Clan William: Mary Ann Munson and William Custer Smith, Part 2

See Part 1 here.

William and Mary Ann Munson Smith set up house in Fennimore, Grant County, Wisconsin. The couple farmed during their time in Wisconsin. On 19 Sep 1854, they had their first child, Walter Clarence Smith. The next surviving child was Mary Madora "Dora" Smith, born in Hazel Green, Grant County on 23 Jul 1850. The third, was Harland Smith, born 02 Nov 1861 in Grant County. Finally, the fourth Wisconsin baby, Eva Elvira Smith was born on 05 Apr 1864 in Fennimore.

Butler County, Iowa Fremont Township Plat Map, 1895

In 1866, the Smith family packed up and moved to Fremont Township, Butler County, Iowa. On 16 Sep 1866, their fifth child, Ella Mae Smith was born in Fremont Township. The Smith's then purchased a farm one mile west of the town of Plainfield, in Butler County, from the widow of former Horton postmaster Amos Head. Head had cleared the land and made it livable. The Smith's purchased 140 acres of prime farm land for $800.00 on 01 Nov 1866. The farm was right on the county line between Butler and Bremer county. The couple worked together to build their house and barn. They had a large family to house and more were on the way.

In addition to the children, the couple also housed William's mother "Cathy"  and his mentally disabled brother, Isaac, and spinster sister, Sara. Along came sons Edwin (06 Jun 1869), Parker (01 Sep 1872), Mirt (09 Sep 1875), and baby John, born 09 Jun 1879 and died 28 Sep 1881. This would complete their family.

The house is the one William & Mary Ann Munson Smith
built. The people are the next family who lived there.

The couple completed their house and barn and as the older ones grew, they married off.  

The original farm and farm today. The house is long gone. The Dieke family have owned
the property for over 100 years and the farm is recognized as a Centennial Farm.

By 1880, William's mentally disabled brother, Isaac, was living in Wisconsin again, with another Smith brother, John. Mother Cathy is believed to have died in Fremont Township before 1880 and was probably the reason Isaac was sent to the oldest brother. Sister Sarah Jane was finally married off to a widower with a disastrous marriage record and history of alcohol abuse and violence, Francis "Frank" Doole, on 27 May 1887 in Floyd County. She did not get a happy ending.

Oldest son Walter had married Isabell Monteith in 1876 in Plainfield. Isabell was one of three Monteith sisters who married into the greater Smith family. The Monteith's hailed from Scotland and settled in Wisconsin.

Daughter Dora married a young businessman originally from Somerset, Pennsylvania, but had moved to Waterloo, Iowa on 21 Jun 1878 in Janesville, Iowa. His family made an indelible impression on the City of Waterloo through the next several decades. The couple would reside in Waterloo and husband Claude Lichty would build a manufacturing company which ran successfully during his lifetime.

Son Harland and Fannie had been married in a double ceremony with Harland's next younger sister, Eva Elvira on 21 Aug 1881. Son Harland and William loved to race horses and built a horse racing track on the property at it's southern side. They traveled the state racing horses and held races on their property. Harlan and his wife Fannie Magoon lived on the farm with the Smith's after their marriage in 1881. Fannie fed the chickens and worked the farm. She did the laundry in a vat on the lawn. Harland, reportedly, was far from industrious and just wanted to race his horses.  

Eva Elvira, who married farm laborer Arthur Marion Bryce on 21 Aug 1881 in a double ceremony with her brother Harland and his wife Fannie. The Bryce's moved on to Fort Dodge and then returned to Plainfield, where Arthur died young in 1886 and Eva did not remarry.

Daughter Ella Mae married farmhand and later railroad man Howard Cunningham on 30 Aug 1885 in Bremer County. They moved to Moberly, Missouri, one of the hubs of the Wabash Railroad.

