What's Missing When We Do This

I've been plugging away at this family genealogy for many months now. I had no idea it could be so addicting. Listening to those who've done far more in their advice has really helped. Source, source, source. This is where it gets tricky. Who has time to go to all these court houses all over the Midwest and hunt this stuff down? I may have to wait until I retire.

The part that's missing is learning about who these people were. What were they like? How did they move in the world? Sometimes, you can get a glimpse through news articles, but mostly, you have only raw data and some dates which will stand to represent that person in time. Kind of sad.

There are those who have taken the time to interview those that came before them. Some people have written things down to tell their story, but mostly people don't do that. They are too busy living the life to write about what it was like.

When I run across something like this, I get excited. Mr. Good has spent lots of time putting together a cohesive set of photos, interviews, books, and genealogy information that tell a story. I want to be him when I grow up.

In contrast, I'm think of an example of a guy who married a relative whom I would never had known more than name, rank, serial number without a story being passed down. He had a nice name. He fathered many children with her, then they divorced in a time when it wasn't common. I knew nothing about him but his date of birth, death, and the names of his kids. I interviewed another very distant family member who had talked to his children. Turns out he was a mean, no-account drunk, who disowned his last three children because he believed they weren't his, left the family with nothing and died a penniless drunk somewhere in Detroit, but not before marrying a 17-year-old in his 50s.

The unfortunate thing is the generation that would hold the key to much of this information is for the most part, now gone. I've interviewed a number of people who are still hanging in there and in some cases, I should have talked to them 10 years earlier - the memory fails, the names are forgotten, the story is lost.

Over the next little bit, while I continue to plug away at finding the stories, I've decided to start telling the ones I remember. Hopefully it will help me and possibly others who are doing as I'm doing and sifting through data instead of reaching the heart of who a person was.

The Mystery of the Basswood School

Peter Smull > Peter Smull > Oscar Smull > Archie LeRoy Smull

Oscar Smull was born in Rock Grove township in Stephenson County, Illinois and spent his early life on the farm of his parents, Peter Smull and Rebecca Cronoble. On 02 Oct 1887, he married Miss Cora Stites who passed away in 1895. They had three children:  Lucy Amanda, Archie LeRoy, and Florence. After Cora's death, Oscar moved in with his cousin Thomas Newton Smull's family with the girls. Son Archie moved in with his aunt and uncle John W. and Ella McDaniel. McDaniel was a wealthy farmer. The later fate of Archie's living situation may well have been determined by the testimony Archie provided in a notorious trial held in Stephenson County in 1908 because I can imagine John was none too pleased with Archie during the trial.

The story began as far back as 1901 when John McDaniel purchased the land adjoining the land where the Basswood School near McConnell, Illinois, was located. McDaniel disputed the land boundary and insisted the school had been built on his land - a survey was completed and the results presented to the school board. His request that the boundaries be adjusted were rebuffed. It sounds like to McDaniel, this inaction started a series of skirmishes that would not end until 1908, dividing the townspeople like the Hatfield's and McCoy's. Numerous attempts to do away with the school were made, including a mysterious fire that burned it to the ground in 1905. In July, the following year, the walls of the new school were blown up in the middle of construction.

The final tale related to the Basswood School dispute occurred in 1908. In March, McDaniel was indicted by two grand juries and charged with "procuring dynamite and having guilty knowledge of its presence in the Basswood School," A bag of forty pounds of dynamite had been found in the school building, fortunately, unexploded.

The star witness for the prosecution was young Archie Smull, his ward, who testified that his uncle had shown him where the dynamite was located in a field and told him to place it in the school and light the fuse. The defense attempted to make Archie look like less than a stellar witness and provided disputing witnesses who provided an alibi for McDaniel and/or other testimony that put a big dent in the case. In the end, the jury could not reach a verdict but tilted toward conviction, but a second trial was ruled out. After reading all the articles available, my guess is John did indeed have ill intent with that bag of dynamite and got very lucky.

Archie Smull by age 19 was a farmhand working in Green County, Wisconsin. He married Hazel Keller in 1914. They had six children. He operated a dairy farm for decades. Archie died in Green County on 22 Mar 1980.

Oscar married again in October, 1907 to Lena Gerbitz. They had four additional children: Oscar James "Jim," Edrye, Francis, and Marjorie. He served as the Superintendent of the County Home for many years before retiring. He died 11 Dec 1945, his daughters Florence and Marjorie preceding him in death.

The Founding Families of Poyner Township

Zachariah Holler > John Holler > George Holler married Lucy Robertson 

George Elam Holler was the son of Johannes "John" Holler and Margaret Low. He was born about 1803 in Rowan County, North Carolina and traveled west with his family; first to Ohio, then to the Washington County, Indiana area.

George married Lucy H. Robertson in Washington County, Indiana on 18 Feb 1823. Recently, a death record was located that says George died 02 Feb 1841. He had died prior to the death of his father and was referenced in his will. In about mid-1853, John and his mother, his sister Sarah and husband David Owens (David was also born in North Carolina), her brother John, and sister Edna and husband William Wheeler and their families left Indiana and moved to Black Hawk County, Iowa, stopping briefly in Illinois along the way.

Nancy, Lucy, and Nathan Poyner are
buried on a section of Nathan's property
now the Poyner Twshp Cemetery

Nathan Poyner, of North Carolina, was a Baptist traveling preacher who had preached to pioneer flocks all over the country under shade trees. In the early 1850s, he located, along with his oldest son Thomas, to Linn County, Iowa.

Thomas purchased 200 acres of land in southeast Black Hawk County in 1851 for $102. He purchased another 160 acres for $228 the following year. Horatio Sanford, a land speculator who had purchased the land from the government a short time before using land warrants, made both sales. The Poyner's settled in southeast Black Hawk County in 1853.

The pioneers to this area built log cabins and began clearing land. Poyner preached to its residents under old shade trees as he had before. Settlers trickled in and the township, named Poyner township in honor of Nathan, was organized by order of the county judge in 1854. Nathan's wife, Nancy Johnston, was the first death in the township. She died in 1853 and was buried on a portion of Poyner land. This location is now part of Poyner Township Cemetery.

Mrs Lucy Holler then married Nathan in the summer of 1854, joining together two of the founding families of the township. In 1856, Poyner son James also moved from Linn County and purchased land in the township.  Nathan Poyner died 16 May 1867. His wife Lucy died 19 Aug 1889.

