Aaron W. Cooper and His Neighbors

AMOS COOPER > JOHN L COOPER > AARON WASHINGTON COOPER

I talked about John Cooper's kids here - they just seem to be a bit of a mess generally. I recently ran across this article regarding Aaron before he left Stephenson and Winnebago Counties, Illinois for /Butler/Bremer County and later Franklin County, Iowa.

The divorce of Anna Blaser from Aaron took place in 1904 in Butler County.

This may well have had something to do with the sale of property in 1904 and early 1905

He died in 1920, having never married again. 

Orle Smull & Ruth Cagley, Part II

View Part I here.

Ruth & Orle and ? possibly Clara?

The Smull's three children were the apple of their parent's eye. Norma Eileen, who was born on 18 Jun 1922 in Plainfield, went to Wartburg College and got a degree in teaching. One of her first assignments was as home economics teacher in Rolfe in fall of 1943. Her next assignment was as home ec teacher in Dike, Iowa. She spent two years teaching there before she resigned due to her upcoming marriage. While visiting her aunt Opal Smull Lowery in California, Norma met Harold Leon "Jeff" Yarbrough, a native of Graham, Texas whose family had made the long trek to California via Arizona years before (think, according to Norma's daughter, "the family out of Grapes of Wrath.")

Harold was in service, but when he returned, he went to Plainfield and they married on 28 Oct 1946 in Plainfield. The Yarbrough's would have two children. Norma's mother died 16 Jul 1996 and Norma followed on 30 Nov 1996. Harold lived only a short while until 13 Apr 1997.

Son Robert Edward Smull was born 23 Apr 1927 in Plainfield. His mother, like many mothers of sons who left for World War II, watched him leave for war with trepidation: "Bob graduated and joined the army, leaving a few nights before the graduation exercises. His first train ride, on the Great Western to Ft Leavenworth where he first went. I stood on the platform and wondered if I'd ever see my only son again. It was World War II and he was to be trained to go to Japan, but the war ended before he finished his training, so he was sent to Germany in the "Army of Occupation." He served two hitches."

"Norma took music lessons of Hazel Boyd for some time. I also wanted Bob to learn to play the

Norma's husband Harold Yarbrough

piano, so I arranged for him to take of Hazel also. I was to pay her by doing sewing, as well as simpler things. The thing that really got to me was a black print dress for her mother, with button holes an inch apart all the way up the front. Remember, I was making the buttonholes by hand. Well, Bob didn't do anyting in the lessons so I had him stop and finally I had the bill paid off. I decided right then, "never again."

He was stationed at Ft Snelling, Minnesota and was then sent to Camp Chanks, New York, waiting for overseas assignment. He arrived in Bremen, Germany in the devastated post-war country, at the port command and wrote to his parents that "cigarettes are $20 a pack and that food of any kind is priceless." He then was assigned to Vegesach, Germany as a clerk at battalion headquarters before being promoted to corporal. Again, he moved to Bremen and then to Berlin by mid-1946. In late 1946, he landed at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.

He was found in winter of 1948 with Plainfield friend Klaydon Sult spending the aforesaid winter in Corpus Christi, Texas.

In 1951, Bob married Margaret Adele Stevens and they quickly had four children. Living in Nevada, Iowa, Bob worked for the Iowa Electric Light & Power Co. of Cedar Rapids when he was killed in a tragic work accident and died instantly on 23 Feb 1960 in Collins, Story County.

Orle died at the relatively young age of 69 on 18 Aug 1963 in Plainfield.

The third child, a daughter, is still living. She went to school to become a nurse through school at Allen Memorial Hospital. She and her husband, who died in 2017, had four children.

Frank Ross Boyd, Merchant of Horton

WILLIAM COOPER > AMOS COOPER > WILLIAM LLOYD COOPER > ELIZABETH BEAMS COOPER m Franklin Boyd > FRANK ROSS  BOYD

Frank & Ollie

Learn about his mercantile roots here and about his brother Roy and sister Hazel.

Frank Ross Boyd was born 26 Jun 1873 in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois to Elizabeth Beams Cooper and Franklin Boyd. He moved with his family to Bremer County sometime between 1882 and 1888. His father, Franklin, operated the Boyd General Mercantile in Plainfield as his children grew up. Both Frank and his brother Roy learned the trade and both made the trade their life's work. While Roy remained in Plainfield, Frank purchased a store in nearby Horton. The store would become legend and would carry anything and everything from high fashion to automobiles, to school supplies.

On 03 Mar 1896, Frank married Olive "Ollie" Marinda Vosseller, daughter of Nelson and Emma Vosseller. She was born 25 Sep 1873 in Plainfield. In 1897, he bought an interest in the general store in Horton owned by CC Spaulding and two years later, purchased his partner's interest, continuing under the name Boyd Mercantile Company. The store was 46 feet by seventy feet in size, with three warehouses.

