How My Dog Got Her Name

SMITH, JACOB > SMITH, WILLIAM CUSTER > SMITH, WALTER m Isabelle Monteith > SMITH, FRANKIE m (1) Lloyd Baltzer (2) Tom Tamen

Frankie & Lloyd Baltzer

I learned so much about the Walter Smith family on my recent visit to his youngest daughter's home this year. And, I was at last able to see the person who provided the name for my dog.

Frankie Smith was the last of Walter Smith and Isabelle Monteith's biological daughters. Betty, their adopted daughter and biological great granddaughter would join the family when the rest of kids were in middle age. Frankie was born in March of 1890. According to Betty Smith, Frankie most likely got her name because Walter tired of waiting for a boy child. Though, he was proud as could be of all of his daughters.

Frankie married Nashuan Lloyd Lendo Baltzer on 04 May 1914 in Mitchell, Iowa. Lloyd was the son of Arthur E and Viola Baltzer and was born 27 Mar 1888 in Nashua. Lloyd was originally a harness maker, but then took up employment with the telephone company that served Rudd, Rockford, Lakota, Hampton, and Mason City (area towns). Frankie and Lloyd lived in Rudd and then Lakota for many years. Eventually, the couple divorced and Baltzer married Mabel Orr in December 1932.

Smith Sisters

Thomas "Tom" Tamen was born 27 May 1889 in Parkersburg, Butler County, Iowa. He had married Clara Augusta Beyer on 15 Mar 1914 in Winnebago, Iowa. They had two children: Clara Beverly "Beverly" Tamen and Frederick Thomas Tamen. The Tamen's resided in Lakota when Mrs Tamen, a long time Buffalo Center resident, hanged herself in the attic of their home, being found when daughter Beverly, then 13 years old, returned from school. Mrs Tamen was 40 years old and had been "troubled with nervousness for some years"and may have been troubled by illness.

Tom was formerly an implement dealer in Lakota, but his shop burned down in 1930 and since that time, he had been selling real estate. He was out of town on business when his wife was discovered. It was 20 Apr 1932 when Tom and Frankie went to Galena, Illinois, and married.

Tom got a job as an instructor at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, Illinois, and the family resided there until Tom's retirement, when they moved to Nashua. Tom's son Fred married and had a number of children and resided in Carbondale, Ill. Tom's daughter Beverly Van Rossum died in 1966, preceding her father in death.

In the final years of Tom's life, Frankie and Tom loved to winter in Florida. Tom died 11 Nov 1969 in Iowa (there are conflicting reports whether it was in an Independence, Iowa hospital or at Iowa City Medical Center in Johnson County).

Frankie continued on for many years after Tom's death, wintering in Florida and summering in her beloved Iowa. She survived until just past her 100th birthday, dying 06 Jul 1990. All of her sisters reached their 90s, but Frankie was the final surviving biological daughter of Walter and Isabelle.

We sat in the car on the way to pick up our new Iowa Collie and tossed around various "old-fashioned" names for the puppy. Some included Mabel, Ruth, and finally, I said, "Frankie" as I had just been discovering her story in my work. Here is the little face that ended up with Frankie's name.

Frankie

Captain Grant & Mrs Mary Jane Scoles Walker

Mary Jane Scoles Walker

JACOB SMITH > WILLIAM CUSTER SMITH > WALTER SMITH > MINNIE SMITH m Charles Scoles > MARY JANE SCOLES m Capt Grant Walker

Mary Jane Scoles was the youngest child of Minnie Luella Smith and Charles Scoles. She was born 20 Aug 1927 in Bradford, Chickasaw County, Iowa. As a high school senior, she was chosen as a Queen entrant at the North Iowa Band Festival in Mason City by her class band from Nashua high school. She was a member of both the concert and marching bands, glee club, and mixed chorus and was also the state champion student band director. She was also an attendant to the Nashua High Homecoming Queen as a senior. Immediately after graduation, she belonged to The Majel Club, a social club of young women of the Congregational Church in 1946/1947 and served as secretary. She taught rural school for two years after graduating.

Grant Walker was the son of Mrs Celia Walker and was raised in Pennsylvania, born at Ramey and graduated from the Madera and Ramey area high school. He entered the Navy in 1943 at age 17. He attended Pennsylvania State and Georgia Tech in the Navy Y-12 program and entered midshipmen's

Capt Walker's Columbia
Roomie, Johnny Carson

training at Columbia University in March 1945.

