Smith Family: Madge Smith Scoles

 Jacob Smith > William Custer Smith > Edwin Smith > Madge Smith Scoles

Madge Smith was the fourth living child and second daughter of Edwin Smith & Kate Smull Smith. She was born 17 Jun 1897 in Bremer County, Iowa. When just about 23, she married Glenn Wesley Scoles, son of James Francis "Frank" Scoles and Ada Mae "Eda" Tracy on 19 Apr 1920 in Waverly, Iowa. We have another Scoles connection through Edwin's brother Walter. Walter's daughter Minnie married Charles Alfred Scoles, brother of Frank Scoles listed above.

Madge and Glenn farmed outside of Nashua, just down the road from the family "home town" of
Plainfield. They had nine children, all now deceased.

Beverly Bethel Scoles: b 24 Nov 20 and d. 30 Nov 1920 in Butler County.

Jeanette Scoles (Twin):  b. 07 Nov 1921in Butler County d. 28 Aug 2004 in New Hampton, Chickasaw County. She married (1) Harry Bradshaw, whose amazing story is here, 04 May 1941 in Toledo, Tama County; and (2) John Zobeck in 1948.

Annette Scoles (Twin): b. 07 Nov 1921 in Butler County d. 03 Mar 2002, Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky. She married (1) Clifford Valentine Querry about early Jan 1946 but was divorced in Seattle in 1948. Cliff was a Navy man and was on the ill-fated USS Lexington in 1942, but survived; and (2) Melvin Jennings was also a Navy man. He remarried after Annette's death.

Conrad Wesley Scoles: b. 02 Jan 1924 d. 07 Jan 1924 Chickasaw County.

Audrey Gail Scoles

Richard Henry "Dickey" Scoles: b. 28 Apr 1925 d. 13 Dec 2006 Nashua, Chickasaw County. Married Frances D Nehls, 05 Jan 1949, Nashua, Chickasaw County. Early on, he worked for Oliver Co. and then he worked for the railroad for nine years as a section crew worker until the railroad started reducing crews. He then worked as a lathe operator at Hydrotile in Nashua and later for H & H Tool & Die in Cedar Falls until he retired.

Audrey Gail Scoles: b. 03 Jul 1926 d. 27 Jul 1987 DuBois, Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Married Harry Ellsworth Shaffer, Sr. Harry was a career Navy man and they settled in his hometown. I recently connected with two of Audrey's sons. We've also discovered a son born prior to the marriage to Harry Shaffer who was adopted in Iowa. That's a tale for another day.  

Wendell Edwin Scoles: b. 24 Jan 1928 d. 01 Aug 1987 Nashua, Chickasaw County. Married Sharon Juel Reazak, 05 Feb 1949, at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Chickasaw County. At the time of his marriage, he worked at the Capitol Tobacco Co in Charles City.  He went to linotype school and worked for the Nashua Reporter as a typesetter. Wendell served in the Navy, enlisting 10 Apr 1945 and discharged 25 Jun 1946.

Burrdette "Bucky" Howard Scoles: b. 26 Mar 1929, Bradford, Chickasaw County d. 17 Sep 1977

Harry E Shaffer

Des Moines, Polk, Iowa. Married Mitsue Miyashiro. Buck was a career Navy man who died while still in service at the Des Moines Veteran's Hospital.

Service Dates:
Enlistment: 01 Jun 1946 Discharge: 04 Mar 1948
Enlistment: 17 Feb 1950 Discharge: 09 Feb 1953
Enlistment: 18 May 1955 Discharge: 17 Sep 1977

Ronald Glenn Scoles: b. 15 Aug 1930 d. 28 Sep 2007 Charles City, Floyd County. Ron lived with his mom until her death and never married. He is buried without a monument at Willow Lawn Cemetery in Plainfield. 

Another Cousin Meetup

SMULL, PETER > SMULL, Johnathon m Mary Jane Cooper:

Click to increase size.

Franklin Sylvester Smull / Viola Smull / Katie Smull

Some months ago, I met with my cousins, great granddaughter and great great granddaughter of Viola Smull. Viola was the sister of my own great grandmother, Katie Smull Smith.

I was graciously invited to join my cousins again when yet another Smull cousin flew out from California to visit this past week. She is the great granddaughter of Frank Smull, brother to Viola and Katie and of whom I knew very little.

We exchanged photos and stories and then trekked over to Nashua's Greenwood Cemetery where I was able to show them the graves for Johnathon, Mary Jane, and their eldest son Ulyssus, who died at age 20 in 1881.

