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.

Orle Smull and Ruth Cagley, Part I

PETER SMULL > JOHNATHON SMULL > FRANKLIN SYLVESTER SMULL > ORLE SMULL m Ruth Cagley

Orle Jay Smull was the eldest of Franklin Sylvester Smull and Clara Orcutt. He was born 27 Dec 1893 in Bellevue, Jackson County, Iowa, during one of Frank's times away from Plainfield. Two sisters and a brother would follow Orle.

Plainfield 1912 Baseball
Top Row: Earl Holmes, Orle Smull, Lawrence Smith, 4?, 
Ferrel Jenibric(?); Bottom Row: Clio Holmes, 
KennethThompson, Nathan Chester, John Burke, Gayland Mellinger

Orle enjoyed a typical Iowa upbringing full of work and enough play to make things interesting. He was very interested in sports, especially football, but played baseball in Nashua (at least in 1912). At least two family names are on this team - Lawrence Smith and Nathan Chester.

During World War I, Orle joined the cavalry. On August 1, 1917, he departed from Plainfield to Waterloo, where he would then go on to Jefferson Barracks in St Louis. He was assigned to the 328th Auxiliary Remount Depot, Quartermaster Corps, at Camp Bowie in Arlington Heights, Texas. Camp Bowie was built in 1917 to accommodate training for the 36th Infantry Division.

Orle (left) and three fellow cavalry members at Camp Bowie, 1917

"Camp Bowie's greatest average monthly strength was recorded in October 1917 as 30,901. On April 11, 1918, the Thirty-sixth went on parade in the city for the first time. The four-hour event drew crowds estimated at 225,000, making it possibly the biggest parade in Fort Worth's history. For about five months after the departure of the Thirty-sixth for France in July 1918, the camp functioned as an infantry replacement and training facility, with monthly population ranging from 4,164 to 10,527. A 
total of more than 100,000 men trained at the camp. Greble's retirement in September 1918 began a fairly rapid turnover of commandants that did not end until the camp ceased operation (ed note: 1919)."1

It doesn't appear as though Orle made it any further than Camp Bowie, and was discharged in March of 1919. Two years later, he would marry into the Cagley family, taking Ruth Vivian Cagley, granddaughter of pioneer Jacob Cagley and Martha Cuffel Cagley, daughter of Frederick Elmore Cagley and Miriam Ellena "Ena" Ingersoll Cagley, as his bride on 11 Nov 1921 in Oelwein, Fayette County, Iowa.

Their young life was chronicled by Ruth in a personal family memoir and I will excerpt a couple of bits from that, provided by Ruth's granddaughter.

"Orle J Smull and I were married in Oelwein, Ia Nov 11, 1921 at the Baptist Parsonage. That was a very cold year. We had had several snow storms and traveling was difficult for snow plows were not used then. Guess, one might say that our honeymoon was the ride from there to Waverly and there on to Plainfield, by train. We stayed with my folks for a month and by that time, our little house was finished. We had two rooms - one downstairs and one upstairs with a folding stairs so as not to be in our way. All the furniture we had was given us, a drop leaf table and a set of 4 chairs that had been Orle's Grandmother's, an old 2-burner kerosene stove to cook on in the summer, and a 2-hole laundry stove in the winter. It also served as a heater and I had a second-hand rocker. For the bedroom upstairs, a bed, dresser, and cedar chest that I had bought while teaching. The upstairs hadn't been plastered yet and we could see light in a few places where shingles gaped." 

Orle had been working in the cement business (most likely with the Orcutt's, who owned such an

Ruth Cagley Smull

establishment there in Plainfield), but times were tough and people weren't building, so Orle decided to become an auto mechanic. He rented a building that was totally unsuitable for winter use, did quite well, and then had to find another location that would provide some warmth. The old "Doc Ford" building was available and they purchased that building, knocked a large garage door in the wall, and fixed up two rooms upstairs. The outhouse was out back!

Ruth had saved money from her teaching jobs prior to her marriage and was able to outfit the family with an oak buffet, table, six leather-bottomed chairs, and a kitchen cabinet and they were able to use them in the Ford building.

Ruth, Orle, and young Norma stayed in that building until the fall of 1926, when the Charles Farnsworth buiding became available. Charles Farnsworth was the town blacksmith (his father, also a blacksmith, was one of the town's pioneer settlers). Since they still owed $150 on the Ford building, they used the last of Ruth's teaching money to pay off Mrs. Ford. Then, they borrowed $2,000 from Orle's uncle Sanford Orcutt to purchase the new building.  Ruth would say that this was a disastrous financial and personal move for them. Needing repairs, drafty and uncomfortable summer and winter, they made their home there anywhere for 19 years. Ruth took in sewing to make up the money needed for extras for the now three kids for shoes and other necessities.

After purchasing two lots for $200, the Smull's sold the business when a $2,000 offer was made for their business in 1945. Maybe Ruth would get the nice house she'd always dreamed of. Stayed tuned...

Fred, Ruth, Ena, and baby Howard Cagley

1 https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qcc03

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.