An Un-Bee-Lievable Family History

Twin brothers Jack and Jim States were guests at the final Tuesday Talks of the season on May 14.

The brothers provided background on the long history of the States family, beginning with how the family made its way from Europe to Colonial America. Included within the presentation was the family’s involvement in pottery, electrical work and beekeeping.

“The long history of the States family was unknown to us,” Jack said. “As I got older, I became interested in the stories of our family background. So here we were, sitting in Saratoga, not realizing we had a history which goes back to 1774.”

Jack talked about his family’s homesteading history when his ancestors settled in the colony of Connecticut.

“Our family originally came from Holland about 1742,” Jack said. “They were potters and settled in Connecticut and New York. New York was the place where they got the clay for pottery. Pottery was extremely important in the early history of our country especially when New Amsterdam (New York) was taken over by the British. They did not have potters like the Dutch. So the Dutch became important people because they provided earthenware and greenware to make pots.”

Jack said his family came to Wyoming because of a “renegade” family member who wanted to travel to different parts of the country.

“We had a renegade member of the States family who just wanted to go west,” Jack said. “He’s our guy. The potters stayed back east, the family came west and went to Ohio, Iowa and Nebraska, Finally, they ended up in Wyoming. Like most pioneer people, they wanted to find new land, a new place to live and a homestead every step of the way. “

Jack provided the family lineage from Colonial American to the American West, beginning with Adam States. It would be Adam’s son, Peter, from whom Jack and Jim are descended.

“The founding States Family of the United States is Adam States of Connecticut,” Jack said. “He started in Greenwich, Connecticut and established his kiln. Anna, Mathias, William, Adam II, and Peter, the renegade of our family, our 8th grandfather.” (Yes Adam States Children)

Jack said Adam was smart enough to marry the daughter of the guy with the best clay deposit in New York. He said Adam would face danger when traveling in his boat from New York to Greenwich as the Revolutionary War started.

“The British military would burn him out in Greenwich,” Jack said. “He and his family migrated to the inland section of the colonies but found it difficult to transport all that clay. They would build a sloop (warship) to move all the clay from Long Island, New York to Stonington, Connecticut. That process was interrupted when the British destroyed the sloop.”

Peter joined the militia during the start of the Revolutionary War. During his service in the Continental Army, he received land grants.

“He settled in the Finger Lakes up by Auburn, New York. My next grandfather, Wooder States, was born there and raised his family. Wooder was granted some land because the Connecticut property retroactively entitled him to property in Ruggles County, Ohio,” said Jack. “He moved there and became our Ohio Homesteader.”

Jack said he was fortunate enough to trace documents and information about his family’s past. He said he had a grandmother who saved everything.

“It all started with my great-grandmother who is part of that homesteader party in Lander,” Jack said. “She never threw away a single correspondence. She kept it all in a trunk. Just like her, my grandmother kept every letter she ever received from the ranch business or family. My grandfather was also in contact with these relatives and we did not know they were Dutch relatives.

Jack said he visited Salt Lake City, Utah and found additional information at the family history center. He said he traced information back to New York using census information which contained family wills and obituaries.

“In our family, we were sort of misfits, “ Jack said. “It was because we were country people who owned a bee business and it was classified as livestock. So we had to register our bees with the State of Wyoming which made us pay per beehive for the privilege of inspection. My dad was also a radio, television and refrigeration electrician At one time he was the only refrigeration guy in town. When that refrigeration breaks down you are in trouble. I always liked to go out with him on his service calls because I would be able to go out fishing.”

Their father, however, was more than just a rural electrician.

“My dad worked in the physics department at the University of Wyoming working in the physics department and was offered to go to M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to perfect radar for the War,” Jack said. “My grandfather was just starting in the beekeeping business and he wanted my dad to stay in Wyoming to work with him.”

According to Jack, his dad did some research for the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) bee laboratory where he worked on bee diseases such as American Foulbrood. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, American Foulbrood (AFB), caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus larvae, is the most widespread and destructive of bee brood diseases. Terramycin (oxytetracycline) is the only drug approved for use against American Foulbrood. When present in the food given to susceptible larvae this antibiotic is effective in preventing germination of AFB spores.

“It is a devastating disease,” Jack said. “My dad was earning money from the Federal Government by doing experiments on how to control bee diseases and he would help find a cure.”

Jack said his grandfather was looking for bee locations in Nebraska, Colorado and throughout Wyoming. He said they spotted Saratoga where there was only one beekeeper who was planning to go out of business.

“Only one beekeeper was working in Saratoga,” Jack said. “He was going out of business because his bees had American Foulbrood. He (Jack’s grandfather) bought the apiary here in town and applied the disease technique and established the only beekeeping business in the North Platte Valley.”

Jim said there are still a lot of bee yards in Saratoga during the summertime though his family had sold some of the locations. He said there are people from Colorado who come to Saratoga to do beekeeping business.

“When our family got out of the business, we sold some of those locations to people from Colorado who are still coming up here,” Jim said. “They have been around for a long time.”

Jim said when his dad and grandfather ran their beekeeping business, they did everything on their own.

“Everything my dad and granddad did in the beekeeping business, they invented it,” Jim said. “When something went wrong, oftentimes instead of trying to repair it they just bypassed it.”

Jim talked about what it was like to work in the honey house where bees make their honey.

“We would bring in the shallow scoops of honey,” Jim said. “Then we would scrap the seal off the combs. The honey would go into the extractor and it would get spun around and the honey would come out of the bottom. Then it gets pumped up in a big holding tank and from there we would process the honey”.

Jim said his family were not only beekeepers in Saratoga but in other states as well. He said due to long winters in Saratoga, honey could not be produced. Because bees depend on warm climates to produce honey.

“A lot of places depend on bees to fertilize their crops,” Jim said. “States like Texas and California depend on bees and oftentimes we send our bees to California.”

Jim said it was a challenge to transfer bees and their hives. He said it is not an easy task because everything must be roped correctly without damaging the hive, especially when transporting them in a truck.

“These hives are open to the atmosphere, Jim said. “There are a couple of problems with this situation and that is you have to tie them down with regular rope. For years I have avoided tying a trucker hitch because I knew how much trouble it would be. I finally learned how to tie a hitch and you have to check every 100 miles and we never lost a load.”

Jim said the other challenge in transporting bees is going through cities because the bees can get loose when making stops.

“If you stop at a traffic light the bees will get out of the hive and fly around and they are not happy,” Jim said. “There is that danger of people getting stung by bees in town. We had to drive in the dark so the bees would not fly too far. It was a good thing that we did not get sued but we worried about it.”