Leonna and Dee - Together Again!

One of the little tidbits I picked up include the fact that in summers, Leonna (Frank's GG), would come from California and stay with her grandparents, Orle Smull and Ruth Cagley Smull. There she would meet Dee (Viola's GG) and they would spend time playing through the summer. They've kept in touch all of their lives but hadn't seen each other in over 15 years. It was like watching two little kids, meeting back up on the playground with giggling and hugging everywhere.

It was again, such a pleasure to spend time with such kind, interesting people who I never would have known existed had it not been for this genealogy project. I'm very excited to have more stories to tell here over the coming months and really thank Leonna for bringing two fabulous albums full of Smull/Cagley/Orcutt/Pikesley family history.

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

The Smiths: The Very Best Kind of Day

Yesterday, I drove up to Nashua to meet a cousin on the Smith side, Betty Jane Smith. There with her for the meeting were two of her kids and their spouses. I felt like I had been dropped into my own family, without all the expectations! Very nice, wonderful people. We told stories and shared photos. Betty is 94 years old and I spent time giggling with her - giggling - and laughing and smiling. She shared the most awesome family photos and filled in blanks in my knowledge about her father and mother, Walter Smith & Isabelle Monteith. At the end of the day, we had a piece of homemade pie, made by Betty, who had skipped church in order to provide the delicious treat for me - a virtual stranger. Did I mention how much I love Iowa?

Here is a beautiful photo of Isabelle, from her youth. As you might recall, Isabelle was one of three Monteith sisters who married Smith men. Jessie and Elizabeth married Walter's cousins, Alexander and Jacob.

Betty was adopted by Walter and Isabelle Smith after her birth. They were her biological great grandparents. She lived in the same house since she was born - the house Walter & Isabelle had lived in since they had "moved to town" sometimes around the turn of the 20th century.

The lovely Betty Jane Smith

Betty continued to live there after Walter and Isabelle died. Her adopted sister Maude moved in with her and finished raising her after Isabelle's death. When Betty married widower Leland Hahn, the family of Lee's two kids and their own two kids made the house their home. After Leland died, her second husband also lived in the home. Ninety-four years in the same house!

This is a particularly great photo of the Smith boys Mirt,  Rev Parker, Harland, Edwin, & Walter and sister Dora (Eva and Ella both died in 1924, so I'd put this photo at between 1924-1933):

They were at some kind of picnic - looks like some kind of pavilion behind them - perhaps the Nashua fairgrounds?

This is the boys and their spouses, except Edwin's wife, Kate Smull, This also includes sister Mary Madora "Dora" Smith and her husband BF Lichty, who lived in Waterloo.

William Hollar's Not So Fortunate Kids

Paul Hollar's Tragic Home Explosion, 1969

ZACHARIAH HELLER/HOLLER/HOLLAR > JOHANNES HOLLAR > GEORGE ELAM HOLLAR m Lucy Robertson (who then married Nathan Poyner) > WESLEY HOLLAR > ISAAC WALTER HOLLAR > WILLIAM HOLLAR

Isaac Walter Hollar ended up being raised by his grandmother and her second husband, the founder of Poyner Township in Black Hawk County. You can read about it here. Isaac's seven children fared pretty well, overall. Oldest son William, born 06 Dec 1878 in Poyner Township married Sarah Zarr in 1902 in Manchester, Delaware County, Iowa, where he had spent most of his childhood. After their marriage, they spent a few years in Waterloo before 1913 and then moved to Nashua, in Chickasaw County, where they remained for most of their lives.

William was a bricklayer who did masonry work and helped build many of the buildings in Nashua. He then became a tile contractor and retired about 1949. Sarah died in 1965 and William died in a Charles City nursing home on 28 Jun 1969 at the age of 90.

Young Walter Hollar Killed by Train

They had seven children, but the boys did not live long lives - two were tragically killed. The oldest boy, Walter, who was nine years old, was killed after being hit by a train while playing with his friends on 20 Oct 1914. He had been visiting his grandparents in Manchester when it happened.

Then, bachelor son Paul, born in 1909, was killed when his entire small frame house exploded the morning of 03 Dec 1974. They found his body in the rubble. It is believed that a gas cook stove might have been the cause. He was 65 years old.