Sarah Holler, daughter of George and Lucy Holler, married David Owens while in Indiana, an early pioneer who joined the original seven families in the area. David was born in North Carolina and had also resided in Indiana. They had nine children, the middle of whom was Lucy Jane "Lizzie" Owens. Sarah died 20 Feb 1864. David married Elizabeth Brown on 21 Aug 1864 and she died 09 Jun 1866 in Poyner Township. Lucy married Ira S Miller (my 2nd great grandparents) 04 Nov 1869 and they resided in Polk Township, Benton County, Iowa for the remainder of her life. David Owens remarried once more, moving to nearby Barclay Township to farm, and then moved on to Davison County, South Dakota where he died 18 Feb 1909.

Edna Holler, Sarah's younger sister, had married William M Wheeler in Washington County prior to 1850. William had two children by his first marriage who both died as young adults and were buried in Poyner Township. Edna gave birth to eight children: William H., Mary, Emma, Thomas Grant, Albert, Lucy Ann, Henrietta, and Sarah J. Edna cared for her mother Lucy in her declining years until her death. The Wheeler’s remained in Poyner Township for the remainder of their lives. William died 10 Jun 1896 and Edna on 09 Sep 1895.

John B Holler married Harriet in about 1857 in Indiana. They had four children: Eliza, Hattie, Granville, and Edward. They lived in Poyner Township for the remainder of their lives. John died

31 May 1918 and Hattie in 1917.

A little family drama:  Nathan and his first wife had help raise a ward in addition to their children. James B. Edwards, who was born in Rappahannock County, Virginia, 11 Mar 1839. When a child, he came with his parents to Illinois where he was left an orphan at the age of 3 years.  Nathan and Lucy raised an additional ward, Isaac Walter Hollar, who was the orphaned son of Wesley Hollar (another son of Lucy & George Holler) of Indiana. It was reportedly Nathan's wish that the boys share equally in Thomas' land. Thomas, who never married, had a major hand in raising James who ended up farming Thomas' land after his death. After reaching his majority, Isaac struck out on his own in the Muscatine, Iowa area. In 1908, he brought suit in Iowa court over the land. Since no articles were found referencing the case after the suit, one might presume some sort of settlement was reached or the suit was dropped.

What isn't clear is what the original connections was between the Poyner and Holler families, which very well could extend for decades from their North Carolina origins, despite the serpentine nature of how all of them arrived in Poyner Township.

Where There's a Will

Zachariah Holler > Johannes "John" Holler 

Rowan County NC 1780

I was kind of surprised to find a "Southerner" in my family line. The sprawling Holler/Hollar family still has a strong presence in what is now Catawba and Iredell Counties in North Carolina. And, of course, many of them married fellow southerners - some of whom were slave owners and fought for the Confederacy. This Holler, however, left the lands he purchased while a youth and went on a quest for more cheap land out west.

In 1742, Zachariah Holler arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Reportedly, the Hollers were originally from Asbach, Baden-Wurttemberg. According to a family member, they lived in Holland prior to coming to America and launched from Rotterdam. Eighteen years old, he established himself in the Bucks County and farmed with his wife, the former Anna Wannemacher. The Holler (and there are many variations including Hollar) family quickly grew to at least 10 children. Among these was Johannes "John" Holler.

John was born in 09 Nov 1763 in Bucks County.

The war record of John Hollar states that he served twice post-Revolutionary War from Lynn Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He saw service in the war for 2 months in the fall of 1780 in a company drafted and called out under Captain Statler, being stationed on the frontier of what was then Southampton County, PA, to guard against the Indians, serving from October until a few days before Christmas. He served again in 1781 under Captain Greylow but saw no action. In both stints he served in the place of a drafted person who didn't want to serve - Philip Kisler in the first, and for Jacob Saunder in the second. Family legend has it that two of his brothers crossed the Delaware River with George Washington, but which brothers, or if in fact this is true and not a tall tale, isn't known.

He reportedly married Sally Shue in about 1781 in Northampton, Pennsylvania and the removed to Rowan County, North Carolina (the then largest county, it is now Catawba and Iredell counties). They had four living children:  John, Jr., Sarah, Christeaner, and Andrew Jackson. Sally died before 1794 and was buried in North Carolina.

John Holler arrived in Rowan and Lincoln countries in approximately 1783. (Catawba and Iredell Counties were formed from these counties). He was about 20 years old when he came to North Carolina. Because John was under age when his father died in Lynn Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, his eldest brother, Adam, administered the property.

After Anna Haller (John's mother) died, Adam (John's older brother) distributed the money among her heirs. John probably traveled to North Carolina with his brother Zachariah, Jr., who also settled in Lincoln and Rowan Counties. Both brothers were involved in land transactions as early as 1795 in Iredell County. John's presence in this region was early as can be traced through records in St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Conover. The Church recorded the births of three or possibly four of John's children: John Jr., born in 1783, and Sarah born in 1785. A third record could be that of Andrew. John and his brother may have been attracted to North Carolina because of Federal or State land grants. John's interest in acquiring land may also have been the reason for his departure for the Midwest in about 1813. It is also true that Catawba County's terrain is very similar to Northampton County. 

"The Holler Family of Catawba and Iredell Counties, North Carolina", by Joanne Holler Atay 

The Rowan County Marriage Bonds records indicate that John Holler and Margaret Low had bonds taken on October 19, 1794. The bondsman was listed as Martin Basinger and the witness was May Troy. When John and Margaret married he would have been almost 29 and Margaret 17. They became the parents of at least nine children: Zachariah, George, Absalom, Israel, Zahariah, Catherine, Elizabeth, Anna, Isaac, Margaret, and Israel.

After living in North Carolina for about 30 years, the Hollers - with the exception of the John Holler, Jr., Andrew Holler, Sr, and Christeaner, children from the first marriage - packed up and moved to Franklin County, Ohio where they lived for about four years before moving on to Washington County, Indiana. John Holler died in Brown Township, Washington County (now Jefferson) February 8, 1849 at the age of 85.

His wife, Margaret, died April 27, 1852, in her 74th year. Both are buried in the Prowsville Cemetery about 5 miles northeast of Campbellsburg.

