Distinguished museum guests --- plus an open house

We were happy to welcome these distinguished guests from the State Historical Society of Iowa and its administrative parent, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, to Lucas County's Historical Society Museum Thursday afternoon.

They are (from left) Susan Kloewer, administrator of the State Historical Society of Iowa; Leo Landis, state curator of museum and historic sites; Kylie Dittmer, vice-chair of the State Historical Society Board of Trustees (and a member of the Lucas County Historical Society Board of Directors); Meg Witt, events and facility rental manager for the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs; and Chris Kramer, director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

They were in Chariton because the State Historical Society's Board of Trustees, which ordinarily meets in Des Moines, was on the road Friday --- meeting and sharing lunch in the Elbow Room of the Hotel Charitone. The session also included a visit to Chariton High School building, a structure that will celebrate its centennial during 2023; and to Piper's, where everyone had an opportunity to stock up on homemade candy.

We'll be wrapping up a busy week at the museum today and Saturday. Watch for museum vehicles --- Dwight Thompson's bright orange 1938 Allis-Chalmers tractor and the 1929 Model A Ford --- in today's Chariton Community Schools homecoming parade.

And on Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon everyone's invited to stop at the museum for coffee, hot cider, Piper's doughnuts, popcorn --- and (we hope) peanuts freshly roasted in the vintage Piper's roaster. All the buildings will be open for tours and, as always, admission is free. Hope to see you then!

Anna Gibbon's remarkable wedding dress

This lovely bridal portrait of Miss Anna Laura Gibbon came home to Chariton on Monday, brought to the Lucas County Historical Society Museum by her great-granddaughter, Laura Ann Schlegel Huber, now of Arkansas, and given in memory of her mother, Mary Marr Vaughn.

The portrait was taken in Chariton during late summer 1884. Anna married Ralph Ferree McCollough at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Sept. 4 of that year, and this portrait was among the results. The portrait was accompanied by a tray with a glass base that covers a square of brocaded silk taken from the dress.

Regrettably, the photo here is not the best. But the portrait is sealed in its frame and there is no reason to disturb it. That means reflective glass is an issue and this was the best I could do --- outside, in the shade on the museum lawn.

Here's a report of the wedding, taken from The Chariton Democrat-Leader of Sept. 10, 1894. The Wormley House also was known as the Depot Hotel --- waiting rooms, dining rooms and ticket office on the first floor, parlors and lodging above.

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Wedding bells! They rang out merrily, joyously, on last Tuesday evening, at which time Miss Anna Gibbon and Mr. Ralph Ferree McCollough uttered the vows that henceforth they would maintain to each other the sacred relationship of husband and wife. Shortly before 8 o'clock, St. Andrew's church was filled with invited guests to the number of about two hundred. The first thing to attract attention was the magnificent floral decorations chief among which were a large arch of evergreens, covered with bright-hued geranium blossoms, suspended from the center of which was a true-love  knot. In front of the chancel arch was a large monogram M-G. On  the right and left of the arch were two columns, one of nasturtiums, the other of dahlias. The corners were filled with large bunches of brilliant wild flowers, the  whole making a very pleasing effect.

Promptly as the finger on the dial pointed to eight o'clock, the organ pealed forth the Wedding March and the attendants, ten in number and consisting of Misses Lucy McCollough, Zora Stewart, Berta Briggs, Alice Rea and May McCormick and Messrs. Clark Duncan, Oscar Israel, Laird Wallace, Will Dungan and Harry Mooney, marched down the aisle and took their positions on either side of and in front of the chancel. Immediately following and leaning on the arm of her father came the bride, dressed in a superb suit of brocaded cream satin, Princess style, with the bodice formed of Duchess lace, and drawn with silk cord, elbow sleeves with edge of Duchess lace, train of knife plaiting, and veil of silk tulle. On arriving at the altar they were met by the groom and the ceremony was performed by Rev. Geo. F. Degen, the beautiful and impressive service of the Episcopal church being followed.

The bride is the only daughter of Dr. and Mrs. W. H. Gibbon, and as she has resided here all her life, her sterling qualities are so well known that to speak of them in this community would be almost like using words without an object. The groom has been a resident of this city for only two years, but in that time he has won hosts of friends and convinced all with whom he came in contact that he is a true gentleman. The union is a happy one and they are both to be heartily congratulated on their choice of a life companion.