F R Boyd Mercantile

Interior

The handsome couple had three children, one, an infant, died in 1906. The two surviving girls were Lucille and Ruth Elizabeth.

Frank Boyd Home, Horton

Mr. and Mrs. Boyd spent their entire life in the Plainfield-Horton community. He was a member of
Lodge No. 116 A. F. & A. M. Waverly; Jethro Chapter, No. 24 R. A. M. and De Molay. He has been vice president of the Farmer's State Bank of Plainfield for a number of years and has served in the community in many ways. He was always active in projects that were for the good of the home community and took great pride in the promotion of them.

Frank was considered very forward-thinking and was a big proponent of the Butler-Bremer Telephone Company of which he was an early president in 1910. The exchange had 455 customers and of those customers, 320 were shareholders. The company is still in operation today, albeit under other ownership.

Frank and Ollie in old age

Ollie died 28 Feb 1953 in Horton and her husband Frank died 09 Jun 1953 in Waverly.

This article is worth a read and was published in the Nashua Reporter on 01 Mar 1972:

Treasure Trove, A Meeting Place, A Haven
The Old Horton Store Served the Community Well
Frank Boyd managed his store at Horton for half a century before turning it over to his successor, Elwyn Briggs, in 1943. Elwyn was in the store until its closing in 1960. Mrs Ruth Diekmann of Plainfield is Frank Boyd's daughter and Miss Hazel Boyd, his sister.
by Mrs Ernest Wagner

I wish you could step back with me, say to 1912 or so and go into Frank Boyd's General Store in Horton. It was a double store, facing the west, with a storage or warehouse along the south side. In that little country store was about everything that the local community needed. There were bolts of cloth, a tall glass bored ribbon case, with sacks of penny ribbon, all colors, for a penny a yard, ___grin ribbon, satins, and beautiful wide hair ribbon.

There was men's clothing, shirts, collars, suspenders, straw hats, dress hats, boots and overshoe rubbers. There were a lot of ladies clothing and a ___ glass show case of "pretties" like perfume, powder, pens, and jewelry.

High along the walls above the shelves was everything from chamber pots to neck ties, kerosene lanterns to milk pails, wash boards, enameled water pails and dippers, bushel baskets, tubs of horse collars. You named it and it would be pretty sure to be there someplace.

Shelves on Walls
Up front, on the south side, the wall shelves filled with everything from shoes to dish sets. There was a tall revolving post card rack, a little penned in place that Frank used as an office. Show cases of jack knives, scissors, and oh, that marvelous candy case! It was filled with square glass dishes that all fitted together, each holding a different kind of candy, there were peppermints, wintergreens, licorice sticks, candy corn, hard candy, filled ____, rock candy, candy ________. Also you could buy _____, sen-sen, penny candy, all from the large square red can on the shelf you could buy those little short price candies. The tin had glass in the front, so you could see how full it was.

Those Cookie Boxes!
There were the square cookie boxes with hinged tops, so you could see all the different kinds, rowed up in front of the candy counter. At the end was a great big red coffee grinder, taller than Frank even - with two big heavy balance wheels on either side. Frank would dump the coffee beans into the top, close the peaked top, and push and pull the big bar across the front that turned the wheels that ground the coffee. When you heard the coffee quit grinding, Frank would "get in with the wing of the bar" and then reach, reach, reach and grab the can of ground coffee quickly so it wouldn't be hit by the bar as its momentum kept it running for a while. He would then repack the ground coffee and slip the empty can back in place. We kids always expected him to "get it" one day, but we never did see him get hit.

Old Time Appendency
I remember once, when one of the men near Horton had to have his appendix "cut out" right at home. Had to get Doc Rholf up from Waverly to do it, almost unheard of in those days. Everyone was so concerned. I remember that they had his appendix sticking on a short hat pin in a bottle of alcohol on display in Frank's little office window in the store. I remember it looked all pink and squiggly as they held it up for all of us to see.
The south side of the store held the groceries, mostly. There was a meat counter, cutting block, and a small refrigerator in the wall where the meats were kept and where the ice cream cones came from.

Harvested Ice
Mr Boyd built a large cement block ice house out behind the store and would hire available men with teams and bobsleds to cut blocks of ice from the river a couple of miles away. They'd haul them to the icehouse with layers of saw dust all around and between each block. The blocks probably measured 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet, and were used by Frank during the summer for his refrigerator in the store. You could even buy a chunk in the summer if you had special company and wanted to make ice cream at home. You would drive a horse and buggy to Horton, buy your ice, wrap it in a heavy horse blanket and put it on the floor of the buggy and take it home.