While he was at Columbia Midshipmen's School, his roommate was young Johnny Carson. Captain Walker said, "He was in love with his high school sweetheart, who he later married. We only had Saturday night to go out to drink and he had his friends and I had mine. We got along just fine though."

He was commissioned in July 1945 and first assigned to the USS Chandeuer, a seaplane tender. Then, he was transferred to the USS Rockingham, a Haskell-class attack transport.

While on that ship, they were doing atomic bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll late 1945/1946. He was aboard the ship during the test blasts and also was required to take radioactivity readings on the various test ships (he said, "Some sunk, some didn't.") Captain Walker said they weren't allowed to look directly toward the blast, but had to turn their backs and protect their eyes, but post-blast, he could see the mushroom cloud.

Grant & Mary Jane's
Wedding

Mary Jane's sister Margaret had married Dale Williamson and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Mary Jane moved to Atlanta and got a job as a reservations agent for Eastern Airlines. One night, she went out with some others girls from work and went to a bar. That night, Grant Walker, USN, was there too. He had been attending a chemical warfare school in Alabama and had come to Atlanta for a weekend of fun. He had decided to ask one of Mary Jane's group to dance, but by the time he got over there, she got up and left and he was left standing there. So, he asked Mary Jane to dance.

The couple married on 28 May 1953 in Atlanta and began their lives as a Navy family. Each year, they would come to Nashua/Plainfield for a visit with family. He recalls Minnie, Mary Jane's mother, as a bit aloof and difficult to know. She "had her opinions and those were her opinions," he said. Betty Smith Hahn and her husband Lee lived next door to Minnie. Betty was Minnie's adopted sister.

He attended Naval War College in 1963 and was in the same class as Jeremiah Denton, who was a POW for eight horrific years and later served as Senator of Alabama and Sam Gravely, the first African-American Admiral in the US Navy.

Commander Jeremiah Denton

Grant's career flourished. He, over the course of his career, commanded four ships. At the apex, he did three tours in Vietnam as Skipper of the USS Waddell, an Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer, beginning in 1966. During his time there, he recalls not only being fired upon, but firing back, and said his ship was the first to fire north of the South Vietnam border.

His last command was as Skipper of the USS Coronado, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock (LPD) built with additional superstructure for command ship duties. Keel was laid 01 May 1965 and she was commissioned 23 May 1970. Walker was its first Skipper. Captain Walker recalls that in the time it took him to get the ship underway and to its next port, his wife Mary Jane had driven the girls cross-country to Virginia Beach and found a church and joined before he got there. He said, "I didn't get any choice in church, but I'm a Methodist anyway, so it was fine."

Captain Grant Walker, USN

He retired in 1976. Sadly, his wife Mary Jane died months later on 25 May 1977 in Virginia Beach. She died at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital of encephalitis. She had suffered from leukemia for the previous four years.

The couple had four daughters, two of whom reside near him and the other two are only a couple hours away. He has eight grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

Captain Walker remarried after ten years alone to Dorothy, who preceded him in death in 2007 of cancer. He likes to sing in the church choir at St Andrew's Methodist Church, to which he's belonged since 1970. His daughters sing in the choir with him. In earlier days, he was very active in  the community with organizations like the Red Cross and as president of the Civic League, but he mostly takes it easy these days. He still plays poker with the folks in his 40-year-old poker club, though Captain Walker says, "Five had died."  Captain Walker is 91 this year but still goes to the Outer Banks with his kids every year and sees them frequently-a situation he likes just fine.

USS Waddell

William Custer Smith Family: Walter Smith

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

Walter Smith was the first born of William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson. He was born 19 Sep 1854 in Grant County, Wisconsin and came to Iowa with his family in the fall of 1865. On 29 Oct 1876, he married Isabelle Monteith in Plainfield, Bremer County, Iowa.

Edward Boyd Monteith & Agnes McCubbin

Isabelle was the granddaughter of Andrew Monteith and Isabelle Hendry of Wigtownshire, Scotland. The Monteith's and their children emigrated to the US at various times in the late 1840s/early 1850s. Her father and mother, Edward Boyd Monteith and Agnes McCubbin had arrived in the US in 1848 and lived in Vermont for three years, then moved to Janesville, Wisconsin. In 1854, they removed to Platteville.

Interestingly, three of the Monteith daughters would marry Smith men. Elizabeth married William Custer Smith's brother Jacob and Isabelle would marry William's cousin Alexander, son of his brother James Smith.