Plainfield, Bremer County, IA sometime between 1874-1880

William and Mary Ann seemed to have a lot of friends in both Nashua and Plainfield, though Plainfield was where they went most often. Their mail was delivered to the Plainfield post office and that's also where they saw the doctor and did their shopping. Plainfield and Nashua were both thriving farm towns, with just about everything a family could need in those days in the 1880s.  

In 1888, Mary Ann took sick. She was expected to recover and though she was sick, no one expected her to die. She died on 24 Sep 1888. She was 51 and her youngest child, Mirt, was 13 years old. 

Life would change for the Smith family after Mary Ann's death. Family lore would prove false after a long research road.

Part 3 - After Mary Ann Munson Smith

Click these links for more stories about William and Mary's families.

It Must Have Been in the Blood: Cunningham Railroad Men

EDWARD CUNNINGHAM > Charles, Howard, and Ed Cunningham

William Custer Smith's daughter Ella Mae met and married a young farm hand named Howard Sean Cunningham, in 1885. He ended up moving to Moberly, Missouri, one of the hubs of the Wabash Railroad and worked for the railroad until his death. Interestingly, two of his brothers also had the railroad in their blood.

Charles Scott Cunningham

Edward Cunningham and his wife, Delilah Griffith, daughter of Joseph Griffith and Nancy Scott, resided in Guernsey County, Ohio, They had five children: Charles Scott, Lillie Belle, Kathryn "Katie," Howard Sean, and Edward "Ed." The children's mother died in 1865 and Howard went to live with relatives in Marion County. His siblings lived with other relatives. He reconnected with his siblings later in life.

His oldest brother Charles Scott Cunningham was born on 19 Apr 1856 in Guernsey County, Ohio. He was later a conductor on the Wabash out of Moberly.  Then, he moved north and worked for the Grand Trunk Railway, which served the Northern tier of the midwest and NE and Canada. Charles served in a number of positions and lived in both Canada and Michigan, including Lansing. In 1913, he was appointed by Michigan Governor Ferris as one of the state railroad commissioners. He was renamed by Governor Sleeper in 1919, but it was not confirmed by the Michigan House as they abolished the commission and created the Utilities Commission. Charles died from a long illness at age of 63 on 21 May 1919 - outliving both of his brothers and a sister and leaving one sister, Mrs Sidney A. (Lillie Belle) Briggs, of Moberly.

Ed Cunningham, the baby of the family, was born in 1864. He, too, ended up in Moberly working for the Wabash. He married Mollie Thompson, a Tennessee native who came with her family to Missouri when a young girl. The couple had two children, Charles Edward and Mabel Marie. Prior to 1900, the couple moved to Texas and worked for a railroad out of  Fort Worth.

Ed didn't have the best luck. He was hit by a train in June of 1905 and sustained a serious head injury, but miraculously survived. But, that apparently wasn't the end of the run of bad luck.

He then was struck by a locomotive engine while in the Frisco Yards and killed 20 Mar 1909.

His body was taken back to Moberly for burial. His family remained in Texas after his death. His son Charles became an insurance agent and eventually settled in Houston. His daughter married a salesman who later became a sales supervisor and remained in the Fort Worth area. His wife Mollie died 21 Mar 1958 in Tarrant County, Texas.

A. Dorsey Bouque Moves to Indiana

A. Dorsey Bouque

JACOB SMITH > WILLIAM CUSTER SMITH > ELLA MAE SMITH CUNNINGHAM > EFFIE
CUNNINGHAM BOUQUE  m Lester Irwin Bouque > A DORSEY BOUQUE

My 2nd greatgrandfather, William Custer Smith and his wife Mary Ann Munson's daughter Ella Mae Smith moved to Moberly, Missouri after her 1885 marriage to Howard Cunningham sometime after 1893. Howard worked on the Wabash railroad, as many men who lived in Moberly did. Their daughter Effie Mae married Lester Irwin (L. I.) Bouque, son of  Charles Bouque and Alice Smith (no relation). L. I. Bouque also worked for the Wabash railroad. Ella's daughter, Effie and L. I. had seven children. They had a set of twins Harry (1907-1908) and Harold (1907-1924). Lester, A. Dorsey, Carl, and Francis "Frank" survived childhood, along with sister Gertrude. A. Dorsey, whose name was Arthur Dorsey Bouque, was born 03 Jan 1909 in Moberly, Randolph County, Missouri.

