Cash returns to St. Albert's discussion

Last week, Nels Smith, brother of Connie Smith, wrote about his recollection of her disappearance. Early in the summer of 1952, Connie attended Camp Sloane and met with some unfortunate accidents while there. She fell down the stairs at the front of the tent, and her bunk mate accidentally kicked her in the face when she was swinging her legs on the bunk bed, resulting in Connie’s broken glasses and broken nose. 
Connie disappeared July 16, possibly suffering the effects of “amnesia” or “confusion” as a result of the accidents, Nels said.
Although there were search efforts for Connie, none were successful. In Coconino County, Arizona, in 1958, road workers found the remains of the body of a young girl, named Little Miss X, that seemed to resemble the missing Connie. 
Some time later, the Connecticut State Police Department compared Connie’s dental charts to those of Little Miss X, and four out of five points of identification matched. However, it was eventually determined that Little Miss X was not Connie. 
Even later, they decided to exhume the body again to try to identify it with DNA techniques. 
However, according to Nels, “The body has been lost! Two graves that might have been hers were opened, but neither contained Little Miss X. Twenty percent of missing persons are never accounted for, and so far my sister is one of those.”
 
 
Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
With Leonard Cash
 
Before moving on to his next series, Leonard Cash wanted to take the time to clear up a few misunderstandings regarding his section on the St. Albert’s Church in the Four Corners area. 
Due to some confusion about its location, Cash looked it up in the book “Weston County, Wyoming The First 100 years,” under the section “St. Albert’s Church and Graveyard T154,” by Maxine Kaul. The church was located in Four Corners, and the graveyard was at Section 26, T. 48 N, R. 61 W. 
“If you wish to travel there, go north from Newcastle, Wyoming on Highway #85 to Four Corners, Wyoming and turn left on #585 for 1.6 miles, turn right on the
Pzinski road for 1.4 miles and you will see the area to the right,” the book says. 
However, the church building is no longer there, and according to the book, it has since been moved to the Ed and Margaret Miller Ranch.
Another area of confusion was the relationship between Albert Novak and Charles Miller. Novak was not Miller’s son as previously stated, but they were related. However, the family lineage is complicated, so Cash decided to look up records on the Find a Grave website to explain. 
For starters, there are three Albert Novaks. The first was born in 1860 in Poland. In 1893, he married Ludwina Bahlyda, and eventually, they moved to Cambria, where Albert took up a mining career. Later, he became a farmer. Ludwina died in 1911, and out of their seven children, only three lived past their father’s death. 
Two of his sons, Joe and Albert (the second Albert Novak), died in a drowning accident in 1914,
and are buried in the St. Albert’s Catholic Cemetery. This is confirmed by the 100 Years Ago Section in the Aug. 14, 2014, issue of the News Letter Journal, which said they died in the Miller Ranch pond “in the Horton vicinity.”
“At the time the two Novak boys drowned, Albert Novak set aside land for a cemetery and later in November 1914, he donated one and a half acres from part of his prairie homestead for a church to be built,” the Find a Grave article says. 
This eventually became known as the St. Albert’s Church. Albert Sr. died on Sept. 22, 1928, “considered one of the area’s
prosperous and responsible citizens” and is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery.
Anna, Frank and John Novak were the three children who outlived their father, and this is where the connection to the Miller family comes in. 
According to another Find a Grave article, Margaret Dohrman was born in Weston County on Oct. 15, 1908. She married John Novak in 1936, and they had a daughter named Joan and two sons named John and Albert Novak
(the third Albert Novak). Unfortunately, her husband died due to a logging accident in 1944. Two years later, she married Edward Miller. 
According to ancestry.com, Edward Miller was born around 1913 and was the son of Charles and Veronica Miller. And that is how Albert Novak is related to the Miller family. He was the step-grandson of Charles Miller. 
According to the Find a Grave website, only 12 people are buried in Saint Albert’s Catholic Cemetery Memorial: Jonas Bandura, Mary Bandura, Michael Bandura, John Feeney, Mary Esther Feeney, Sarah Ann Cane Feeney, Elizabeth Kudlock, Eleanor Pzinski Mihalski, Michael Mihalski, Albert Novak, Joe Novak, Baby Son Pzinski. 