The ceremony at the church being over, the guests repaired to the Wormley House, which had been secured and specially prepared for the reception. Notwithstanding the large number of guests, everything moved like clockwork, and the spacious parlors afford ample accommodations for all. Promptly at 9:30 the guests descended to the dining hall, where a tasty and elegant repast was spread. Covers were laid for two hundred and every seat was filled. The dining hall had been specially arranged for the occasion, and the wedding feast, under the personal supervision of the Wormleys, was everything that could have been desired.

The guests were loth to go, and as it was known that the new man and wife would not leave until one o'clock, may tarried until near the time for their departure. They go to Chicago for a couple of weeks and soon after their return will settle down to the comforts of domestic life, which they are so well fitted to enjoy. 

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Anna, 19 at the time of her marriage to Ralph, had three children during the nine years that followed: Clement, Dorothy (Vaughn) and Henry McCullough. But Ralph, who was 10 years older, died at the age of 39 on the 4th of February 1894 leaving her a widow with three young children.

Two years later, on Nov. 26, 1896, she married Josiah Carey Copeland and they had three children, Lawrence, Anna Laura (Piper) and Kathryn (Norton) Copeland.

Josiah Copeland died during September of 1916 at the age of 61. Anna died 12 years later, on the 8th of April 1928 at the age of 63. Anna, her husbands, her parents and a majority of her children are buried in the Chariton Cemetery.

The War of 1812 veteran who owned south Chariton

Samuel White Walthall (1795-1858), portrayed by Mike Loew, arrived at Chariton with his family during the fall of 1851 and thus was the earliest Lucas County pioneer whose story was featured during the 18th annual Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour, "Tales from South Hill," on Sunday, Sept. 17. Samuel also is one of three War of 1812 veterans buried in the cemetery.

The Walthall farm, which included much of Chariton south of Woodlawn Avenue, was visible just across Highway 14 to the east during Mike's presentation. Samuel and his wife, Rebecca, and their daughter, Nancy, were buried originally at Douglass Pioneer Cemetery, about half a mile southeast, but were removed to the Chariton Cemetery --- along with their tombstones --- by descendants during 1919.

Here's the script used by Mike during his presentation:

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My name is Samuel White Walthall and my descendants, hundreds of them by now, expect me to introduce myself as a veteran of the War of 1812 because that’s all they know about me.

Some of my daughters, early in the 20th century, wanted a Revolutionary War ancestor. We had none in the Walthall family, so my 1812 service was a consolation prize. They celebrated it anyway and that is how I’m remembered.

There are three of us 1812 vets here in the Chariton Cemetery. The others are Caleb Proctor, a Massachusetts boy and a sailor by trade until he washed up in Chariton; and Henry Younkin, native to Pennsylvania. A dozen or more are buried elsewhere in Lucas County.

We get together sometimes and talk about this because our war wasn’t widely noted or long remembered by the American people then, or now --- even though the British burned Washington, D.C., during August of 1814 --- and many brave men fought and died. But even so, my term of service was brief, I didn’t encounter a single enemy soldier and there are other things I would like you to know.

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I was born during August of 1795 on a farm in Prince Edward County, Virginia, southwest of Richmond. My parents were John and Catharine Walthall, modestly successful farmers. And yes, they owned slaves --- 10 to a dozen during peak years. And I was a slave-owner, too, as a young man. I’m not proud of this, but it is a fact of my life.

When I was 19, in the days after the British burned the Capitol and the White House, there was considerable fear that Richmond would be attacked, too, and militia companies were formed to defend her. On the 30th of August, 1814, I enlisted in Capt. Josiah Penick’s company of light infantry and for the next six months we were based at Camp Carter and Camp Bottoms Bridge, both just a few miles from Richmond, while on patrol and in training.

The war ended with ratification of the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve, 1814, but news spread slowly. So I remained in service until honorably discharged on Feb. 22, 1815.