John left a detailed will and so much about him and he relationship to his children can be taken from its contents:

I, John Holler of Washington County and the State of Indiana do make and publish my last will and testament, hereby revoking and making void all former wills and testaments by me at any time heretofore made;
and first, I direct that my body be decently interred and that my funeral be conducted in a manner corresponding with my estate and situation in life; and as to such worldly estates as it has pleased God to entrust me with I dispose of the same in the following manner, to wit:
my funeral expenses first paid, I direct and bequeath that my sons John Holler and Andrew Holler and my daughter Christeaner have of my estates two hundred and twenty five dollars equally divided between them (ed note: A whopping $75 per child!).
and further; I will and bequeath to David Taylor, the legal heir of my daughter Sarah twenty five dollars if he can be found and if not, twenty five dollars of what I bequeath him shall be equally divided between the three above-named heirs; (ed note: this presume David took a scarper for good and Sarah, the remaining child of the first marriage, most likely was deceased by this time)
and I further direct that my sons Zachariah Holler, George Holler, Israel Holler, Absalom Holler and my daughters Catharine, Elizabeth and Ann have an equal portion of all my estate hereby bequeathed to them at my decease except as herein directed, to wit::
I have paid sixty dollars to John Kelly for my son George and that amount shall be deducted from his portion at the time of my death and of the division;
and further I direct that forty three dollars shall be deducted out of Catharine's part of my estates as I have paid her that amount some time in the year 1848,
and further I direct that my Executor take as much as seventy dollars and purchase land for my daughter Elizabeth and her children;
and I further direct that my daughter Ann have a certain lot of land lying and being situated in Washington County, it being the South East fourth of the South East quarter of Section No. six in township No. 3 north of Range three East;
and I further direct that my daughter Ann have thirteen dollars to purchase a cow;
and as for my son Israel Holler I have paid him in full in land and he has received in full of his portion of all my estates except one dollar before the date hereof; (Anna Holler Enochs was the mother of eight children)
and further I direct and bequeath to my beloved wife Margaret Holler two beds and bedding, one cow, one side saddle and one trunk; (mighty big of him!)
and further I direct that my Executor use lawful means to obtain some money due me in the State of Ohio and if it, or any portion of it can be had shall divide the same among any heirs according to the above will and testament;
and further, I have appointed Jacob Banta my Executor of this, my last will and testament. In testimony whereof, I John Holler, the testator herein have herewith set my hand and seal this twentieth day of January, AD. 1849 

Conspicuously absent was any mention of Isaac "Crock" Holler. Isaac resided in Wayne County, Illinois while the rest of the family resided in Indiana.

Next up is the life of the descendants of George Elam Holler, John Holler's son.

The Long Road to Moberly, Missouri

The two fellows at the Randolph County Historical Society, whom I met with Saturday morning in Moberly, Missouri, made the nearly 5-hour drive down so worthwhile. I poured through directories, photos, and various records until I hit upon the golden prize - railroad records from the Wabash railroad.

Moberly Train Station - Rail Side
Sadly, torn down in the 1990s

Seems about 20-something years ago, after the railroad offered the town the train station for $1 and having said offer turned down, the building sat unused for seven years and then it was decided it would be torn down. History-minded citizens raced into the building and purloined every piece of paper they could get their hands on to rescue the records from the bulldozer. They ended up at the Historical Society and lack of manpower has meant none of those records have been gone through. Until Saturday - in small part. Some records for my relatives were found but I have a feeling so much more is there to be found.

Bordello Bedroom

I got a special tour of the replica bordello room on the 3rd floor. Apparently, the cat house district thrived in Moberly across from the police station for a long time. I also picked up a copy of "Madams, Painted Ladies and Johns" written by a local history professor so I could learn more.

War Veterans Memorial

After visiting the Oakland Cemetery I wanted to scream. They have a little information booth, but it's a huge cemetery, the records of burials are incomplete and finding your way down the multiple additions is impossible without a non-existent map in hand because rows are not marked. The only guide is a large map on the wall of the info center, which I had to keep driving back to so I could get my bearings. Fortunately, my records are now complete on that front - after a way-too-long search.

General Omar Bradley was born in Clark, MO, just down the road from Moberly. In the same park space in Moberly, they honor veterans of all wars - including the battle K-9s. It's a nice little site, but I stumbled across it by accident. The Chamber doesn't seem to be interested in making it easy to find things to see and do in town.

Moberly is also home to a number of architecturally interesting buildings.

Built in 1913, the 4th Street Theatre opened on February 9, 1914 as a 1,000-seat vaudeville and movie house. The beautiful theatre was elaborately decorated with much gold leaf, rich in coloring and velor curtains. It had rich mahogany swinging doors, wainscoting of white marble, ornate terra cotta trimmings in beautiful colors. Alterations were carried out in March 1924 by architect Carl Boller of the Boller Brothers architectural firm, and the theatre reopened on April 25, 1924. Alterations included the enlargement of the balcony. Last operated by B & B Theatres, they had renamed it Cinema, and they closed the 4th Street Theatre in March 1997.

Most of the terra cotta is intact and is being restored. It had a free standing ticket booth in the entrance way which will be restored. The stage, dressing rooms and orchestra pit are still there.

Contributed by Carolee Hazlet, Michael Childers, Cinematreasures.org

The Municipal Auditorium was built in 1939 and is purely art deco in its design. It is still in operation.

As in many smaller cities across the country, Andrew Carnegie bestowed money upon the town to build a library. This Carnegie library, like many, also needed to be enlarged. Unlike many unsightly and poorly planned additions, the addition on the Moberly library looks and feels much like the original building. Wish I'd been able to shoot the whole thing.

I hope to have the time to publish some of my findings in the coming weeks. The weather has been great, so the traveling has been easy and the simple fact that is being made abundantly clear to me is if I want the real story on these people of the past, I have to go there.

On the Road...Stephenson County, Illinois and Grant County, Wisconsin

I left the house this morning about 8 or so. Three hours later, after a scenic drive through Dubuque, Galena, and other gorgeous vistas in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, I moved into Stephenson County, Illinois headed for Freeport. The townships around Freeport were home to many of my Smull relatives, formerly of Pennsylvania. Despite being tucked away, without address, on country roads, I found the Lancaster, Dakota, and Rock Grove Union township cemeteries. The big score was the Rock Grove cemetery, which held the graves of W. L. Cooper, one of the well-regarded early pioneers in the area and father to my 2nd great grandmother Mary Jane Cooper Smull who married the handsome Sgt Jonathan Smull, later of the Civil War. The young Smull family removed to Bremer County, Iowa area and generations later, there are still Smull's in the area.