A Hardware Department
Beyond the meat counter and across from it, was the main hardware department with nails, bolts, door springs, hinges, pots and pans. At the very back one shelf was reserved for school supplies. You could buy bottles of ink, in several different colors, pen holders, pen points, erasers, and penny pencils. There were envelopes and writing paper for letter, yellow tablets  with wide lines for little people who were just learning to make their letters and numbers, and several stacks of narrow and wed pencil tablets for school use. These had the most fabulous pictures on the covers, many times they wer of famous movie stars, both men and women.

I'll tell you, it really took time to look them all over and decide which one to choose. The paper inside wasn't so important; it was the picture on the cover that counted most. If you went back to school with a "Mary Pickford" tablet, for instance; you were the envy of all your friends.

Kerosene for Lamps
You could buy kerosene for your lamps. Just bring your two or three gallon kerosene can, and they'd fill it in the back room and put a small potato on the spout so you wouldn't spill it getting home. You could bring your vinegar jug or your molasses jug to be filled from the large barrels in the back room, where potatoes lard and the like were also kept.
Barrels of Apples

There were barrels of red and green apples, in season, and 100 pound sacks of sugar and flour and big wooden boxes of soda crackers. There were oysters, in season, too, and all the staples needed in the community. Cheese was cut from a big wheel of cheese in the refrigerator. Bologna, smoked bacon, and summer sausage were also kept in their cooler. A big stem of bananas hung from a hook on the ceiling. 

About December 1, many of the everyday essentials were somehow stacked away, and the front windows, especially the north half of the store, suddenly became resplendent with red and green garlands, tinsel, bells and right down through the center appeared long tables, stacked two tables high, loaded with the most wonderful array of things Santa's pack ever held. 

The platform show windows in front blossomed with pretty gifts. One side usually held lovely wearing apparel, caps, mittens, scarfs, and pretties, but that other one held the attention of Horton's younger generation. That other one held teddy bears, and blocks and dolly dishes, just to name a few.

Best of all were the lovely unbelievably beautiful big dollies that were fastened out of reach of young fingers, up on the railing above the other toys. Of course, they were very expensive - as much as $2.50 or $3.00, and although each of us girls immediately picked our favorites, we hardly dared even wish for fear of being disappointed on Christmas morning.

Her Dream Doll
I'll never gorget one year in particular. There were three especially lovely dolls in that window, but I had eyes for only one, a beautiful blonde with brown eyes. I walked past the store every day on my wayto school and the first thing I watched for was that beautiful doll.

To my dismay, a few days before Christmas, my beautiful dream doll was gon. Oh, how I envied the little girl who was to find that doll on Christmas morning. A bit of the charm of the whole store disappeared with that doll.

We were all busy with Christmas activities, both at school and at church, so the time slipped by quickly. There was always a beautiful Christmas tree at church, and parents and teachrs and friends brought many gifts to the church tree. Sunday School teachers all brought gifts for their pupils and there were gifts for families and friends.

Candles on Tree
As many gifts as the tree could well hold were fastened to its branches. There was no electricity in Horton, of course, so the tree was glittering with dozens of colored candles, carefully placed so as not to cause a fire.

After the children's splendid program, the time came for the distribution of all the beautiful gifts. When your name was called, you held up your hand until the ushers came and gave you your gift. Among the several lovely dolls on the tree was the beautiful blonde which had been in Mr Boyd's store window. When my name was called and she was brought to me, I nearly burst with pride and joy.

All Gone Now
Most of the people of that day are gone now, including Mr Boyd and my own family. The old store building still stands, crooked and deserted, falling apart. It is truly a piece of our past. But all who were blessed by life in those bygone times will agree with me, I'm sure, that those were days which made for very happy memories.
Nashua Reporter, March 1, 1972

Clan William: Connecting the Story: More on the William Custer Smith Farm

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson > Amos Munson > Mary Ann Munson m William Custer Smith

and...

Jacob Smith > William Custer Smith m Mary Ann Munson

You can read about my earlier discoveries about the farm of William Custer Smith, who settled at the edge of Butler/Bremer Counties, Iowa with wife Mary Ann Munson here and about his second, younger wife, Alice, here.

Kenn Deike

To summarize, WC Smith had 120 acres in Butler County just a mile west of Plainfield, Bremer County, where he farmed and resided starting in Oct 1866 when he bought the property from New Hampshire pioneer Amos Head, who was postmaster in Horton, Iowa in the late 1850s. Smith paid $800.00. I don't know if he built the family home or not. Amos may well have been the one to break prairie and improve the property for farming, but that will require more research.