Though Howard and Ella Mae created a life in Moberly, none of their children would stay there. Lester would spend most of his adult life living in Europe and would die in Kansas City, Frank and Dorsey moved to Indiana, Carl to Kansas City, and Getrude to NYC and then to New Jersey.

Dorsey's childhood seemed to be filled with all the things kids love including being a member of Troop 12 of the Boy Scouts in Moberly. He graduated from Moberly High School in 1927 and was able to return to his 20th reunion in 1947. Like many young men, he worked for the railroad, but briefly, serving as a ditcher's helper. Sometime prior to 1930, he moved on from Moberly and went to Gary, Indiana to find work. He married Mary Frances Hord on 03 Nov 1930 in Indiana, and had a son Charles on 04 Feb 1934 in Gary.

The couple divorced  Frances worked as a clerk for Kresge after her divorce and died in a hospital after residing in a nursing home in Valparaiso, IN on 15 Mar 1986. Cause of death was a sepsis due to a bowel perforation and a broken  hip.

Dorsey married Donelda Ferne Bowron on 21 Apr 1946.She hailed from Canada and her family had emigrated to the US prior to 1930.

D. Ferne and A. Dorsey had four more children that I could locate. Dorsey worked as a laborer in manufacturing  and later in building construction during his time in Gary. They lived 536 Monroe St in Gary and later at 401 Tyler St. Word was received by L. I. Bouque that his son had died of pneumonia related to Fridelander's bacillus (now called  Klebsiella pneumoniae) in Gary's Methodist Hospital after a five-day illness on 06 May 1959.

Sadly, just two months later, A. Dorsey's son, Harold Wayne, born 09 Aug 1948 in Gary, would die on 03 Jul 1959 at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago a week before his 11th birthday, and would also died of pneumonia.

Wife, D. Ferne died 26 Jul 1979 in Crown Point in Lake County.

Clan William: The Family Farm of William Custer Smith & Mary Ann Munson

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

Butler County, Iowa Fremont Township Plat Map, 1895
Click image to increase size

William Custer Smith, my 2nd great grandfather, hailed from Harrison County, Ohio. He was born 04 Oct 1831, the middle child of seven born to Jacob Smith and wife Mary Catherine Randolph. His family moved to Grant County, Wisconsin in 1846. William and his bride, Mary Ann Munson, whom he married 20 Jun 1853 in Grant County, moved to Iowa in fall of 1865. Mary Ann died in 1888 and WC married Mary Ann's cousin, Alice Simmons in about 1893, two years prior to his death. WC died in Plainfield, but the death was registered in Butler County.

WC Smith Obituary November 1895

Family lore reminds us he had a farm and that his family's social life revolved around Plainfield, Bremer County.  But, his land (120 acres) was actually in Butler County, right at the edge of the Bremer County border. The Plainfield post office served the farm. The farm reportedly had a horse race track because WC, his son Harland, and grandson William Lowell Smith were all avid horse racers.

It's such a thrill to make document discoveries after some serious sleuthing. One of my questions involved, "What became of the land?" In a note of remembrances authored by WC Smith granddaughter, Alyce Smith Rasmussen (daughter of WC Smith's son Harland), she had claimed that the widow Alice took the land, bounced Harland out, took all the personal effects, leaving the children with nothing. You can read about that claim here.

According to county deed documents, this was all patently untrue. WC Smith's widow sold the land of William C. Smith to the children of WC Smith after his death: Walter Smith, Dora Lichty, Harland Smith, Eva Bryce, Ella Cunningham, Edwin Smith, Parker Smith, and Mirt Smith for $2, 040 for the property described as: The East half of the Southeast quarter and the Southeast quarter of the Northeast quarter of Section 24, Township 93, N. Range 15 West. This deal was closed 22 Nov 1895, just days after WC's death.