This fellow, W.L. Cooper, has a severely damaged stone as are many in the Rock Grove Union

Cemetery.

The History of Stephenson County, Illinois: containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., biographical sketches

WL COOPER, retired, Rock Grove, born in Delaware 11 Apr 1807; a year or two later his parents returned to Pennsylvania having moved to the state of Delaware, and lived in Delaware for only about two years; they lived in Bucks County, Penn, until about 1823 when they moved to Crawford Co, Ill and lived in Crawford and Clarke Cos thereafter; his parents Amos and Hannah Cooper, both died in Clarke Co, Ill - his father aged 63 years and his mother, about 50; his grandfather, William Cooper, also his grandfather on his mother's side, John Lloyd, both lived and died in Montgomery Co Penn.  The subject of this sketch was married 10 May 1831 in Crawford Co Ill to Miss Elizabeth Beems; she was born and raised near Williamsburg, Whitley Co, Ky; on the Cumberland River; she is a daughter of James and Nancy Beems, who were quite early settlers on the Cumberland River, coming there from Virginia and both died there at the advanced age of over 90 years.  Mr and Mrs Cooper have had eight children, seven of whom are living:  those living are Ann (Mrs Daniel Thompson), Hannah (Mrs Valentine Haas), James, Mary (now Mrs Jonathan Smull), Henry, Eliza (now Mrs Charles Hennick), and Elizabeth (Mrs Franklin Boyd), the third child, George, died at Rock Grove, at the age of 18 years in 1840.  Mr Cooper removed from Crawford Co to Will Co some nine or ten miles from Joliet; lived there one year, then came West in 1841, the land not being yet in the market, entered his land from the government, so that his farm work was commenced here with the ground it its original state of uncultivated wildness; was engaged in farming until the last ten or twelve years, when being too old for hard farm labor, he sold his farm and has since lived in the village of Rock Grove, has a good house and lot, horse and buggy, and with enough money at interest to yield him a living is enjoying a quiet old age, he has done his part well in the affairs of his community.

Since the Historical Society was not open, and there were far too many township cemeteries to visit, I decided to move north to Grant County, Wisconsin. After being sent down every single backwoods County Rd by my GPS, I finally arrived in Lancaster, WI, the county seat, around 5 pm.

It's a nice little town, but still 10 miles short of my ultimate destination. Since the hotel situation was so grim in the largest town in the county, I decided to stay there rather than take a chance further north.

I took a quick walk around the town and made a stop at a local restaurant with good burgers and horrible salads and took a few shots.

 The Grant County Courthouse is currently under renovation. It was built in 1902 of red sandstone and designed by Armand D Koch, a well-known Wisconsin architect from Milwaukee who did a nice job with the Classical Revival style.

The IOOF building in Lancaster, Wisconsin was built in 1901 and is located directly across the street from the Courthouse. It's in pretty good shape and houses retails stores.

Reed's Opera House was built around 1890 and is still in use as an entertainment venue.

To Infinity And Beyond! Chuck Yeager Wasn't the Only One with The Right Stuff

UNK SMULL > Henry SMULL (my 3rd GG's brother) > Thomas Jefferson SMULL > Dr. Thomas Jefferson SMULL,Jr  > Thomas Leland Kemp SMULL married (2) Ruth RHYNE

Herbert H Hoover. Test Pilot

Ruth Rhyne was born to Richard and Edith Rhyne. She was born on 17 Nov 1921 and raised in
Stanley, Gaston County, North Carolina. She met a young man by the name of Herbert Henry Hoover from Tennessee whose father was visiting his sisters and family in Stanley. His father ended up marrying her aunt.  By the time she was a junior in college, Herbert had set his sights on marrying Ruth. Herb was working for Standard Oil as a pilot in South America. He left Standard to go to work as a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor of NASA. They married after her graduation in 1942 and moved near Langley, Virginia, where aircraft testing was done on the East Coast.

Though NACA was founded in 1915 to spur aeronautical research, the efforts at the time Hoover started working there were put towards World War II and then, after the war, to supersonic flight. The facility at Langley eventually led to the opening of Muroc, an adjunct facility in California (later Edwards AFB).

Herb thrived at Langley and tested hundreds of aircraft. He was the first person to test drive the X-1-2. Chuck Yeager had previously tested the X-1-1 (with a different wing weight) at Muroc. Yeager finally flew at Mach 1.06 and shortly thereafter, Herb became the first civilian and second person to break the speed of sound while flying in the X-1-2.

Bell X-1-2, Champine & Hoover

All this while, his wife had two young children and Ruth focused on the home. On one sad day, the chaplain from the base arrived to tell her that Herb had died flying a B-45 that broke apart mid-air. Declassified documents reveal his body most likely hit the broken plane on his way down. His parachute never deployed. His co-pilot survived with minor injuries. Ruth's oral history, including her thoughts on Chuck Yeager, are here.

A good friend insisted Ruth get out and find a husband and introduced her to Kurt, an Air Force pilot. After two years of marriage, he too died before his time - of a brain aneurysm. Her friend once again stepped up to insist she find a husband and introduced her to her boss, TLK Smull, an engineer and administrative manager at NACA. Recently divorced with a daughter, he married Ruth about 1964. Ruth recalled their meeting:

Then the same gal that introduced Kurt and me, my second husband, said, "You've got to come to Washington [D.C.] and meet Tom, my boss." She worked for Tom Smull, who was in the Office of Grants and Research. He was at Langley for about four years and then sent to Washington. I said, "I'm not ready to go out." They called me one morning—I was working in a church office at that time—and Lee's husband called and said, "Come on up and attend the Christmas party that my group is having." I said, "I'm not ready to go out." I said, "I'll call you tonight when I get back."

So I called him that night and I said, "I'm not ready to go out." He said, "Well, you get off your high horse and get up here," he said, "just consider it an evening out." Well, I made reservations on a flight to fly to Washington, and I got up that morning and there was snow on the ground, and I thought, "Oh, good, I don't have to do." I called the airport, "Yeah, planes are flying."