In 1870, WC Smith lived in his home with his wife, mother Cathie, mentally handicapped older brother, Isaac, spinster sister Sarah Jane, and his eight kids.

Now let me tell you what I did yesterday. I found out who owned the property now, drove up to their house to get their permission to take photos, and instead got

The original deed with the signatures
of WC Smith's Children, including
notarized statement from daughter
Ella Smith Cunningham, who
lived in Moberly, Missouri
at the time of the sale

invited in (with no notice and not knowing who the heck I was), and spent a lovely morning looking through documents and photos.

Kenn and Mary Deike currently own the property that WC Smith farmed and live on a neighboring property. In December 1898, Kenn's great grandfather, Diedrich Deike, who came from Germany at 17, bought the Smith farm and it's remained in the Deike family for 119 years. One of his family members lives in the house currently on the site. The old farm house is long gone.

He just happened to have all the property documents on the table and we pulled them out and looked through them all. There, the story unfolded. Mary rounded up the family history/recipe book and shared the photos.

After Diedrich bought the house, they built a large barn. The remnants of that barn are still there. I believe there was a previous barn there when the Smith's lived there.

Kenn's grandfather Hugo farmed after his father. The farm photo below is probably very much like it looked when the Smith's were there. I would guess this photo was taken around 1910.

Hugo is third from left. The Diedrich & Minnie Deike family.

I learned a lot during my visit. Including the fact, that while WC Smith could fully support his large, extended family on the bounty of 120 acres, it would take thousands of acres to do the same today. The race track, which I mentioned in this post about son Harland Smith, was located about 3/4 of the way down the 120-acre track of land. The remnants of that are long gone.

What cannot be overstated is that even now, almost four years into my return to Iowa, I am constantly amazed by the generosity and kindness of Iowans.

The farm in early days and today

Wilhemina "Minnie" Deike and her Columbian Wyandottes

The land to the left is the former WC Smith acreage
The race track was down yonder

B&W photos courtesy of Kenn & Mary Deike
Color photos are mine

Recently discovered photo courtesy of Betty Smith Hahn Kelleher that may be the Smith home place original barn. I believe the two adults pictured are Walter Smith and his wife Isabelle Monteith, others unidentified.

Johnathan Smull: Florence Smull

PETER SMULL > JOHNATHAN SMULL > FLORENCE SMULL m Arthur Dwight Moore

Saidee, Florence, and Kate (seated) Smull

Florence was born 20 Jun 1883, in Bradford, Chickasaw County, Iowa. She married Arthur Dwight "A. D." Moore on 26 Apr 1906 in Plainfield, Bremer County. AD was the son of Alonzo "Lon" Moore and Louisa J. Peterson. Lon was a town marshall in Plainfield. He was asthmatic and died from complications of asthma.

AD Moore ran the corner grocery store in Plainfield until about 1945. The couple continued to live in the apartment over the store until Florence's death. A fire that ravaged downtown Plainfield in 1943 heat damaged the AD Moore building. AD was well-known in the community and a great booster for the town.

Florence died 19 Aug 1963. After her death, AD Moore moved to Fort Dodge where daughter Lois Beth Moore Lucken resided with her family. He died 23 Dec 1965 in Fort Dodge.

AD Moore and grandson

1.  Lois Beth:  Born 29 Dec 1912 in Plainfield. She graduated from Plainfield High School and Iowa State Teacher's College. She married James "Jim" Lucken on 20 Aug 1939 at the Little Brown Church, Nashua, Iowa. Lois taught in various locations in Iowa and in Fort Dodge where the family settled. Jim was born 06 Feb 1906 to Tollef Jensen Lucken and Johanna Petersen Loberg. Jim graduated from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and took post-graduate work at the Columbia University of Iowa. He was a public school superintendent. They had two sons. Lois died 12 Mar 2011 in Fort Dodge and Jim died 13 Apr 2004.

2. Lynniel Moore:  Born 23 Jul 1917 in Plainfield.  He graduated from the Iowa State Teacher's College Class of 1938. He served in the Army as a Corporal in WWII. He entered service on 23 Apr 1942 and returned from overseas 27 Feb 1945. He was discharged 06 Mar 1946. Lynniel worked in Des Moines and Iowa City. He then moved east. After working at the Passaic Public Library, he became the the director of the Plainfield Public Library in New Jersey in 1957.  Lynniel was also the Chairman of the Council of National Library Associations in the early to mid 1970s. Lynniel was a single man and died 12 Mar 1999 in Plainfield, New Jersey.

