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The Race to the Finish: Fred C Monteith & Martin Rector

Andrew Monteith > Edward Boyd Monteith > James Robert Monteith > Fred G Monteith and Martin Rector

The Monteiths were a sprawling family, headed by Scotsman Andrew Monteith and his wife Isabelle Hendry. The family had lived in Penninghame, Wigtownshire, Scotland. They had 11 children, all born in Scotland, and all the surviving children came to the Wisconsin area along with the parents, except oldest child, Mary Ann Monteith McCullough, who moved to the Chicago area with her husband.

Edward Boyd Monteith was a stone mason by trade and was the fourth of Andrew and Isabelle's 11 children. When he came to Platteville, Wisconsin in 1854, he was employed in the building of the State Normal School. He ended up settling on a farm near Liberty, Wisconsin. He and his wife Agnes McCubbin had eight children.

Edward Boyd Monteith

Edward's third child, James Robert and his wife Elizabeth Barger had twelve children. The oldest child, Agnes Mary Monteith married Martin Frederic Rector in 1898 in Preston, Grant County, Wisconsin. They had three boys before 1903, the youngest being only 10 months old at the time of the story. Martin and Agnes farmed near his parents at Spirit Lake, Iowa, having moved there the previous year.

Fred G. Monteith, at age 21, was the middle child of Edward Boyd Monteith. He was a schoolteacher in Grant County and was visiting his sister's family near the east shore of Spirit Lake, Iowa. His visit had lasted 10 days by November 28, 1903. He was scheduled to return to Fennimore, Wisconsin the following Monday.

On the fateful day in question, Martin and Fred had been to town, having been dropped off by the

Okibojiin the Sumertime

Rector's farmhand in the wagon. They told the team's driver, Sam Rettig, if he did not see them along the way back, to go on home. The two dropped their overcoats off at the Schumen's home and stated they would race across East Lake Okiboji by skate and would return to the farm that evening.  At 11 o'clock, Rettig had returned and found the men had not returned. By midnight, Agnes was extremely worried. Rettig notified Martin's father, Dr. A. E. Rector, who along with his brother, the dentist, went to the farm to wait for the dawn so a search could go on.

Fred at about age 15

It didn't take them long, once dawn broke, to find the hole through which both men had fell. Their bodies were discovered immediately and floating side-by-side. They had fallen into water of about 9-feet in depth and gotten their feet stuck in the mud, evidenced by the mud on their skates. Had it not by then been dark and sleeting or had they fallen just a "few rods" in either direction, where the depth and mud would not have been so deep, the outcome might have been completely different.

Martin, the eldest of 10 children, would have been 32 years old the following month. 

Martin's wife Agnes raised her boys and died without remarrying on 23 Aug 1925, at the young age of 49.

Many newswire accounts list the dead incorrectly, naming Fred's brother Llewellyn "Clyde" Monteith as among the dead. The initial article from the Spirit Lake Beacon, on December 4, 1903, listed the dead correctly.

Pioneering Nebraska and the Twister of 1933: Agnes Smith Callander

Jacob Smith > James Smith > William Lawrence Smith > Agnes Smith Callander

You can read about Agnes Smith's parents, William Lawrence and his wife, Agnes Watson and her

Agnes and mother Agnes Watson

difficult pioneer life, here.

Agnes was the oldest of the two Smith children and was born on 07 Jan 1879 in Nebraska. Agnes was not a particularly handsome woman. Fred Callander's family had come to Saline County, Nebraska from Indiana, when Fred was about 13. Fred's father Archibald had emigrated from Scotland and he and Fred's mother Elvira Beebe Jacoby had married in Minnesota in 1859. Agnes and her brother, William Lawrence "Willie" Smith, lived in New Era Precinct, Furnas County, Nebraska after the death of their father. Agnes met Fred Callander and they married on 08 Apr 1897 and as of 1900 resided next door to his parents, Archibald and Elvira Callander.  Her brother, Willie, was a lodger at the home of Archibald and Elvira Callander in 1900.

Tryon, Nebraska 1912

In 1905, the young Callander family, then made up of the couple and three children, moved just down the road to the relatively untouched prairie of near Tryon, Nebraska in the Sandhills, filing on the Kinkaid 640-acre property. According to Fred and Agnes' daughter Mildred, they set about building up their sod house and breaking prairie. Ultimately, the Callander's would have seven children.