So I go, and I meet Tom. We just considered it an evening out, that's all it was, but he knew Herbert. They had worked together and they were friends. A couple weeks later, I got a letter from him, and his handwriting was terrible. I couldn't decipher what it was for my life. It took me about two days to read it. Finally, he says, "I'm coming to Langley for a meeting. Would you go have dinner with me?" So I did. He had a sailboat up near Annapolis [Maryland] with West River Sailing Club, and he’d invite me up to go sailing with him, and it just kind of developed. We had so many mutual friends, he knew the Reeders and the Bales, and it was just all ones that Herbert and I knew. So he asked me to marry him, so I did. We were married 35 and a half years.

~ NASA Headquarters NACA Oral History Project; Edited Oral History Transcript; Ruth Hoover Smull; Interviewed by Sandra Johnson; Virginia Beach, Virginia – 1 May 2008

Thomas L K Smull was born in Ada, Ohio in 1916 to Dr. T J Smull, Jr. and Cora Anita Kemp. He attended Ohio Northern University in 1937 and two B.A. degrees from the University of Michigan

Thomas LK Smull

in 1939, one in mechanical engineering and a second in aeronautical engineering. In 1949 he was awarded a Sc.D. in aeronautical engineering from Ohio Northern University.

He went to the Washington DC area where he started working for NACA - the precursor of NASA - in 1939. He started his career as a research engineer, but quickly moved up, putting to use his natural talents as an administrator and manager. He held positions from assistant to the director of NACA; chief, Research Coordination Division, NACA; director, Office of Grants and Research Contracts, NASA; special assistant to the administrator, NASA; program manager in the Office of Advanced Research and Technology, NASA; to special assistant to the director of Research, NASA. He authored articles on aeronautical and space issues and served on administrative and technical committees. He retired in 1974. Their boat and golf filled much of their retirement time.

Ruth, I believe, is still living and would be 94 now. Tom died after a long illness in 1999 and was buried in his hometown in Ada, Ohio. He left a daughter, an artist in California, her son, and two stepchildren.  

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.

The Mystery of Ghost Farm

UNK Schmull/Schmoll > Henry Smull (my 3rd great grandfather's brother) > Henry "Harry" Smull > Jasper Guerney Smull

Switching over to a little of the SMULL side. This would be my paternal grandmother's, mother's

side of the family. Old Grandma Kate was quite a pip I hear. Her people came from Germany originally, but settled first in Eastern Pennsylvania and then set up shop for generations in Miles, Centre County, Pennsylvania.  Right in the center of the state, imagine that. It was a heavily-German area and the residents spoke German and lived as they might have in Germany. Strongly Lutheran, this particular branch of the family was Methodist, thanks, I'm sure to Jasper's mother, Olive Elizabeth "Lizzie" Rauchau.

Jasper Guerney Smull was born 04 Mar 1901 in Centre County. "Guerney" as he was then known, hired out to Mr. Wallace Walker as a farm hand some years before this incident. Mr. Walker had a wife named Malissa "Laura" Walker. Since before 1920, the two had also shared their home with  a summer boarder named Velma Burd Miller. Velma boarded with them except for the time of her brief marriage in the 1920s.

All was not happy in the Walker home, it would seem. Laura had quite enough of said Mr Walker and wanted to drive Mr. Walker off the property. So, she devised a plan that would send Wallace skittering away, thus ensuring the land would fall to her. The outcome of her mad plan hit the AP news wire and was published nationwide.

Hold Farmhand as "Ghost" Who Scared Farmer

Mystery Thought Based on Desire of Wife for Property

Bellefonte, Aug 27, 1927 - A farmhand today is in jail at Bellfonte charged with being
the "ghost" who for years has terrorized W J Walker, farmer, of near Madisonburg. Two alleged accomplices also are detained.

Gurney Smull, the farmhand, in alleged confession, said that he had been hired by Mrs Walker to drive Walker from his home so that the property would fall into her hands.

Corporal T. E. Willer, of the State HighwayPatrol, and Sheriff Robert Taylor caused arrest of the trio after he had spent a night at the Walker farm at the request of the terror-stricken farmer.

Bed linen was snatched from the two sleeping officers in the farmhouse, They saw a white-clad figure slip away. Signs written in a red fluid were found posted in the house the first day, telling  all occupants to flee.

Smull was suspected because his stature tallied with that of the ghost. Under a grilling, he is said to have given a signed confession. Mrs Walker was arrested as well as Miss Velma Miller, a summer boarder, who was also taken into custody. The three are under bond."

The three cohorts in crime must have not been the sharpest knives in the drawer to have tried to pull one over on the local constabulary. Why not wait until they left to start their ghostly shennanigans again?

Wallace Walker must have been an incredibly forgiving soul, because the wife, boarder and hired man continued to live there with him until at least the time of the 1930 census, nearly three years after he'd been frightened nearly to death by the ghostly apparition of Jasper Guerney Smull.

Mrs Walker ended up spending the rest of her days with Mr Walker,who lingered on until 1949. Jasper eventually moved on and became a hired man to another farmer. He remained single, and died in 1987.

Jesse James, Buffalo Bill Cody, and The Keeley Cure: Agnes Watson Smith Bowers

Jacob Smith > James Smith (brother of my 2nd great grandfather William Custer Smith) > William Lawrence Smith married Agnes Watson

Agnes Morrison Smith and
Agnes Watson Smith Bowers

James Smith, born in Guernsey, Ohio, in 1822, left his family in Grant County, Wisconsin and headed to Polk, Bremer, Iowa along with several other family members in the mid-1860s. He had served faithfully as a sergeant with Company K, Wisconsin 19th Infantry Regiment from early 1862 until mid-1865. Part of that time was spent as a POW. He and his wife Susanna Johnston Smith had seven children.

Their fifth child, William Lawrence Smith, was born in 1853 in Grant County, Wisconsin. He moved with the family to Iowa, then moved as a young man West to the Republican Valley, Spring Creek Township, Harlan County, Nebraska. The Republican Valley, named after the Republican River, was a rich prairie land and favorite buffalo hunting ground for the Sioux Indians. Settlers had feared to travel there until the the US Army ran a series of campaigns, ultimately annihilating the warriors and capturing their women, children, and horses in 1869. W.L. Smith arrived sometime in the mid-1870s, when the settlements were only a few years old.

Agnes Watson, the fifth child of Scottish Immigrant parents, was born 22 Dec 1856 in Astoria, Queens, NY.  Her parents were James Watson, born 07 Jan 1825, and Agnes Morrison, born 07 Aug 1826, both in Dundee, Angus, Scotland.  The two surviving children of the four they had in Scotland, accompanied them across the ocean. Young Agnes was the first to be born in America and was quickly followed by four others, one of whom died in infancy.