Johnathan Smull Family: Viola Geneva Smull

PETER SMULL > JOHNATHAN SMULL > VIOLA GENEVA SMULL m Charles Walter Gritzner

Young Viola

Viola was born 06 Aug 1871 in Rock Grove, Stephenson County, Illinois. Viola came with her family to Bradford, Iowa in 1876 and then to Plainfield after the death of her father. She married Charles Walter "C.W." Gritzner on 01 Jun 1892 in Bremer County, Iowa. C. W. was born 31 Jan 1868 in Butler County, Iowa to August and Theresa Gritzner. They were German immigrants.

C.W. was a poultry man and in his last years, working at the Plainfield Egg House, where he was stricken ill. He died at his home on 30 Apr 1931. The couple had two boys and four girls. Viola died in Marion, Iowa, in the home of her son John, of a cerebral hemorrhage 21 Nov 1947.

1. Charles Augustus "Carl": Born 23 Dec 1892 in Plainfield, he married Hazel Norine Jones on 05 Apr 1919 in Nashua, Chickasaw County. He died 10 Dec 1980 in Charles City, Floyd County and she 17 Nov 1981 in Plainfield.  Carl was a rural postal carrier and veteran of World War I. In 1947, his patrons gave him a holiday gift of $52 for his faithful service. They had four children.

2. Johnathan L.:  Born in 1894, he married Gertrude Wade on 15 Jun 1921 in Plainfield. They lived in Waterloo until 1933 and then moved to Marion, Iowa until John retired, then moved to Onalaska, Wisconsin. John died in 1988 and Gertrude died 29 Feb 1976 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They had one child.

3. Blanche: Born 03 Aug 1896 in Plainfield. She went out to the work world after graduation from Plainfield high school, scoring a job as assistant postmistress for Plainfield and then as assistant cashier at the Farmer's State Bank. She worked her way up to cashier and took a transfer to the Sumner, Iowa branch, where she met Harold G. Garland, an assistant bookkeeper at the Wescott & Winks Produce Plant. They married 02 Nov 1927 in Sumner. She converted to Catholicism to marry. Harold died in 1947 and Blanche in Nov 1959. They had one child.

4. Anne "Annie" Maud: Born 18 Jun 1898 in Plainfield. She married Merle Eugene Smith on 31 Dec 1924 in Plainfield. They had no children. Merle briefly operated a barber shop out of the east side of C. Beine's building in Nashua in the mid-1920s. They moved to Waterloo shortly after their marriage and Merle would work as an engineer at the city water works in Waterloo, Black Hawk County. Merle died 16 Jul 1956 and Annie moved to live with her sister Blanche. She died in Sumner on 28 Jun 1959. They had no children.

5. Florence Amelia "Babe":  Born 25 Aug 1900 in Plainfield. She never married, She started out teaching in Emmetsburg. She moved on to Cedar Rapids in 1929, where she was later principal of Tyler and then appointed at Hayes school in Cedar Rapids in 1943. She was long-time principal of Lincoln School there from 1948-1960, when she resigned to move nearer to Plainfield. She visited England at least twice, once as an exchange teacher in 1947-1948. In 1969, at the death of her sister Blanche, she was living in Sumner. She died on 04 Apr 1995 in Los Angeles County, California. Her sister Hilda was living in Covina.

Of note is that a study she did while working in Cedar Rapids in 1957 made it onto the newswire. The study involved conflict between parents and children. It bears a read!

6. Hilda Becthel: Born 06 Mar 1910 in Plainfield. She married Alfred Herman Kinzler. Alfred hailed from Wisconsin, where he was born 19 May 1908, the son of Dr. Albert Kinzler and Zena Huisenga Hilda attended the Iowa State Teacher's College in Cedar Falls. She taught music in Osage and later in Waterloo. They had one daughter and four sons, all of whom had beautiful singing voices. Their oldest son was selected to join the Columbus, Ohio, Boychoir in 1950 and sang with them for at least two years. Albert worked at Rath Packing Co. in Waterloo. After their retirement, they moved to Covina, Los Angeles County, California. Alfred died 20 Apr 1983 and Hilda was the last remaining Gritzner kid, dying 27 Dec 1999 in Covina.

Waterloo Daily Courier June 17, 1951

William Custer Smith Family: Rev Parker Smith

JACOB SMITH > WILLIAM CUSTER SMITH m Mary Ann Munson > PARKER SMITH

Parker Smith was born on 01 Sep 1872 in Butler County, Iowa, near Plainfield (Bremer County) where his parents, William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson farmed. Parker was the seventh Smith child and took a completely different path in life from his siblings.

His mother died in 1888 and his father in 1895 and after that, he managed the family farm while it was still in family hands* and did some local traveling as a revivalist fire-and-brimstone Southern Baptist speaker. 