WC Smith Widow Alice's sale to WC Smith Children, 1895
Click image to increase size

But, wait, there's more.On 08 Mar 1897, WC Smith daughter Eva Bryce sold her share to her siblings for $600.

Finally, on 08 Dec 1898, the remaining siblings sold the property to Diedrich Deike for the sum of $5,040. Parker Smith had been managing the farm during the time from his father's death to the time of the sale. Diedrich and Minnie had seven kids and the family still owns this property.

Final Sale of Property to Diedrich Dieke

My thanks to the staff of the Butler County Recorder's office, particularly Roxann, for assisting me in my quest to solve the mystery.

You can read more on the Smith-Munson Family Farm here.

William Custer Smith Family Links

Stories:

William Custer Smith (28 Sep 1831-16 Nov 1895)
The Family Farm of William Custer and Mary Ann Munson
Mystery Muddle: Who is Alice Simmons?
Connecting the Story: More on the William Custer Smith Farm

Mary Ann Munson (1837-24 Sep 1888)
Munson Family: Amos Munson
Mystery Muddle: The Amos Munson 1870 Census

Walter Smith (19 Sep 1854-23 May 1930)
William Custer Smith Family: Walter Smith

Mary Madora "Dora" Smith Lichty (23 Jul 1859-02 Jul 1941)
B. F. Lichty & Sons, Waterloo

Harland Smith (02 Nov 1861-21 Nov 1933)
William Custer Smith Family: Harland Smith
William Lowell Smith
Walter Kermit Spurgeon Gets Robbed
Going Beyond the Details - The Nashua Reporter

Eva Elvira Smith Bryce (05 Apr 1864-05 Jun 1924)
William Custer Smith Family: Eva Elvira Smith

Ella Mae Smith Cunningham (16 Sep 1866-21 Jun 1924)
All Aboard! The Railroad Men of the Wabash Railroad
A Sad Turn in the Tale of the Cunningham Family
Trail Blazing Women: Gertude Bouque Nichols

Edwin Smith (06 Jun 1869-10 Jan 1939)
The Edwin Smith Family
Johnathan Smull Family: Katie Smull
  Mystery Muddle: The Many Marriages of Marie/Mary Adaline Smith
  The Cappoens/LeRoy Line: Leo Lee Linsey
  Edwin Smith Family: Vivian Katherine Smith
  Edwin Smith Family: Evelyn Joyce Smith

Rev Parker Smith (01 Sep 1872-29 Mar 1950)
William Custer Smith Family: Rev Parker Smith

Mirt Smith (09 Sep 1875-29 Oct 1936)
William Custer Smith Family: Mirt Smith
Middle Aged Miasma or Murder Most Foul?

John Smith (09 Jun 1879-28 Sep 1881) - Died at age 2 in 1881

According to on account in The History of Bremer County, the couple also had another child, whom I would presume died as an infant. .

William Custer Smith Family: Eva Elvira Smith

JACOB SMITH > WILLIAM CUSTER SMITH  m Mary Ann Munson > EVA ELVIRA SMITH

L. Scott Baker & Ethel Bryce Wedding

Eva Elvira Smith was the final child born to William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson while they lived in Wisconsin. She was born in Grant County, Wisconsin on 05 Apr 1864 and in the fall of 1865, moved with her parents and sibling to a farm near Plainfield, Bremer County at the edge of Butler County.

On 21 Aug 1881, she married Arthur Marion Bryce, a divorced man with one daughter. Arthur and Eva would have two children, Ethel Marion, born in 1882 and John W. born 24 Feb 1884. Arthur died on 11 Jan 1886.

In 1897, Eva sold her interest in the Smith family farm, previously repurchased from Willliam Custer Smith's second wife and widow, Alice, to her siblings for $2,000. She sold her share back to the siblings for $600.