Jesse James

With the Civil War over, the family decided to move West. The eldest son, James, and a couple of other young men walked West in hopes of finding a place for their families to settle. And, of course, what would any family story be without the appearance of outlaw Jesse James?

"Most of their money they carried in their shoes, but they also had a little pocket money.  One day they were robbed by Jesse James of their pocket money.  When they reached Nebraska, they decided this was the place and soon the rest of the family joined them."

Agnes met and married William Lawrence Smith on 08 Jan 1878. They had two children, Agnes Morrison was born 07 Jan 1879, and William "Willie" Lawrence was born 22 Mar 1880. Willie did not get to meet his son, because in early February 1880, Willie died at age 27 of what the coroner determined was heart disease.

What's a girl to do - on the frontier, with two small children to raise, but get a job and figure it out? In 1880, her widowed father-in-law, James Smith, lived with the family in Spring Creek. But then,

Buffalo Bill Cody

Agnes was hired to work in the kitchen of  Buffalo Bill Cody and Frank North's cattle ranch dubbed Dismal River Ranch, outside of North Platte. The ranch was built in July 1877 on the headwaters of the Dismal River in the Nebraska Sandhills. Cody and North sold the ranch in 1882 and it's unknown whether she continued to work there.

In 1884, she met  and married Mr. Joseph Cyrus Bowers, born 16 Jun 1861 in Linneus, Linn County, Missouri. Joseph is sometimes listed as an M.D., but is listed in the 1900 census as a pharmacist. He worked for the Keeley Institute, which promised cures for alcoholism, tobacco use, and drug addiction. He traveled extensively pitching the cure - a concoction of widely varied chemicals that are thought to include strychnine, alcohol, apomorphine, will bark, ammonia, and andatropine. Bowers extolled the virtues of the "Keeley Cure" far and wide until his untimely death at age 44 in 1905 at Oxford, Nebraska. This "cure" eventually fell out of favor, but was used in variations through 1965.

Joseph and Agnes had two children who survived to adulthood, Van Buren (named for Joseph's father), born 02 May 1885 in Oxford, Nebraska and James Harvey, born 20 Sep 1888 in Bucklin Township, Missouri. Van Buren reportedly left home in 1902 to go work for his uncle Dave Watson and aunt Belle Watson Richardson, both of whom had married and moved to Crook County, Wyoming. He returned home for a visit in time for his father's funeral.

Agnes' daughter Agnes Morrison Smith had met and married Mr. Fred Callander sometime before the turn of the century and pioneered in Nebraska. Their story will follow.

Life after Joseph's death had its ups and downs. Her son, like his father and namesake, died at age 27.

"Agnes then kept house for her eldest son, Willie, as he had a homestead and times were hard. There were a lot of big birds in the area and many of them roosted on the windmill. Willie and Agnes devised ways of catching them and used the meatiest part for food to keep from starving. In 1907, Willie somehow injured his foot and it developed into blood poisoning and he died June 6, 1907.

Agnes decided she wanted her family reunited and so she and James Harvey loaded all their belonging into a covered wagon and Agnes' buggy and headed for Sundance, Wyoming.  The wagon was so loaded that in places they had to unhook the buggy team and hook them on the wagon to pull the load over the steep places, then go back for the buggy.  By the time they reached Sundance, where Van lived, the horses were nearly dead."

Bear Lodge Country is located in a small mountain range outside of Sundance. It's near Devil's

Devil's Tower

Tower, the first declared national monument. Sacred to the Indians of the area, the tower was so declared by naturalist and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Sundance, founded in 1879, was settled after numerous battles with the Indians in the area. Early settlers set up mining claims and cattle ranches. Crook County was named in 1885.

"When the family was all together again, they each took out a homestead in the Bear Lodge Country about 13 miles from Sundance.  They built a log house for Agnes near a beautiful littlespring.  They cleaned out the spring and rocked it up so they could get the water deep enough to dip from and still leave it to run freely. They lived there long enough to prove up on their homesteads and for the two boys to marry.  Van married Hilda Reinhold on 01 Oct 1913 and James married her sister, Amalia, 11 Nov 1917."

Sundance, Wyoming abt 1910

Once the boys were both married, Agnes moved into town and took in patients to nurse in her home. When age and infirmity kept her from being able to work, she moved in with son James and wife Amalia. She died on 06 Jan 1934.  She'd lived a long life, fraught with hard work, near-starvation, the loss of two husbands and two children, yet she was a survivor.

Quotes taken from a document believed to be:
Pioneers of Crook, County, Crook County Historical Society, Crook County, Wyoming, Pierre, SD; circa 1981

Raid at Cabanatuan: Japanese POW Clinton Spencer Goodbla, World War II

I've decided to try and provide a list of descendency for these stories to help my fellow genealogists:

Jacob Smith > James Smith (brother of William Custer Smith - my 2nd great grandfather) > John R Smith  > Alfred Smith > Susie Smith Behrends > Dorothy Behrends married Clinton Spencer Goodbla

Add caption

Clinton Spencer Goodbla was born to Carl F Goodbla, originally from Sweden and Amelia S. Backlund in Montana. Spencer, as he was known when he was young, lost his mother in 1915. He lived with his aunt and uncle Anna and Henry Goodbla in 1920 in Musselshell, Montana and by 1930, was living with his father in Mitchell, South Dakota. By 1940, he was living in Cowlitz County, Washington. His father lived in West Bend, Iowa.

Clinton served in the US Army during World War II and was assigned to Battery A of the 60th Coast Artillery Regiment that was assigned to protect Manila and Subic Bay with anti-aircraft support. The battle for the Philippines was fought from 1941-1942 under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. By March 1942, the Japanese having overrun the area, MacArthur was ordered by the president to leave the islands so he wouldn't be captured or killed. He ran his battle from Australia. The Japanese took many prisoners before the ultimate surrender of the islands by MacArthur with his famous words, "I came through and I shall return."  