On 26 Nov 1896, he married Estella Irene "Stella" Pierson, in Horton, Bremer County. She was the daughter of Charles Pierson of Sweden and Eliza Rickel originally of Mansfield, Richland County, Ohio. The elder Pierson's were married in 1868 but divorced prior to 1894 when Charles married Nancy "Anna" Phillips.

Parker also attended college, graduating from Southern University in Scotlandville, Louisiana. He was ordained a Baptist preacher in 1899. Finding regular work was sometimes challenging, but from 1899-1903, he was pastor of the Clark Steet Baptist Church in Sioux City, Iowa. He kept his options open though, and did other things to bring in income. In 1900, he and his brother Edwin opened a livery business in the Nashua/Plainfield area, though I don't think that lasted long.

In 1903, the Smith's moved on to his new church in LeMars, Iowa-the First Baptist Church. He would remain there until 1906. At some point during this time, the Smith's decided to foster and raised Stella's niece, Evelyn, whose parents had died.  They seemed to really click in LeMars, based on news reports. With mixed feelings, they took another post in 1906 with the First Baptist Church in Wayne, Nebraska. He would remain there full time until 1911.

In 1914, when his old church in Sioux City completed its new church building, the Smith's were invited to attend and preach. During the period of 1912-1923, Rev Smith substitute preached at Baptist churches in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. The family was living in Parker, Turner County, South Dakota for the 1920 census. 

That same year, he had a little bit of excitement on the road:

PREACHERS JOLTED
Parker SD - The lives of Rev Parker Smith, of this city, and Rev Mr Peterson of Turkey Valley were placed in jeopardy when the steering rod of the auto in  which they were riding worked loose at a point eleven miles from Parker. The auto was traveling at a rate of about twenty-five miles an hour at the time. The steering rod dropped down and struck the road, causing the car to swing violently up into the air and then bob up and down like a jumping jacks. Fortunately, both men escaped without serious injury.
Huron Evening Huronite July 18, 1920

Parker wasn't involved at just the church level, but was actively involved in regional Southern Baptis operations. In 1915, while at the state Baptist convention in Deadwood, SD, he was elected as "Manager for three years," for the organization. 1918's convention had him positioned as vice president. And, in 1919, Rev Smith was elected moderator of the South Baptist Association of South Dakota's next meeting.

In 1923, he picked up a new position with church in Tekamah, Nebraska. In the earlier part of 1926, the Smith's were living back in Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa and then for some reason, during the period of 1926-1927, Rev Smith moved to Ravenna, Nebraska, and operated a grocery store. 

In 1928, the Smith's were living in Brownsdale, Minnesota and by 1929 had returned to Broken Bow. In 1931, he was preaching at the Baptist church in Lincoln, Nebraska and would remain there through 1932. In 1933, he was back in Broken Bow, and in 1935, Rev Smith would take his final bow as full-time preacher before retirement there. From then on, he quietly farmed, and most likely did some preaching somewhere. They would later return to Ravenna, Nebraska.

What's not known is if his wife accompanied him on all his various travels, but the couple did get back to the Nashua/Plainfield area frequently to visit family and friends.

Their foster daughter Evelyn was with them through at least 1930, where the census has her working as a bookkeeper in the creamery in Broken Bow. I have not been able to establish this to a certainty, but I believe her first marriage was to a Mr. Diedrichs and second to a Fred Wilkens. I have no other information on Evelyn.

Parker died 29 Mar 1950 in Ravenna. He had outlived all of his siblings by several years. His nephews Harold Smith and Claude Smith went for the funeral (Edwin's sons). Harold named one of
his sons after Parker. Stella would survive until 19 Mar 1955 and also die in Ravenna.

*See information on the family farm here

Hollar Out: The Tragic Tale of Grant Hollar

Grant Hollar had a temper

ZACHARIAH HOLLER > JOHANNES HOLLER > GEORGE ELAM HOLLER m. Lucy
Robertson > JOHN B HOLLAR m. Harriet Shinn > ALONZO GRANVILLE "GRANT" HOLLAR

When Lucy Holler, widow of George, her daughter and son-in-law Sarah and David Owens, daughter and son-in-law Edna and William Wheeler, and son John B Hollar headed to Iowa from Indiana, they were joining a small farming community of like-minded Baptists in what would become Poyner Township in Black Hawk County Iowa. You can read the tale here.

As time went on, most of them moved on to other parts. John B. Holler, who was born in Washington County Indiana, in about 1834, moved along with is wife Harriet Shinn (married, 1857 in Black Hawk County) and their four young children to near Monticello, Jones County, Iowa, about an hour's drive today east of Black Hawk County some time before the 1885 Iowa Census and after the 1880 US Federal Census. There, the lived until before the 1900 census, where they farmed in Delaware County. By 1907, they had moved to Waterloo, back in Black Hawk County, in their retirement.