After my discharge, I returned to Prince Edward County and the family farm, where I remained for seven years --- until my marriage on May 28, 1822, to Rebecca Ann Johns who, at age 15, was some 13 years my junior. You, I’m sure, would think she was too young for marriage; we thought little of it.

We started our family, in all 11 children born during the next 20 years, in Prince Edward, then moved to Botetourt County, where we lived for three years, and then to Montgomery County, where we lived until 1838.

During that year, we sold out in Virginia --- including land and two slaves to finance our move --- and headed for the far west, Danville in Hendricks County, Indiana, just west of Indianapolis. We lived there until 1850.

But the West still beckoned and during September of 1850, Congress passed a law awarding 80 acres of government land to any enlisted man who had served at least six months during the War of 1812 and who had not previously been entitled to a grant.

I had a choice --- Move west to claim my free 80 acres or sell the warrant at a big discount to someone else. We talked this over as a family. Indiana was becoming crowded, our sons wanted to farm and Iowa was wide open and waiting.

We sold in out in Indiana once our crops were harvested during 1851. Rebecca and I had purchased at discount a military warrant for 160 more acres that its owner could not use himself and we set out for Lucas County, Iowa, in ox-drawn wagons, carrying with us all we owned. The party included all of our married children and our grandchildren.

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Once we arrived at Chariton, Rebecca and I selected as our home farm the 160 acres you can see right now from here, just east and northeast across Highway 14, its western boundary. Our home was a quarter mile east, right on the Mormon Trail. Chariton’s current Woodlawn Avenue was the north boundary.

The land was prairie then with no timber on it, so we also purchased 40 wooded acres along the river down in Benton Township and 40 more acres along the White Breast northwest of town as a source of logs to build our cabins, rails for our fences and wood to burn.

There was hardly anything to Chariton when we arrived, but in 1853, the government land office was moved here from Fairfield and she began to boom. The courthouse was a log building on the east side of the square and there were more log business buildings and residential cabins scattered around the square.

During elections in August of that year, I was elected county recorder and treasurer by a 12-vote margin.

Our youngest son, Daniel, was born at Chariton during February of 1853 and two years later, on the 17th of September 1855, our middle daughter, Nancy died. Nancy had, like her mother, married at age 15, during 1854. Her husband was a land speculator named Joshua P. Chapman. Childbirth claimed Nancy little more than a year later. She was the first of the family to be buried in what you now call Douglass Pioneer Cemetery, near our cabin on the old Mormon Trail.

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Our years at Chariton, otherwise, were good ones. But when the territories of Nebraska and Kansas were created and opened to settlers in 1854, we began to look west again. I was a hardy 60 and Rebecca, in her 40s. Our adult children became increasingly anxious to set out for the West and it seemed likely that we would accompany them.

Then, I was struck down on the 22nd of January 1858 at the age of 62. Eight months later, on the 12th of September, Rebecca was gone, too. And so our dreams ended here. We were buried beside Nancy in the old Mormon Trail cemetery, older children took charge of the younger ones and the family scattered like buckshot.

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As the years passed, our final resting place fell into disrepair. This beautiful cemetery was opened during 1864 and most stopped using what you now call Douglass. Hiram Wilson, lynched for killing Sheriff Gaylord Lyman, was buried there in 1870 and, after that, the county used it as a potter’s field for a time.

But eventually it was abandoned, the grass grew tall and brush began to overtake it. Our children began to worry and decided eventually that our remains should be moved.

That was why our daughter, Fannie Hardin, then a prosperous widow living in Denver, Colorado, made a special trip to Chariton during late September, 1919, to make the arrangements. Dr. John E. Stanton, who then owned this cemetery, was paid to disinter our remains at Douglass on Oct. 15 and rebury them here. Our tombstones also were brought into town and reset.

And so we have reposed here ever since, within sight of the land we settled upon more than 170 years ago, far from Virginia, where our journeys began. (Research and script writing by Frank D. Myers.)

Please note that the War of 1812 flag holder at Samuel Walthall's grave (placed during 1919) belongs there, but the Spanish American War flag holder does not --- but I've not disturbed it. It most likely strayed from the nearby grave of Tom or Walter Black after being knocked loose and carelessly relocated during cemetery maintenance.