POWs Celebrate Liberation

The Bataan Death March wherein 78,000 (12,000 US and 66,000 Filipino) POWs were moved north 63 miles to confinement areas began on April 10, 1942. Clinton was one of those force marched. An estimated 7,000-10,000 died on this trek which lasted 5-12 days. The Japanese were not prepared to deal with this many people and also believed that those who surrendered had no honor and did not deserve humane treatment. Once the group arrived at San Fernando, they were herded into box cars for Camp O'Connell. From there, many were transported to one of three camps at Cabanatuan. Clinton was placed in one of these camps.

Conditions in the camp were brutal.  According to Clinton, "The healthiest prisoners were segregated and shipped to Japan, (ed note: where they were slave labor) many after the Nipponese realized the Yanks would reconquer Luzon." Many of these POWs were forced to work in factories, airfields, and shipyards to help the Japanese war effort in Japan, Manchuria, and Formosa.

The camp hospital doctors were forced to list causes of death for those who continued to die as being from disease instead of abuse or malnutrition.  Those who tried to escape were shot.

"To prevent any more escape attempts, the Japanese captors initiated what were called 'Shooting Squads' or 'Blood Brothers.' Each POW was assigned to a group of ten. If anyone in that group escaped, the other nine would be shot," according to fellow POW Billy Alvin Ayers.

According to this report from medical officer Col Webb E. Cooper:

"Each day an attempt was made to clear each barracks of the dying. They were removed to “zero” ward (ed note: those landing in this ward had '0' percent chance of leaving alive), laid on the bare floor entirely naked. These patients usually were profoundly emaciated, in fact, little better than skeletons with a feeble spark of life. Heroic corpsmen and doctors did what they could to alleviate the indescribable conditions.  They tied grass onto sticks and attempted to cleanse the floors.  They used the same method of cleansing the body.  Occasionally a big puddle of rainwater would provide enough water to wash the floor. At this time the use of the regular water supply system was strictly forbidden by the Japanese.  The few laymen who saw these conditions were utterly horrified.  Even the Japanese doctors would not enter these wards and the Japanese staff at Headquarters gave it a wide berth."

After three long years of horrifying imprisonment, with MacArthur and troops back in country, the Sixth Army's intelligence chief Colonel Horton White and Lt. Col. Henry Mucci, leader of the 6th Ranger Battalion, and three lieutenants from the Alamo Scouts—the special reconnaissance unit attached to his Sixth Army—met for a briefing on the mission to raid Cabanatuan and rescue the POWs.The group developed a plan to rescue the prisoners. After only a brief couple of weeks, the plan was approved and they took action on January 30, 1945, successfully freeing the prisoners in Cabanatuan and Camp O'Donnell. The exciting adventure is a must-read here.

Noted Associated Press war reporter from the Pacific, Fred Hampson, wrote this about his meeting with Clinton S. Goodbla after his liberation:  

Clinton was released from the military as a Technical Sergeant. He returned home and married Dorothy Behrends. They resided in Longview, Washington, where Mr. Goodbla worked as a millwork shop foreman.

Tragically, on December 19, 1953, Mr and Mrs Goodbla were driving along the Columbia River, 11 miles west of Longview, when their car plunged into the river. Dorothy was killed and Clinton was critically injured.  He did eventually recover and in 1954, married Lenore Malone. Clinton died on Feb 27, 1988 and was buried in Willamette National Cemetery in Multnomah County, Oregon.

B. F. Lichty & Sons, Waterloo

Jacob Smith > William Custer Smith > Mary Madora Smith married BF Lichty

60th Anniversary, 1938

Mary Madora "Dora" Smith was the second child of my great-great grandparents, William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson. She was born on 23 Jul 1859 in Hazel Green, Grant County, Wisconsin. Shortly after  reaching her majority, she married Benjamin Franklin "B.F." Lichty who hailed from Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in 1878 in Janesville, Bremer County, Iowa. They resided in Elma, Howard County during the early years of their marriage.

Dora and B.F.'s first son, Norman Arthur "N.A.", was born 1879, within months of their marriage.

Original East High School, 1910

Their next child, Claude Smith Lichty, was born in 1887. Their final child, Verne Elias, was born in 1893. In 1902, they set up house in Waterloo and eventually lived on lower Franklin St in East Waterloo. Sometime shortly after that, BF opened his business, "B. F. Lichty & Sons" which specialized in sheet metal fabrication at 720-722 Water St. All of the boys attended East High School.

The business thrived through the 1910s to such a degree, they had to expand. They built a new facility at 1127 Sycamore in East Waterloo and the business remained there until it closed. At that time, Waterloo had 116 manufacturing plants in the city. Lichty & Sons had 16 employees. That building is still standing and is currently owned by the City of Waterloo. In the 1920s, in what was a nice middle-class neighborhood, the Lichty's built an adorable brick bungalow where they resided for the remainder of their life at 1202 Mulberry St. The area now is run down and while the house still stands, it is in need of restoration. That was a 2-block walk for the Lichty's from plant to home every day. The business maintained a respectable reputation and was able to continue operating through the depression and World War II.

Lichty & Sons, built 1913, 1127 Sycamore St

Young Verne was a star athlete at East High School  He attended the Waterloo Business college beginning in 1911 to prepare himself to work with his father and brothers in the business. At Christmas time of 1913 while playing basketball at the Waterloo YMCA, he injured his leg. In early 1915, he went to the Mayo Clinic and learned his leg injury had turned into a sarcoma after a surgery. In  May of that year, his left leg was amputated below the knee at Presbyterian hospital in hopes of putting the cancer in check. He then walked with crutches. Verne married in 1918 and had a daughter, Dorothy Anne, with his wife Anna Geyer Lichty and was expecting another child when he fell ill with a recurrence of cancer. He died at home at age 27. The son he never met, Verne Edward, born in May of 1921, served in the US Navy on the USS Auk, a minesweeper that saw heavy action, and left the service as a Boatswains's Mate 2nd Class. He worked as a tool and die maker at John Deere before having a massive heart attack while bowling at Maple Lanes (which still stands) in 1959 and died. Daughter Dorothy Ann lived with her mother in Northern California until her mother died in 1979. She married for the first time at age 51 to Welles Halley Crawford in Santa Clara, California.

In an article published in 1922, the company was located at 922 Sycamore, just a couple blocks down from the previous location. There had been a slump in business, business picked up again and there was a scarcity of both materials and labor due to the building boom. They were by then employing 20 people.  Sometime in the 1920s, N. A. Lichty and his wife moved to California. N.A. spent six years there and it appears that Mrs. Margaret (Kildee) Lichty remained behind and they divorced prior to
N. A. returning to Iowa, where he was president of the company until his death at age 56 in 1935.