Their son Alonzo Granville "Grant" Hollar seemed to have quite a time of things his entire life, In 1889, he was arrested for assault that damaged dignity more than anything. See article above.

In 1890, he married Miss Bessie Belle Brush, daughter of Adam and Rosa (Forsythe) Brush in
Monticello. Three months later, their son George Alonzo Hollar was born. It looks like it was rocky from the get-go, as demand marriages seemed to be so often. By 1895, their child George, was living with JB and Hattie Hollar. And, it appears that Grant had a wicked-awful temper. The young Hollar couple had separated and violence again erupted. In 1895, he was arrested and sent to Anamosa jail to await trial for attempted murder - of his young wife. (See article)

Finally, a divorce was granted to Mrs Hollar in mid-December 1895. Their child remained with the elder Hollars and would do so for the remainder of his youth. Bessie married Walter Flansburg September 5, 1896. They would have two children and be divorced prior to 1920. Mrs Flansburg lived with her son Elery Flansburg in Illinois until her death in 1959. Mr. Flansburg would die destitute in the IOOF Home in Mason City, Iowa in 1961. No mention of Walter's children with Bessie is made in his obit and no mention of her son George Hollar is mentioned in her obituary, nor the earlier marriage.

Grant, it seems, was not destined for long or happy life. Just months after his divorce and two months before his wife remarried, he would be killed in a train accident, the blame for which was placed on him by the coroner's jury.

Young George Alonzo would live a long life, married in 1925 to his wife and had no children. He died in 1972 in Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa after many years as a businessman and grocer. His wife Florence Bennett died in 1977.

Personal Interviews: Saidee Smull Family History

Curtis Williams

Peter Smull > Johnathan Smull > Saidee Smull married Curtis Williams

I've written many letters and emails trying to get distant family members to help me in my quest. Unfortunately, those have mostly been met with deafening silence. One day, I shot off an email to a distant cousin who lived in Minnesota. She is the granddaughter of my great grandmother's sister. Think about that for a minute, I usually need to. She agreed not only to talk to me, but was going to be visiting the area and would meet with me and BRING PHOTOS!  I had died and gone to heaven.

Saidee Smull was the sixth of eight known children of Johnathan Smull and Mary Jane Cooper. She was born 11 Jan 1877 in Bradford, Chickasaw County. She married Curtis A Williams, son of John Williams and Mary Ann Smith, on 09 Sep 1903 in Plainfield, Bremer County, Iowa. The elder Williams' had been born in Indiana and pioneered into Dixon County, Nebraska, before relocating to the Bremer County, Iowa area.

Saidee and Curtis had two daughters, Annie Rosalie (1904), who went by "Rosalie" and Florence Alta Maude (1906), who went by "Maudie." When Maudie was just four, her father died suddenly from typhoid. He was only 35 and a strapping young farmer who took care of his own family as well as his widower father, John.

Life changed significantly for Saidee, but she persevered. She raised her daughters and had a close relationship with several of her sisters and was often found visiting them in Plainfield from Denver. Around 1912, she got more bad news. 

Rosalie, Saidee and Maudie in
Loma Linda, California 1912-1913

Her daughter Rosalie was sick. My interview subject, her daughter, mentioned her mother had been sick and they had gone to California about that time, but she didn't know why - we figured it out while going through the packet of materials she brought. Inside, neatly folded, was a brochure for the Loma Linda Sanitarium where they provided treatment for tuberculosis (among other things). Mystery solved. The girls and Saidee stayed out there for a year until Rosalie was better. Once they grew, both girls became public school teachers.

Saidee never remarried and lived in her later years with her daughter Rosalie and family. Rosalie married a young man named Cloyd Belton, who had arrived in Iowa to work on a road crew building a highway near Denver and never went home. Cloyd was one of eight boys of Marion and Beatrice (Campbell) Belton from Calloway County, Kentucky.  They went on to have my interview subject.  Rosalie died 10 Mar 1990 in and Cloyd died in 1984.

Maudie married a gent named Fred Baker in 1932 in Marshall County, Iowa. They went on to live in Texas. Maudie died Hot Springs, Garland County, Arkansas 30 Aug 2005. They had a boy and a girl.

Maudie and Rosalie Williams

Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes - Dimmick Farr

JACOB ORCUTT > JOHN DIMMICK ORCUTT, SR > JOHN DIMMICK ORCUTT, JR > LOUISA LORRAINE ORCUTT m Silas Farr

Children and adults with disabilities were born with probably the same frequency in previous generations as today, but for many, their life spans were shorter or they did not survive infancy because of a lack of medical advancement. Down’s Syndrome children often had serious heart defects – some stayed home, but many were institutionalized until they died.