McPherson County, Nebraska had a population of just over 2,000 in 1912, the time of this photo of Tryon. According to Nebraska Outback, at one point McPherson County had 20 post offices, five towns and 63 school districts. The trail road in the foreground is now Highway 97. McPherson County is now the third least populous county in Nebraska, with a population just over 500.

Mildred Callander Grabbe described their life in those early days:

"My father had a four-horse team of small horses and a freight wagon used to haul freight of various kinds, mainly I think, food supplies, and taking corn to market and returning with some coal for heating. He hauled freight from Stapleton and from North Platte, many miles on ungraded roads, through valleys and around hills, for both the Mike David and I.C. (Ide) Heldenbrand stores. He would take one day to go, and another to come back. The miles have been shortened much as more modern roads were made. In these little stores they had most anything you would want to maintain that way of life, from food, remedies, pills, liniment, kerosene for the lamps, hardware, dress material by the yard, (or dry goods) sewing notions, hardware, feed and some lumber and fence posts.

In winter it was unbearably cold, so to keep going the long hours the trip would take, he walked many miles alongside the wagon. When he made the trip with snow on the ground, the sound of the wagon wheels made a very weird or eerie sound that could be heard for miles on a cold quiet evening. I remember so well when waiting for him, if after dark, going outside listening in the stillness, and guessing how long yet? It was always a homecoming for we all loved him so much. 

It is hard for today’s generation to imagine, or visualize the “way of life” of so long ago (three quarters of a century). Flour came in 48 pound cloth sacks (the old David Harum brand and the Sioux Lookout brand) I remember, and sugar in 100 pound muslin sacks. These sacks were used for dish towels, or whatever the need. There were very few cereals, a few boxes of Corn Flakes, but mostly long cooking Quaker Oats or ground corn meal for mush. Of course we didn’t get eggs and milk in cartons, but from our own farm. There was no electricity, so no refrigeration, telephone, radio or TV. To keep foods cold they were kept in the water barrel with fresh cool water being pumped by the windmill, and it was kerosene lamps and lanterns that lighted our way.

He also did some carpenter work for others, helping to build barns, and other buildings as progress came. Even when building a sod house, there were doorways, window frames and sometimes floors. There have been many live on a dirt floor till there was money enough to buy the lumber for the floor. 

My father also worked for the U.P.R.R. “Rip-track” for a time, but he had to stay in North Platte away from home, so it was not for long. Then by 1914 and 1915, he and Archie worked planting pine trees at the Halsey Reserve. During the time of planting they rescued some of the smaller culls of Jack, Scotch and Yellow Pine that were being discarded, took them home, planted and nourished them. For many years they were the only pines in the Sandhills and they still stand out, tall, proud and glorious. One spring day 20 or more years later, pushed by high winds, a fire raged through the forest burning many of the trees planted during the years the Callanders worked there. But over the years, our home trees grew very well. Planting at the Forest involved first plowing a furrow over prairie hills and all, then working with a spade pushed into the soft sandy soil, worked back and forth, a tree was inserted and with a firm step pressed closed, it was left to grow."*

The Callanders farmed for many years, raising their seven children and moved into their old age. The work was hard and along the way they experienced their share of tragedy. Oldest son Archibald was drowned at age 31 at Whitewater Lake in western McPherson County, leaving a wife and two small boys. Daughter Ruby and her husband William Cass were killed in an auto accident in 1950.

In May of 1933, Tryon, along with many other towns stretching from Minnesota to Kansas, was struck by a twister, wiping out buildings and the old soddie. Fortunately the family did not experience any loss of life, but Agnes was injured along with 17 neighbors. Other neighbors and friends were not so lucky.

Ann Callander McGiff recalled the fateful day:

"On Monday, May 22, 1933, the old sod house was destroyed by the cyclone that caused so much damage on that fateful evening. On the previous Friday afternoon, on the last day of school when I walked home with little Iola Pyzer, I had no idea that the next time I would see her she would be with younger sister in their Mother’s arms lying in a casket. Along with the other five victims in the mass funeral services held in Miller Chapel. The Harry Pyzer family lived less than a mile north of us."

Mr Pyzer had been in North Platte that day and returned to find only his dog, Nick, and a few hogs remaining alive. His entire family was lost: Willis Bender, 29; Don Bender, 9 months; Iola Pyzer, 7; Mary Evelyn Pyzer, 5; Mrs Dora Pyzer, 25 and Mrs Edna Nelson, 23, were killed. The Benders and Mrs Nelson were visiting there.

Fred died 15 Jan 1944 and Agnes followed him 01 Jul 1962.