Open House Saturday at the museum

Homecoming is upcoming in the Chariton Community School District on Friday, so we'll be following up on that with an open house Saturday morning at the Lucas County Historical Society Museum. Hours will be 9 a.m. until noon and we'll be serving doughnuts from Piper's (until we run out) as well as homemade treats, coffee and cider.

This will be a low-key opportunity to tour the museum buildings as well as to just sit and visit for a while if that's your preference. Everyone's welcome.

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On Monday, the museum was happy to welcome members of the Lucas County Retired School Personnel Association to Puckerbrush School for that organization's annual fall get-together.

Special guest was Brad Baker, the district's new superintendent. Baker comes to Chariton from Creston, where he previously had served as elementary and middle school principal.

Kathleen and I especially enjoyed the lunch --- including killer pumpkin bars --- that the organization shared with us. Not that we didn't enjoy the superintendent's visit, too. But those pumpkin bars ....

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Thursday afternoon, we'll welcome members of the State Historical Society of Iowa Board of Trustees who will be holding their September meeting in Chariton that day. Kylie Dittmer, one of our local board members, also serves on that board.

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There once was a time when the museum more or less closed down during what we called the "off season," but that's no longer the case.

Regular hours at the museum through the end of October will remain 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Beginning Nov. 1 and continuing through April 30, hours will be 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Visits at other times always can be arranged.

Keep in mind, however, that during the winter months tours generally are limited to the Lewis Building galleries and the A.J. Stephens House. These buildings are heated and pedestrian access to them is maintained in case of snow, ice and the like.

Happy 90th birthday, Frank Mitchell

Frank Mitchell, a long-time friend of the Lucas County Historical Society as well as a retired board member, observed his 90th birthday on Sept. 20 --- so Sunday's celebratory late afternoon supper in the dining room of the museum's A.J. Stephens House was a little belated, but no less heartfelt.

The organizing began early last week with a call from  Frank's son, John, who was in Chile at the time and couldn't make it to Iowa on the day itself. He wanted to arrange something memorable for Frank and decided that a birthday meal for a party of four on the museum campus would be appropriate. 

He thought the barn --- but office manager Kathleen and I thought otherwise. That's an appropriate venue for 50 people, but not for four at a time of the year that could turn chilly. After quite a bit of discussion, we decided  on the Stephens House dining room, equipped with a fine table and four chairs from the estate of the late Charlene Meyer.

Kathleen provided the linen and John made all of the other arrangements for a catered meal from a considerable distance (this is an early 20th century museum house, keep in mind, with no amenities for dealing with food and drink whatsoever).

It turned out, from my point of view at least, beautifully. Kathleen and Kylie did the onsite prep, I opened the house at mid-afternoon so that John (who had arrived in Chariton very early in the morning via Panama, Miami and Des Moines) could do the setup, then the food arrived and then the guests --- Frank (at right) and his brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Mary Mitchell, at left.

I went back later to make sure everything had been closed and secured properly and, had the linen not still been on the table, wouldn't have known an event had been held there.

Frank is a native of Lucas County who served for many years as a professor of history at the University of Southern California Los Angeles, then returned to Chariton to live after retirement. Among his retirement projects is  a county history, "Locale and Universe: The Shared Story of the Heartland's Lucas County, Iowa," published in 2016.

Stalking bugs on an early autumn day

The goal after lunch Saturday was to sort out a couple of issues with the museum camera, which was why I was crawling around on the sidewalk south of the A.J. Stephens House stalking stuff --- and taking test shots.

So here are two bugs that I encountered close up and personal.

As well as some of the the last blossoms of summer in the garden.

After a chilly and very damp Friday, Saturday here was glorious --- and it looks as if that sort of weather will continue during the rest of the week.

Eight Threlkeld generations on a Sunday afternoon

Isaac Newton "Dick" Threlkeld (1852-1940) was portrayed during Sunday's Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour by his great-great-grandson, David Threlkeld, now of West Des Moines. David and Connie were accompanied to Chariton by their son, Scott. So I'm going claim this morning that eight generations of Threlkelds were present and accounted for in Lucas County that day --- in one form or another. And that's a rare occurrence.