Surviving Smith Kids (missing are Eva and Ella, both died in 1924)

The couple moved from Iowa after the birth of their first child to Grant County, Wisconsin briefly
where their second child was born, and then moved on to North Dakota where their third child was born. They then returned to the Nashua/Plainfield area before the birth of their fourth child. Walter had done some farming but was known in the community for "a little bit of this, a little bit of that," doing anything from working a dray line, delivering ice, to managing the Commercial Club. He was known in town as being friendly and genial and had many friends.

Walter died 23 May 1930 in Nashua. Two of his sisters preceded him in death: Eva and Ella Mae. Isabelle would live until 27 Oct 1938 and also die in Nashua.

Walter and Isabelle would have four daughters and adopt a fifth:

1. Martha J. "Mattie Smith, born 1877 in Iowa. Married Elwood Edward Sutcliffe on 03 Oct 1900, in Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa. Had five children. They lived on a farm near Clarksville until 1943 when they moved into town. They would have five children. E.E. was born 12 Jan 1879 in Butler County and died 07 Spr 1962 in Charles City, Iowa. Mattie would die at the age of 96, 08 Jul 1873 in Waverly, Bremer County.

2. Maude Smith, born 09 Mar 1879, Grant County, Wisconsin. Married Frederick A Hanson 09 Sep 1918 in Owatonna, Steele, Minnesota. They had a child who died at birth and had no other children. Maude worked before her marriage as a clerk at various area stores in Nashua. Fred worked as a butcher and while working at Miller's Meat Market in Nashua he was struck ill and taken to the hospital. Fred, born 03 May 1876 in Nashua, died of complications of a strangulated hernia at the Waverly hospital 21 Mar 1926. He was 49. He was described as kind-hearted. Maude returned to work as a clerk in Van's Bargain Store in Nashua. She was a member of the Royal Neighbors and the Rebekahs, and very active in community life. She lived to the ripe old age of 96 on 10 Mar 1975 in Charles City.

3. Minnie Luella Smith was born on 09 Aug 1881 in North Dakota. She married Charles Alfred Scoles on 21 Jun 1900 in Waverly. They had 11 children adding to the already huge population of Scoles in the Nashua/Plainfield area!  Sadly, two of their daughters died of illness when very young. Charles was the son of John Wesley Scoles and Sarah Jane Huyler and was born 04 Oct 1876 in Floyd County. The Scoles would move to Minnesota in 1901 and live there until 1914, when they returned to Nashua.

He worked at various vocations including a stint at Nashua Lumber at the end of his life. While working, he fell from a roof at the lumberyard coal shed and broke his heel. This left him crippled up and sent him into a spiral of ill health due to the complications from his injury that lasted two years when he was felled by a series of strokes. He was 54 when he died in Nashua on 17 Apr 1931 in Nashua. Minnie, who was very close to her sisters, would travel with them and visit back and forth. She would died at age 91 at home, alone, the way she wanted it, on 23 Nov 1972 in Nashua. She was discovered by her children who had come to get her for Thanksgiving dinner.

4.  Frankie Smith was born in Mar of 1890 in Nashua, Iowa. She married Lloyd Lendo Baltzer, a harness maker, on 04 May 1914 in Mitchell, Iowa. They lived primarily in Lakota, Iowa during their marriage. They would divorce. She then married Thomas "Tom" Tamen on 20 Apr 1932 in Galena, Illinois. Tom was a widower with two children. His wife Clara had hanged herself. They would live for several years in Rantoul, Illinois where he was an instructor at Chanute Air Field, and Buffalo Center, Iowa before returning to Nashua. After the death of her husband, she wintered in Florida. Tom died 11 Nov 1969 at a hospital in Independence, Iowa and Frankie died 06 Jul 1990 at the age of 100. Frankie had no children.

5. Their fifth child, Betty Jane, born in 1927, was adopted as a baby when the Smith's were very old and after their death's was in the care of her sister Maude. I'd like to figure out who this child's parents were.  She was very close to her sisters, especially Maude and Frankie. She married Leland V. "Lee" Hahn on 22 Jun 1951. Lee was born on 27 Dec 1911 in Charles City and was 16 years old than Betty. They had four children. He worked for the Oliver Co. for 33 years and was a member of the Oliver Management Club. Lee died on 01 Aug 1972 in Nashua.