Sources: US Census; Find A Grave, and with thanks to *OutbackNebraska, who provided permission to use photos and stories previously published as reference.

Sideroad: The Preston Family

Matthew Preston

Jacob Smith > James Smith (and after that, it gets murky)

I find that sometimes, I get distracted when working on a specific line or family. Something outside of the direct line catches my fancy. This would be a case in point.

Matthew PRESTON founded the small town of Preston, Grant County, Wisconsin. He was an early settler there, having arrived from Yorkshire, England in 1851. His first wife, Elizabeth Little, also of Yorkshire, bore him seven children. Two of those boys, James Woodward PRESTON and John Thomas PRESTON, married two Monteith sisters, Martha and Mary Agnes, respectively.

They were daughters of Edward Boyd MONTEITH and feed into my line. EB Monteith's daughter Elizabeth married Jacob Smith, his daughter Jessie married Jacob's brother, Alexander, and his daughter Isabelle married Walter Smith, William Custer Smith's son  (my 2d great grandfather) and nephew to Jacob and Alexander. That's clear now, right?

Young Edwin Wesley Preston

Anyway - back to the PRESTON family. Matthew's first wife died in 1865. He headed back to England and brought back his new bride, Abigail Jane Heseltine, whom he married in 1868. In 1870, the Preston's moved to Platteville, Wisconsin. They too had seven children. Matthew donated 120 acres of land to Platteville for what was then Platteville Normal College what was later known as the University Farm. And this is where I took a major sideroad.

One of their sons, Edwin Wesley Preston, skeedaddled out of the area and little was found on him except the usual documents. He looked, on the surface, to be the least interesting of the set of seven kids of Abigail. How wrong could I be? He was not in the news much, but he was a one of the powerhouses behind what got reported.

He married the former Mabel Peck in 1900. They had no children.

According to a report from the Boston Herald on 20 Dec 1941, his story went a little like this:

Corinthian Club

He graduated from Wisconsin State Teacher's College but he had no interest in teaching; business was more of his forte. He was involved in a number of commercial enterprises in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere, when he came to Boston in 1913. He was connected to a group of New England publishers, representing their newspapers in the national advertising field. In 1915, his work was brought to the attention of James H. Higgins, at that time the publisher of the Herald-Traveler where he began working in their automotive advertising section. Before long, he was the advertising director.

As the Boston Herald-Traveler broadened its success, he became the general manager of the paper in 1927. He continued the success of the publication and it was said he, "disclaimed personal credit, saying it was much more due to those who worked so loyally in co-operation with him."

246 Beacon St Boston

His home in Boston was located at 246 Beacon Street a block from the Charles River. They had three servants to run the large brownstone. Edwin was a member of Boston's Algonquin Club, which was founded in 1886 by individuals who valued "accomplishment over inherited status." He was also a member of the Corinthian Yacht Club and other clubs throughout Boston.

From 1929 to 1937, he took several trips to Europe and more tropical locations aboard passenger liners. He also spent time in Florida, a warm alternative to California. Sometimes with his wife, and after her death in 1935, with other family members. Sometime around the time of Mabel's death, his niece, Ruth Tiffany, came to Boston and looked after her uncle and ran his household. I'm hoping to learn more on Ruth's life in Boston soon.

In 1940, he was forced by ill health to give up the active reigns of the Herald Traveler. He moved to Beverly Hills, California, where he died 19 Dec 1941. He died a very wealthy man and I believe a chunk of it ended up going to Ruth Tiffany. Look for a coming post that will discuss the Tiffany's of Hollister, California.

The Edge of Madness:Unraveling the Mystery of Bertha McKinney, Part 2

Bertha McKinney Surber

To catch you up on Part 1, go here. I had to find out a lot of things to close the loop on this one. For one, where did she come from and why was she in Cherokee?

Bertha was born to Oliver Blowers McKinney, MD and Carrie Snider on 29 Jun 1887, in Champaign, Illinois. Dr. McKinney was born in Muncie, Indiana in 1863, and graduated from the Medical College of Indiana in 1885. He came to Lyon County, Iowa in 1893, settling first in Little Rock and a year later coming to George. Mrs. McKinney died in 1897, leaving her husband and Bertha, brother, James Oliver and sister, Bessie June surviving. Her father married Margaret Bernadine Block on 02 Jun 1908 in Kingsbury, South Dakota. They would have two more children: Roy Ira and Olive B. The new Mrs. Block would serve as Dr. McKinney's nurse during the entire time he practiced.