Among the Threlkelds at rest in the Chariton Cemetery, in addition to Isaac N., are his son James Delman (1876-1946), James Delman's son, Lee Oran (1900-1972), and Lee Oran's son, Richard Lee "Dick" (1927-2015), David's father. From the Chariton Cemetery on Sunday afternoon, the Threlkelds drove out to Ragtown to visit the graves of Isaac N. Threlkeld's father, Stephen (1813-1890), and Stephen's mother, Elizabeth Weakley Threlkeld (1781-1874).

That's a whole lot of Threlkelds! Here's the script that David used to tell us a little about his family's history:

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There was a time, not that many years ago, when Threlkelds were among the most widely known families in Lucas County --- farmers, a lawyer, the founder of an insurance agency and a bank, a family firm that led the way in the gasoline and bulk fuel trade. But like many other old families, we are for the most part gone now, at rest in this cemetery and others, our children and grandchildren living and working elsewhere.

My name is Isaac Newton Threlkeld, always known as Dick, and I grew up with Lucas County --- east of Chariton along what we called the State Road or the Eddyville Road, but you call Highway 34. My family settled there in 1855, when I was 3, and I lived there until 1938, two years before my death in 1940 at the age of 88.

Some of you will remember my great-grandson, Richard, another “Dick Threlkeld,” who joined us here in the Chariton Cemetery during 2015, among the last to make Lucas County his home.

But so many Threlkelds settled in Lucas County that you would need a directory and several hours to sort us out. So rather than too much about family history, I’m going to tell you a little about what it was like here 170 years ago, when we arrived.

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My parents were Stephen and Susannah Threlkeld and I was born during 1852 near Roseville, Illinois, 25 miles southeast of Burlington, Iowa. They had moved to Roseville after their marriage during 1845 from Jackson County, Indiana, and I was the second of five children.

My father’s younger brother, Noah, had blazed the family trail into Lucas County during 1851 and it was upon his recommendation that we followed in 1855. My father worked out a trade --- our 80-acre Illinois farm for a larger Iowa farm --- and we began to prepare for the move once the 1854 harvest was complete. Farmers always timed their moves, when they could, in order to be able to plant a garden and crops in the spring.

We traveled in two ox-drawn covered wagons that contained all we owned. My parents, grandmother, Elizabeth Threlkeld, half-brother, Oliver Threlkeld, and sister, Betty, traveled in one wagon; other Threlkeld relatives who planned to settle in Lucas County, too, in the other. Just a few years later, Oliver enlisted in Company C, 13th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for service during the Civil War and gave up his life during July of 1862 at Corinth, Mississippi, one of our first great sorrows.

We left Illinois during late January or early February, 1855, and reached the Mississippi shore opposite Burlington on the second day, crossing the river into Iowa on the ice that evening. The next day, we headed west on the State Road for Eddyville, where we crossed the Des Moines River a few days later on ice, too. Eddyville at the time was the major trading and milling point in south central Iowa, as well as the best place to cross the Des Moines by ford or ferry; Ottumwa was just a village.

A few days later, we arrived at Uncle Noah’s cabin along the State Road three and a half miles due east of Chariton, then moved along to our cabin a little farther on. The home we found waiting for us was a three-room log house with a big fireplace on the south side of that busy road that had been surveyed in 1849, the same year Lucas County was organized and Chariton founded.

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My earliest memories of our new home include watching the world roll by on what was the mid-19th century equivalent of your Interstate 35 --- horse-, mule- and ox-drawn of course --- connecting Iowa east of the Des Moines River with Council Bluffs and the great West beyond.

Nature had favored Eddyville with the best ford on the Des Moines and a ferry began operating there in 1844. In 1858, the first toll bridge was built. Goods and passengers arrived daily overland or from Keokuk by boat during warm months when the water was high. Western Stage Co. coaches departed the Eddyville depot daily with Lucas County stops in LaGrange, Chariton and Talahoma.

All of our store-bought goods were hauled up to Chariton by ox- or mule-drawn wagons from Keokuk or Eddyville and passed by our door.

The government land office had moved from Fairfield to Chariton in 1853 and Lucas County became the gateway to southwest Iowa. Land was priced at $1.25 an acre and plenty still was available in 1855. In 1854, Kansas and Nebraska had opened for settlement and traffic on our road doubled.