So hopefully that clears up the confusion, and now Cash would also like to include a small section on the Boyd Church, which was a Protestant church, as well as a short history of the town
“The first Boyd Church that was erected was built of logs by the homesteaders of that time. The team work and settlers labor was donated by those who were interested in Christian work. … It was not restricted to any Denomination,” the book says.
The church never had a resident minister because there was no parsonage, and
eventually the church burned down, according to a paper in Cash’s records from the memory of Mrs. Ackley. The first graves of the cemetery were from 1897.
The people were also getting a post office at this time “to be known by the name of Boyd” for the residents on Canyon Spring prairie, reported the Sept. 20, 1894, Newcastle Democrat. Minnie Heller was the first postmistress. 
Around Christmas of 1909, the mail had to be delivered by horseback rather than a team because the snow was so deep, according to a Dec. 24, 1909, article.
Later in 1913, Eva McCoy became the new postmistress. 
According to a Nov. 1, 1895, News Journal article, the Rev. Gillespie and his wife visited the Canyon Springs prairie. Mr. Gillespie organized a church at Boyd, and “the outlook is favorable for Christian work.” 
An article from Feb. 7, 1896, said that the Rev. Armitage was working on building a church in the Canyon Springs prairie, which is around the Four Corners area, Cash said, for the Boyd.
Cash is unsure of when the church was built because a lot of papers are missing from this time, but it was eventually completed, and in
Aug. 6, 1897, the paper reported that the members wanted to buy a new organ, so they fundraised money by providing entertainment through a literary and drama. 
Around Jan. 4, 1907, the roof of the church caught fire during a service and it was demolished. But “the people of that vicinity are already making preparations to build a new and better church than the one that was destroyed.” 
The Boyd Cemetery Association filed articles of incorporation with the Wyoming secretary of state in order to maintain the
graveyard in the Boyd area, according to an article from March 29, 1907. The board was to be made up of three directors, and the first directors were Kirk Baker, P.M. McCoy and Bert Ackley. 
According to the June 21, 1907, Boyd Breeze (a section in the News Letter Journal), people could notify
the Boyd Cemetery Association to secure deeds. 
While it’s unrelated to the church, there’s an
interesting article in Cash’s records from May 1, 1908, that’s worth including.
“Mayor Bud Zook promoter for a new town on the prairie was down Wednesday getting pointers how to run a city,” the article says.
On April 2, 1909, the paper reported that the church members held a meeting “under the auspices (sic) purpose of raising funds” for a new building. 
“There was a large attendance and everyone seemed eager for the movement and therefore quite large sums were subscribed,” the article says. 
The church members finally decided it was time to get started on building a new church. The July 9, 1909, paper reported
that on a Tuesday afternoon, “a goodly number of the representative citizens of Boyd” met at the Boyd Hall to determine whether the church should be built.
Rev. W.T. Dumm addressed the meeting and presided over the business session that followed. The topic of discussion was whether to build a Union church or a Methodist church (G.W. Ackley supported the Union one), but it was decided to build a Methodist Episcopal church instead because they were donating a large sum of money. Bert Ackley donated an acre of land for the church. 
“The meeting was a harmonious one throughout and was an indication of the great interest of the people for a Christian church at Boyd,” the article says. 
The church was to be 24 feet by 36 feet, able to seat 150 people and have a belfry, according to the plans of the Church extension board. The article also said that “re-canvass will be made of the entire community for subscriptions and cash for the new church.” The trustees were
W. Ackley, Kirk Baker, C.W. Bedell, Harry Ackley and W.A. Zook. A. Ackley, Paul Kipping and one other member not listed were appointed to the building committee.
According to Cash, the people built the church
but the Methodists “furnished the minister,” even though they didn’t consider themselves Methodists.