In 1906, Eva moved to Illinois where her daughter Ethel and son-in-law Lafayette "Scott" Baker were residing. The Baker's relocated to Waterloo in 1910.

Ethel had met Scott while working in the Plainfield school. Scott was the principal and Ethel was his assistant and teacher. Scott was referred to as "Professor Baker." Baker was a native of Island, Nemaha, Nebraska born 16 Apr 1880 to Mr & Mrs Jesse Baker. His family then moved to Fremont County, Iowa. The young couple was married by Ethel's uncle, Rev. Parker Smith, a Baptist minister, on 13 Jan 1906 at Eva's home in Plainfield. They had their only child, Jesse Bryce Baker, in Illinois, on 12 Jan 1907.

Jesse, Ethel, and Scott Baker

Eva's son John also lived in Waterloo in 1910 with the Baker's and plied his trade as a barber. He eventually moved to Fort Dodge and in 1914 was living in the Hotel Logan there and still barbering. He remained there and married Miss Addie Latham on 17 Dec 1921 in Waterloo.He would remain in Fort Dodge for his life and die on 24 Sep 1931.

The Baker's remained in Waterloo until about 1922, when they moved to  Lincoln, Nebraska and then Denver, Colorado. It was in Lincoln that Eva died on 05 June 1924, the first of the Smith siblings to reach maturity to die (young John died at a age 2 in 1881).  Just two weeks after Eva's funeral, which sister Ella Mae Cunningham attended, Ella Mae would die in Moberly, Missouri (read here and here).

While in Denver, Scott died in April of 1944. He was buried at the Fairmont Cemetery in Denver. Ethel moved to California, where son Jesse was living. She eventually married Mr. Al Kramer (of which little is known).

Son Jesse married first Leona Vanderpool in about 1927 or 1928 while living in Denver. They had one daughter born about 1928. They divorced.

Jesse & Inez

He then married Inez Pearl Garrison who had divorced George Howard Wilcox and had two sons, William and George, Jr., at the time of the marriage. Jesse and Inez would go on to have four more children. Jesse in 1930 was an engineer for a radio corporation and in 1940 was a traveling salesman for a mercantile company. Jesse died in Los Angeles County 21 Sep 1971.

Ethel, Jesse's mother, survived him, living until 19 Apr 1977, where she died in Sunland, Los Angeles County, California.

Inez moved in the early 1970s to Bellingham, Washington. She married Arie H. Sluys, her third husband, on 08 Jul 1977 in Whatcom County, Washington. Arie died 25 Oct 1988 and Inez died 12 Mar 1999.

A Sad Turn in the Tale of the Cunningham Family

Jacob Smith > William Custer Smith & Mary Ann Munson > Ella Mae Smith Cunningham

I've spent considerable time researching the middle child of William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson but finally this past weekend visited Moberly, Randolph County, Missouri to start putting all the pieces together of the records and stories I've compiled over the months.

624 W Rollins St

Ella Mae and Howard's basic story was told here. Their lives in Missouri were like the lives of many average families. The father went to work each day, the mother kept house. In 26 Mar 1918 Howard died of "mitral regurgitation," basically, a leaky heart valve. He'd had heart trouble for some years, but not so bad he needed to stop working as a conductor on the Wabash Railroad. They had moved "uptown" to this house after years of hard work. After Howard's death, Ella moved in with her daughter, Effie Mae and her husband, L. I. Bouque at 514 Taylor St.

514 Taylor St

In reading the paper over the years, I'd discovered that Ella Mae had fainting spells and hospitalizations for unknown causes made me think there may have been some mental health issues - especially after her stay in the Baptist Sanitarium many years before.

Mrs HS Cunningham of West Coates St, who is in St Louis taking treatment at the Baptist Sanitarium, is much improved. Her many friends hope for an early and permanent recovery.