Gold was discovered near Pikes Peak in 1858 and even more outfits headed west. This gold rush is among my earliest memories. Even my father and some of his neighbors were bitten by the gold bug and outfitted themselves to head west --- then changed their minds when word filtered back of gold-seekers’ wagons attacked by Indians out on the Great Plains.

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In return, during those early years, we hauled our grain to Eddyville to be milled into flour and cornmeal and drove our livestock there to be sold.

The railroad reached Eddyville on May 1, 1861 --- the most westerly rail terminal in Iowa --- but stalled there as the Civil War broke out. That war changed the nature of traffic past our home.

Volunteer troops headed to the river towns to be mustered now were a frequent sight --- and thousands of head of livestock to feed the Union and our troops passed by.

Cattle came by the thousands, to be slaughtered at Eddyville or shipped farther east. Texas long horn cattle, driven by cowboys, would pass in drove after drove, hundreds in a drove. These cattle had horns about two feet long and were wild. It was not safe to be on foot when a heard was passing. Thousands of head of hogs were driven by our place, too, to the Eddyville market.

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I was not yet 10 when the war began, but as I mentioned earlier, my half-brother, Oliver, and many other relatives and friends enlisted to serve. As the war raged, youngsters like me in our neighborhood worked on the farms and attended Highland School, a mile east of our home, also alongside the State Road. My uncle, Washington Threlkeld, cared for his young son’s family in a nearby cabin when that son went off to war.

When I was about 20, I became acquainted with a neighbor girl, Miss America Ann Bryan, always known as “Mate,” and we were married during August of 1874 at her family’s cabin home south of Newbern. We shared five homes during the course of our 62-year marriage --- ranging from log cabins to the fine new home we built during 1910 --- but all within three-quarters of a mile of that first cabin my parents moved into alongside the State Road during 1855. Our four children were James Delman, Herman, Ella Thompson and Esther Feight.

Our final home still stands, just across Highway 34 south of places you know as Country Cabins, Frontier Trading Post and Sodapop Saloon. Mate died there, age 82, on Jan. 18, 1937. During the fall of the following year, I moved into Chariton and our son, Herman, moved onto the “home place.” My death occurred in Chariton two years later, on the 28th of March, 1940.

I had always farmed those acres south of the old State Road and could not estimate how many times I traveled that old road into Chariton by horse and buggy, then by automobile. It changed course slightly over the years and even developed new names: Iowa Primary Road No. 8 in 1919, Harding Highway in 1924 and U.S. Highway 34 in 1926. Finally, in 1928, it was paved --- and the mud and ruts travelers had known for 80 years disappeared under smooth concrete. (Research and script writing by Frank D. Myers.)

Isabelle Greer Redlingshafer's story

Trish McKinley was kind enough to portray my great-great-grandmother, Isabelle Greer Redlingshafer, during Sunday's 18th annual Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour. I was thinking, as I sat there listening, to the story-tellers in my family who shared these stories with me so many years ago.

I was too young to be especially interested in family lore when my paternal grandfather died (I was 12 at the time). So I heard these stories from his siblings, my great-aunt Minnie (Myers) Johnson, sitting in her living room across the street from First Baptist Church in Russell, and Raymond Myers, at his Ottumwa home. I've always been grateful that I asked, and listened. Here's the script:

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My name is Isabelle, ladies and gentlemen, and I am the bearer of one of Lucas County’s most distinctive surnames, Redlingshafer. If that sounds German to you, you are correct. But I started life a Greer, born into an old and honorable Pennsylvania Scots-Irish Presbyterian family.

How I, a highly educated and accomplished school teacher, came to marry and make a new life in the West with a young immigrant named John Redlingshafer --- who spoke no English when we met --- is the story that I will share with you today.

But a little about the Redlingshafers first. This family originated in Austria, but was driven out in the mid-17th century as followers of Martin Luther. They were welcomed in Bavaria, however, and resettled and prospered there in farming villages west of Nuremberg.

All Redlingshafers, no matter where you find them today, are related and can trace their origins to these German villages.