Brother Clayton Hollar's wife saw the house go up from her kitchen window. Clayton had returned in 1962 from years living in Shrevesport, LA at the behest of his mother after their brother Lee's death at age 53 from cancer in 1960. Clayton ended up getting a job on his return with Oliver Co in Charles City and then to Koehring-Bantam in Waverly before being struck with a chronic and debilitating condition that ultimately caused his death in July of 1979 at the age of 62.

Florence Hollar Baldwin lived to the ripe age of 95, dying in Independence on 13 Jul 2007, after living for years in Bettendorf, Iowa. Her husband Elton died 02 Apr 1982 in Scott County.

Sister Marian lived to 87, dying 28 Jan 2006 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She outlived her first husband, Dayton Lang, who died 23 Mar 1974 in Waterloo and her second husband, Orval Robert Goldsworth survived her, dying 28 Mar 2011 in Cedar Rapids.

Finally, oldest daughter, Pearl Phillips, who had moved west to Arizona, died at 73 in Phoenix on 18 Sep 1976.

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.

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

Clan William: Those Munson Girls - Caroline Amanda Munson

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson >  Amos Munson > Caroline Amanda Munson m Uri Clark Newcomb

Amos Munson, who I wrote about here, is my 3rd great grandfather. My 2nd great grandmother was his daughter Mary Ann who married William Custer Smith and resided in the Butler/Bremer/ Chickasaw counties area of Iowa after leaving Grant County, Wisconsin in the 1860s. Amos' daughter Henrietta Munson Woodington is well-chronicled here.

These four daughters will be the basis for the next few posts.

CAROLINE AMANDA MUNSON

I still haven't pinned down a date of birth for Caroline - various census say anything from 1838-1842. I tend to like 1838 or 1839, but still need to prove it. She was born in Trumbull County, Ohio and came with her family to the Eastern District Grant County in 1849/1850 when a teenager. While living in Glen Haven in Grant County, she married Uri Clark Newcomb in on 01 Sep 1860 in Grant County.

"U. C." was part of the sprawling Colonel Uri C. Newcomb family of Montrose, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.

In 1870, the Newcombs resided in Tama City, as it was then called, in Tama County, Iowa, In 1873 he had moved to Traer in Tama County and set up its first harness shop and built one of the town's first buildings in which to house the shop. He sold his interest in to his nephew A. G. Newcomb in 1883. In the Iowa State Census of 1885, they were living in Bradford (now part of Nashua) in Chickasaw county where, it appears as though he was keeping a restaurant. Quite a departure for a family of harness makers.

They soon after departed for the young town of Elma, in Howard County, just north of Chickasaw County. It is presumed, based on newspaper items, he plied his harness-making trade while there.
Caroline died at a relatively young 55 on 08 Apr 1893 in Elma. She was buried in the Howard Cemetery in Elma.

The U. C. Newcombs' had seven children in total: Lilla May (died at age 2 in Tama), Della Josephine Breckon, Edgar Clark (died at 22 in Tama), Orion Alburn, Nella Mae (who married Lewis Porter Newcomb, her first cousin and child of Frederick Porter and Julia Munson Newcomb), Effie Bell (died as infant), and Howard Clifford.

Another marriage of cousins

*In 1900, I believe he was living with his sister-in-law and later wife, Julia Munson, a mixture of some of their children, and his mother-in-law in Elma. Please see the discussion of this here.

We find U.C. still around in this amusing 1901 article from the Nashua Reporter:

A Former Nashuaite Skunked

UC Newcomb had about made up his mind to quit the harness business and "go trapping," so he commenced operations at home, setting a wire trap in the cellar for a rat that had been raising "hob" there. The next morning the trap was occupied, not by the rat but an animal that "Newc" pronounced to be a spotted mink. It was a beauty so he decided to tame it and he kept it in the cage trap for some time, fed it bread and butter, etc., and with considerable pride exhibited it to his neighbors. One of the neighbor's children, a little girl of six or eight years came over to see the "kitty" as she called it and proceeded to prod it with a stick. That was too much for the "kitty" and it resented the act in a  way that made the little girl's mother look cross. "Newc" killed the "spotted mink" and to visit the place now makes one think that fourteen drug stores had all used that spot as a place to dump their stock of perfumes. Mr Newcomb has given up the fur business and is again at the old reliable shop making harness. He got "skunked" in his first game of trapping. - Elma Vidette

Nashua Reporter November 28, 1901

=== 

U. C. continued on working in his shop every day until his own death on 24 Apr 1902 in Elma, when he died suddenly while on the way to work.