Moberly Democrat March 19, 1899, pg 5

I have to say when I finally found the death certificate, I was still shocked and saddened. Ella Mae ended her life with a pistol shot to the head on 21 Jun 1924 at the age of 57 in her daughter's home. No obituary was published. She was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Moberly, next to her husband, Howard. What caused her despair we will never know.

All Aboard! The Railroad Men of the Wabash Railroad

Jacob Smith > William Smith (my 3rd great grandfather) & Mary Ann Munson > Ella Mae Smith married Howard Sean Cunningham > Effie Mae Cunningham married L.I. Bouque

Wabash RR Lines

As major railroads stretched across the country, allowing people and freight to freely travel to and from major settlement areas, smaller, regional railroads cropped up as well. The railroad business has long been one to have lines pop up, merge with other, larger railroads, and then for more to pop up later on. One of the enduring regional lines, which was brought about as a result of a merger, was the Wabash Railroad Company. It operated primarily in the Midwest and was considered a "bridge" railroad. Major rail lines were forced to use these bridge rail lines to to get from one main line to another. One branch of the family relocated to Moberly, Missouri, a town completely beholden to the previous Northern Missouri RR for its very existence when founded in 1867, and embarked upon lives in a true railroad town.

Ella Mae Smith was the fifth surviving child of William Smith and Mary Ann Munson. She was the

Moberly, Mo Union Station

first Smith to be born in Iowa and was born in 1866 in Butler County, near Plainfield (Bremer County), shortly after the end of the Civil War. A young man by the name of Howard Sean Cunningham had moved alone to Bremer County and worked as a farm hand. He was the son of Edward Cunningham and Delilah Griffith, of whom little is known other than they were born in Ohio and lived in Guernsey County at the time of H.S.'s birth in 1861. Ella and H.S. married 30 Aug 1885 in Bremer County and then relocated to Moberly, Missouri, where H.S. started working his way up the ladder for the Wabash railroad, ultimately becoming a common sight at the train station in his job as conductor. They lived a comfortable life in Moberly. Howard died in 1918 and Ella in 1924.

He and Ella had four children, three girls and one boy. His oldest daughter Effie Mae was an outgoing girl born in 1886. She was the talk of the town when in 1905, her father presented her with a bicycle, still a novelty item for most. Effie grew up and and married railroad man L. I. Bouque. Effie was frequently mentioned in the Moberly society pages for her untiring efforts in various women's groups and most importantly, for her almost fanatic devotion to her pinochle clubs.

The railroad men of Moberly made a decent living from the Wabash, but there were very real hazards. Rail accidents were not uncommon. Trains met animals, bad rail line, cars, people, and even each other far too often. Howard was involved in at least one, but unlike many of the accidents, there were no fatalities this day:

Wabash Trains Collide 

Passenger Engine Damaged and Engineer Russ Slightly Injured at Morgan Valley, Iowa

Two Wabash passenger trains met in a head-on collision at 7:35 o'clock this morning at Morgan Valley, Iowa, but fortunately no fatalities resulted.The trains were No 1, in charge of Conductor JC Jacks, with engineer CC Barclay on Engine 1751 and No 2, in charge Conductor HS Cunningham, with Engineer WM Russ on engine 262.The trains collided at a point just east of the east switch at Morgan Valley. Both engines were derailed and the pilot was torn from each of them. None of the coaches of either train left the rails. Engineer Russ received slight injuries about the chest but they are pronounced to be of no serious nature. None of the passengers were injured according to the best information available. The track was cleard at 1:30 o'clock.Moberly Weekly Monitor February 15, 1910, pg 2

L.I. worked on various routes along Wabash lines, but one he rode as engineer for many years was the Pacific Coast Special, which ran from St Louis to Kansas City, ultimately destined for Los Angeles. He was involved in one of the most tragic accidents in Wabash history.  Ten people were killed that day; nine of whom were African-Americans working the Section Gang (maintenance of railroad way).