He had one child, Evan, who died in Butte County, California in 1985. Evan enlisted in the US Army in 1943 and retired from the service in 1963.  The information I could find so far indicates he was a Seabee Chief Metalsmith in the US Navy. Evan's first wife was Ethyl Ruth Merrill, whom he married in 1926. He married Ina "Geraldine" Stewart next. They had three sons, two of whom survive. His family was stationed in Tokyo in the mid-1950s but his family spent the bulk of its time living in the Bay Area of California and eventually in Butte County.

Claude's son, Wilfred Franklin Lichty, suffered from diabetes and died of complications at age 20 in 1931. Claude and his wife Lulu divorced and he remarried. He continued to work in the family business until after his father's death and retired from the business in 1950. He died in 1953.

Dora died in 1941 at age 81 and B.F. died in 1945 at 87, both of complications of age.

An Aside

B.F. had a brush with the law in 1930 when he was interviewed about the violent death of a

Murder victim F.R. Smart, center

reclusive, divorced, elderly implement and real estate dealer of his acquaintance named Francis Robert Smart. Lichty was one of the last people to have contact with Smart.  Mr Smart had dined with the Lichty's on the night he died along with his stepson and his wife. About 10 o'clock that night,  just 45 minutes from the time estimated as time of death, Mr. Lichty called Mr. Smart to inquire about a wallet that had been misplaced by one of the other guests. The murder received no coverage in the Waterloo paper and appears to remain unsolved, with robbery as a motive. Mr. Smart was known to keep large quantities of cash in his office/residence. 

An inquest was set for today into the slaying of F. R. Smart, 77, implement and real estate dealer, whose bullet-riddled body was found in his office-bedroom late Saturday night.

Clutching in his hand a chunk of iron casting, and slumped against the wall opposite the door that apparently had admitted his assailant, the body of the recluse was discovered by a neighbor, Johannes Hanson, at 10:45 o'clock Saturday night. 

A deck of cards, half-played, indicated to police that the old man had been interrupted as he was playing solitaire. Aside from evidence of a scuffle, officers could find no clews (sic) or fingerprints.

Robbery was evidently the motive, investigators believe, for Smart was know to have as much as $500 at a time in his living quarters, which also served him as office. The amount that he might have had with him Saturday night was undetermined, nor was it ascertained whether anything was missing. That Smart had tried to protect himself, led the officers to believe that his attacker was not prepared to find the victim at home.

Bullet holes slanted upward into the body, indicating the assailant had been floored and had shot supine. Three empty shells from a .32 automatic were found on the floor."

Mason City Globe Gazette, 14 Apr 1930, pgs 1 and 2 

The County Coroner declared it a murder by persons unknown on the following day. No further information was published about the crime, indicating it was never cleared from the books.

Little House on the Prairie: Saskatchewan Edition

Jacob Smith > James Smith (my 2nd great grandather's brother) > Alexander Smith

Some of those who migrated West during the 1800s did it to find cheaper land or to take advantage of new opportunities in the myriad of boom towns that sprung up from Illinois to Dakotas and into Canada. Some did it for the adventure, rarely staying put in one place too long and waiting until they found the place to grow old.

Alexander Smith defined himself as an adventurer and spent much of his early life finding the next great thing. He was born 16 Jun 1845 in Steubenville, Ohio to James Smith and Susan Johnson, He was the last child born in Ohio before the family migrated to the Eastern Territory of Wisconsin in late 1845 or early 1846. He married Jessie Monteith, the daughter of Scottish pioneers Edward Monteith and Agnes McCubbin on Christmas Day, 1866, in Grant County, Wisconsin.

Grant County was a mining area. Cornish miners worked the mines and towns sprung up around them. Land was available and fertile, so it also became a flourishing farming region. Many of my relatives used Grant County as a launching point for further migration over the course of the next few decades in search of inexpensive farm land.

Alexander and Jessie moved to Spring Creek, Harlan, Nebraska and homesteaded. Harlan County was established in 1870 and settlers began coming to the area which had plenty of fresh water and a valley of arable and tillable land soon thereafter.  The length of their stay there can't be clearly deduced since no 1870 census is available for them, but in 1880 they were farming there and by 1890, they were in the Duluth, Minnesota area. Their daughters, Minnie (1890) and Mabel (1895) were born in the Duluth area. The Smith's,ready to move on, contemplated moving on to their next chapter up north.

Kindersley, Saskatchewan was settled in 1910, and named after Sir Robert Kindersley, who was a major shareholder in the Canadian Northern Railway. Settlement in Kindersley began when the first homesteader arrived from Saskatoon by Ox Cart, in 1905.

In 1911, Alexander and Jessie and the Anderson's emigrated to Kindersley, not far from Medicine Hat, probably lured by the railroad completion through the untouched prairie land up for settlement and the advertising created to lure new settlers. Canada had defined a new settlement policy that mirrored a young America's policy, granting 160 acres of free land to any man over 18 (or head of family woman). Advertising downplayed the need for agriculture experience and portrayed the area as an idyllic land of plenty.

Minnie and Melvin Anderson at their soddie outside of Kindersley, about 1914

The platting of the land put the homesteads quite far apart, leading to isolation. For those early settlers, who often lived in sod houses, the reality was forbidding and far from the recruiting ad promises of a veritable Utopia. Minnie married Melvin Gustav Anderson in 1913 in Saskatchewan. They homesteaded in an old soddie early in their marriage.

It's not clear just how long the Anderson's stuck it out in this difficult life, but by 1920, they, along with Minnie's parents, were living in Brook Park in Pine County, Minnesota. Minnie's Uncle James "Doc" Smith, who had also moved north, settled in Moose Jaw, where he remained for the rest of his life.

James "Doc" Smith
Remained in Canada

Perhaps life in Canada broke the Smith's of their need for adventure, because they resided in Brook Park until they died. Alexander died in 1925 and Jessie in 1939, their gravestones marked with, "Pioneers - Adventurers - Philanthropists."

Melvin spent his remaining years farming and then working as an administrator in soil conservation and Minnie raised their five children. Melvin died in 1960 and Minnie followed him in 1966. Minnie's sister Mabel moved back to Saskatchewan, by then far less forbidding, after marrying her second husband and remained there until her death in 1979.