Bertha, according to a family history written in 1904 by G W Nance, had a magnificent singing voice: "She has devoted much time to music and has a reputation throughout northwest Iowa for her musical ability, and expects to go abroad to continue her music."

Dr. O. B. McKinney, Bertha's mother Carrie Snider, Bertha's stepmom, Margaret

Now I know how her future husband, Guy Surber and she connected - through their love of music. She never did go abroad to continue her music and instead married Guy on 05 Sep 1917 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, where he was serving in the Army and playing in its band at Ft Sam Houston.

Guy Arnold Surber

The Surbers would lead a traveling life of a military family before having their children. While living in Minnesota, Bertha was struggling. She was admitted after a suicide attempt, to the Cherokee Hospital for the Insane on 26 Aug 1935. Her son Guy, Jr. would have been about 12 years old. The Cherokee facility was very near where Dr. McKinney and his family lived. Guy Surber continued on with his military life. Who ended up raising the children is not clear. The hospital record indicates that at least Marijune at one time resided in George, Lyons County - home of the McKinney's. Both children ultimately ended up out in California and so did Bessie, Roy and Mrs. McKinney, so it can be posed that it's possible one of Bertha's siblings chipped in to help.

When Dr. McKinney died in 1937, his will was probated and the outcome of the distribution took some time. The Cherokee facility moved to have Bertha declared incompetent and a trustee name so that the trustee could handle her inheritance. Of course, the facility also provided Bertha with a bill for the care provided for the past three years: $548.79.

She was diagnosed as a manic-depressive with possible dementia and while there were no more suicide attempts, she wasn't getting better, in fact, she continued her slow descent for 13 more years until her death at age 60 of pulmonary tuberculosis, never leaving the hospital.

Ma, the Rawleigh Man is at the Door: Claudius Cooper

William Cooper > Amos Cooper > Chalkley Jared Cooper > Barton Gourley Cooper > Claudius Milton Cooper


Barton Gourley Cooper and his first wife Mary Magdaline Bollinger had eight children, including their last, a set of twins, Claudius Milton and Minnie M. Cooper, who were born on 19 Feb 1886.

Minnie remained in their hometown of Freeport, Stephenson County, Illinois her entire life, never married, and was the last remaining of Barton’s children, dying in Mar of 1982.

Her twin brother Claudius, or Claude as he was known, graduated from Northern Illinois Teacher’s College and went to work for W. T. Rawleigh Co., a Freeport firm that sold more than 100 household products — medicines, salves, balms, spices, flavorings, seasoning, ointments, makeup, and cleaning products.

A typical W. T. Rawleigh Salesman early 20th Century

W. T. Rawleigh Factory, Freeport 

At 18, W.T. had reportedly started his business with $15 and a borrowed horse. As his success grew, he moved from Wisconsin to Freeport, Illinois, where he built his first factory. W.T. Rawleigh’s success spread across the country where he built production facilities and had thousands of door-to-door salesmen adding to his success. Products were sold on “time and trial” – meaning they’d sell the product with satisfaction guaranteed. The height of the popularity of W. T. Rawleigh, like so many other companies of its type, was primarily in the 1920s-1940s. Large pharma and consumer product companies were buying up brands to add to their lines and absorbed many such companies. Rawleigh’s managed to keep things going until 1989, when financial struggles finally did it in, leaving five massive factories vacant. The W. T. Rawleigh name is now owned by a company in Florida called Vitamins Direct.

251 Wildwood Ave, Piedmont

Claude was a sales executive when he was transferred to Oakland, California. He eventually became a division manager of the Oakland factory. He met Miss Josephine Fisher (born 04 Nov 1896 in Michigan) while there and they married on 01 Sep 1917 in Marysville, Yuba County, California. The Cooper’s had two daughters while in California, Mavis (10 Jan 1919-23 Feb 1999) and Joyce (Theodore) Pierce. They resided at 251 Wildwood Ave in The exclusive Piedmont section of Oakland, off of Piedmont Park. The estimated value of that home today is $2 million.

Prior to 1930, Claude was called back to Freeport corporate headquarters to work. After residing briefly with his parents, the Cooper’s settled into their own home. Claude continued to work for W. T. Rawleigh until 1958, when he retired. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, the Elks Club (past president), and the Freeport Country Club. Claude died at the Freeport Memorial Hospital after a long illness in March of 1973 at age 87. His wife and children survived him.