Effie Mae's bright light shut off in 1949, leaving L.I., alone. He remarried in 1950 to the widow Florence Dayton Eichelberger and took the opportunity to travel to visit the children they'd raised who had scattered to the wind. All had had opportunity to attend college. His oldest surviving son, Lester, became a successful engineer with Sinclair oil and an investment house in St Louis, and then became a highly-placed civil servant, serving as chief of the requirements planning division of the European Command for many years in post-war Germany. His baby sister, Gertrude rose from her modest Moberly roots and can be read about here. Lester shared this story about his father at his bible study class while he still lived in Moberly:

Leaving home for the meeting, Lester invited his father L I Bouque to come along, explaining that refreshments would be served.

"That's nice," said Mr Bouque

"And we're going to have several speakers," Lester added

"That's nice," Mr Bouque repeated.

"And after the speeches," Lester continue, "We;re going to have a round table discussion of the Devaluation fo the Dollar."

"Well, son," said his pater, "On second thought, I guess I'll just stay home and sleep. But if you find out anything about the dollar, you wake me up when you come home."

And after the discussion, Lester, retelling the story, had to admit that Mr Bouque's sleep was uninterrupted that night.

Moberly Monitor Index February 23, 1934, pg 4

L.I. Bouque died in 1964 in Moberly.

Trailblazing Women - Gertrude Bouque Nichols

Jacob Smith > William Custer Smith > Ella Mae Smith Cunningham > Effie Cunningham Bouque > Gertrude Bouque Nichols

My great great grandfather, William Custer Smith was born in Ohio in 1831 and moved to Grant County, Wisconsin, when 15 years of age and resided there till 1865 when he moved with his family onto the farm one mile west of Plainfield, where he resided at the time of his death in 1895. His first wife, and mother of his eight children, was Mary Ann Munson. She was born in about 1837 and died in 1888 in Iowa.

Their fifth child, Ella Mae, was born in 1866, married Howard Cunningham in 1885. They relocated to Moberly, Randolph County, Missouri after their marriage. Howard was a conductor on the Wabash Railroad. The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central US. It served a large area with trackage in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri, and into the Province of Ontario. It had connections to most of the major cities in the central US from NYC to Kansas City.  Many of the male descendants of Howard worked for the railroad.

They had four children, including Effie Mae, the eldest, born in 1885, who married Lester Irwin Bouque. L.I. and Effie were well-known in town and very active in civic activities.

L.I. and Effie had six sons and finally, a daughter, Gertrude, who was born in 1919. At least two of the kids went to college, including Gertrude, who received her journalism degree from the prestigious School of Journalism at the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1940.

Her first newspaper job was in Caruthersville, Missouri for several months before returning to Moberly to work on the Moberly Monitor Index for a year before moving to Shrevesport, Louisiana to take a job at the Shreveport Times, where she quickly rose from reporter to assistant city editor and features writer as well as associate editor for two Shrevesport magazines. Her full-page story on the munitions plant in Minden, Louisiana was the first story she had picked up by the Associated Press newswire.

Close to war's end, she moved to New York City where she was hired as assistant press officer for the United Nations Press Office in Rockefeller Center. She reportedly also worked for the AP as reporter and sportswriter covering the Brooklyn Dodgers. Here is one of the stories she wrote that was picked up nationally on the same day the second Atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki, Japan. The bombing assuring the rapid end at last to the era of devastation which conversely had also allowed women to rise to unprecedented heights in careers previously restricted primarily to men.

Between 1946 and 1956, Gertrude worked in New York for Fairchild Publishing, a company which dates back to the 19th century, renowned for fashion industry related publishing. In 1956, she moved to Westfield, New Jersey and marrried Clement H. Nichols, a chemical engineer who was recently widowed with three children. Gertrude also had three children with Clement.  Gertrude was very active in her community, serving on the school district board, participating for years with the local theatre group, and was involved with the International Gourmet Food Club and the College Women's Club in Westfield. Clement died in 1988 and Gertrude, who left behind her life as a working woman for motherhood, died in 2007 in New Jersey.