People with epilepsy were often housed in special facilities along with the alcoholic, the dementia patient, those with a same-sex attraction, or the severely mentally ill. In the early 19^th century, these were grim and desperate places where many treatments was tantamount to torture. By the late 19^th century, more progressive institutions, such as the Kirkbride institutions, were being built to deal with the myriad of issues that couldn’t be handled by the family at home. Now relics, they used a method of treatment called “The Moral Treatment” and were built to be sanctuaries for the mentally ill who would be active participants in their own recovery.

Throughout the course of the family history, I’ve learned of many in the family who were institutionalized for various reasons. Many of these reasons would be dealt with on an out-patient basis today and medication is available that would allow many of them to have led a normal life had they been born 100 years later.

In the COOPER family for example, the Henry Wesley COOPER line has had many children born with Down Syndrome according to a report from a COOPER family genealogist. The Cooper kin kept those children at home and did not institutionalize.

Just about anything that set your behavior outside of the norm placed you at risk for institutionalization.

One of the cases that stuck out for me in my research was the case of Dimmick FARR, born the

Plainfield, Bremer County, IA sometime between 1874-1880

oldest son of Polk Township, Bremer County, IA pioneer Silas FARR and his wife, Louisa Lorraine ORCUTT. The Farr’s had come to Iowa about 1853. Silas Farr built a steam sawmill in nearby Plainfield in 1855. He ran it as a sawmill for three or four years, then turned it into a grist mill and distillery. It was finally removed. He also farmed. They had two children, Dimmick (1855), was named in honor of Louisa’s father and grandfather, John Dimmick ORCUTT, and Albert (1860). About 1873, when he was 18, Dimmick began displaying unusual behavior that concerned his parents greatly. By the time he reached 24, he was listed in the 1880 Census Supplement for the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes as being diagnosed with Melancholia. He was still in the home at this time. This is a very vague diagnosis, but the Supplement was divided into four classes: The Blind, The Deaf-Mute, The Idiot, and The Insane. Under note B of The Insane section it reads:

“It is not necessary to make minute subdivisions, but to ascertain the number suffering from certain marked forms of insanity-mania, melancholia, paresis (general paralysis), dementia, epilepsy or dipsomania.” 

Dimmick's change of residential accommodations could be related to the fact his parents had gotten elderly. Records indicate he was institutionalized in 1894. His mother died in 1895 while residing with her other son. In 1895, Silas Farr moved to the County Home himself and died there in 1899. Silas had experienced all kinds of financial setbacks, business losses, and lawsuits in his lifetime, so it is likely that he was indigent.  He received a non-county burial after his death.

In 1900, the now 45-year-old Dimmick lived at the Bremer County Poor Farm and Asylum in Warren Township.

Bremer County Poor Farm & Asylum

"The Poor Farm system established in Iowa had a slightly different feel to it than the State Insane Asylums and was meant to reduce the costs of counties in caring for the indigent. The theory of a Poor Farm, or County Farm as it was later known, was to provide the residents with a way to raise their own food, thus making the farm and residents self-sufficient and lessening the drain on local tax funds. The Bremer County Farm raised field crops, dairy cattle, hogs and poultry, as well as maintaining a very large garden. While few records remain, it appears that the atmosphere at the County Farm was that of a large family, rather than an institution. The residents all had jobs appropriate to their age, skills and health. The women helped with the cooking, laundry and gardening, while the men cared for the animals, did the milking and worked in the fields. The farm did its own butchering of the beef, pork and poultry that were used for their food. Part of what was produced was sold and the money used to buy those items that could not be produced on the farm. There was a commission of three people who reviewed cases before a resident entered the facility. There was a judge, a doctor and a lawyer who would decide if placement at the County Farm was appropriate. Early in the history of the County Farm, the residents appear to be elderly or a person with a health problem such as alcoholism. In examining the census information most of the residents were older adults, with occasional families coming for a period of time. Any orphaned children or those whose parents were unable to care for them were transferred to orphanages or placed with a local family.”1 

Because Dimmick was kept in the home so long, he was probably somewhat functional and non-violent, which would have made the choice of this type of institution more compassionate. At the time of his residence there, fully half of the residents were classified as “insane” and the other half “indigent.” He died there on 04 Dec 1901 at the age of 46 of unknown causes and was buried in the Poor Farm cemetery in Warren Township.

Another case coming up next where we visit a State Hospital for the Insane.

1 http://www.iagenweb.org/bremer/census/PFndx.

Louisa's sister, Adaline married Reuben Moore, grandfather of Arthur Dwight Moore who married Florence Smull.