name, Dick Mattox boldly stated, “I knew Bob, he killed six men!”  The entire experience was a real life Cowboy’s and Indian’s story for us kids at the time.

Back on Rte. 66 

Looking back at the map, I believe we drove through the Raton Pass to a road going east which took us to Hutchinson, Kansas, where we spent the night.  At the time, Rte 66 was a dirt road, but it was the primary road across the country.  I remember a photo, in the hotel room, of a woman with a big hairdo, blouse and long skirt, and a notice under the photo stating “incase of fire, throw the rope out the window and jump down!”  The fire excape was a coiled rope on the wall.  

From Kansas we headed towards St. Louis and then finally home to Brooklyn, New York.  This was truly an advanture of a lifetime for our entire family!