As I said, my heritage is Scots-Irish and I was born in 1830 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, the youngest in a family of nine. Our father, William Greer, was a farmer and shoemaker by trade; our mother, Mary, was called “Polly.”

When I was a child, we moved a short distance south into Fayette County and then, across the Monongahela River west into Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Our parents made sure that all of their children received decent educations, but as the youngest in the family, special attention was paid to my brother, William Henry Harrison Greer, and myself. By 1848, we both were teaching school and Will was an aspiring poet, too.

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The political situation in the German states, including Bavaria, had become unstable by 1848. Prussia was asserting itself militarily. And progressives, like the Redlingshafers, were beginning to fear for their security and safety --- and for the futures of their children. Young men --- and there were five Redlingshafer sons --- faced the prospect of being drafted into the Prussian army.

George and Doratha Redlingshafer and their 11 children had a comfortable home in the village of Heinersdorf and many acres of farmland in the neighborhood, but eventually decided to uproot their family and emigrate to America in the fall of 1848.

George’s two children by his first marriage, James and Barbara, blazed the trail. Then, the family home and land were sold and the entire family boarded a ship at Hamburg for the journey to Baltimore, where James was waiting to escort them to southwest Pennsylvania. The youngest, Elizabeth, learned to walk aboard ship.

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After arriving in Pennsylvania, George and Dorotha purchased a farm in Washington County --- and that was where I first encountered the family. Learning English was a priority for the Redlingshafers and I helped both in the classroom and as a private tutor.

John G. Redlingshafer was two years older than I and we became acquainted and enjoyed each other’s company as he improved his command of the language, but I, at least, gave no thought to romance.

By the mid-1850s, the older Redlingshafer children were moving west to other German settlements in Illinois and at Guttenberg, along the Mississippi River in northeast Iowa. John joined his family at Guttenberg, then --- in search of a permanent home --- traveled on to Lucas County where some of his Risbeck cousins had settled earlier.

During those years, I had found myself in an extremely difficult situation. I had believed the promises of a young man who courted me and found myself pregnant. Faced with the prospect of marriage and fatherhood, he fled.

John and I had corresponded occasionally during his years of travel and so I took a deep breath, sat down with pen and ink and confided in him as a friend. Somewhat to my surprise, and in a way that earned my undying gratitude, he proposed marriage and I accepted.

John had decided that the hills and wooded creek valleys of Benton Township, Lucas County, would make a fine home. He purchased land and built a cabin in a sheltered spot on high ground near a spring, then returned to Pennsylvania.

My daughter, Cora Jane, was born during September of 1856 and John arrived later that fall. We were married on Nov. 30, spent the winter with my father and early the following spring, John, Cora and I set out for our new home in the West.

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Once settled in Iowa and after our new neighbors learned of my experience as a teacher they asked me to take on the Gartin School, near our home, where I taught until the arrival during 1859 of our daughter, Mary Belle.

The log school house was the only public building in the neighborhood, so Sunday school and preaching services were held there, too, and John and I became founding members of what was called at first the Gartin Class of the United Brethren in Christ. Later on, when we built a church building, it was renamed Otterbein.

And several members of John’s family joined us in Lucas County during the late 1850s and 1860s. His sister, Anna Margaret, and her husband, John Rosa, located in Chariton. Another sister, Margaret Anna, and her husband, Aaron Hupp, bought a farm near our own, as did John’s brother, George. George then opened his home to his widowed mother, Doratha, and the two youngest Redlingshafer children, John Lot and Elizabeth.

The birth of three additional children to myself and John during the 1860s completed our family. John William was born in 1861; Minnie, during 1864; and Greer, in 1867.

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John was a good provider and we prospered. Our first cabin home had been in the middle of nowhere. A new house and set of farm buildings were constructed on the same farm but along the Wolf Creek Road to the north and we moved.

Cora was the first of our children to marry and leave home, during 1873. In 1880, Mary Belle married a neighbor boy, Daniel Myers, they settled down on his father’s farms two miles southeast and they had a family of seven children, descendants of whom still live in Lucas County.

John attended Iowa State University and then accepted a position in the Iowa state auditor’s office and became acquainted with Miss Emma Bondurant, daughter of the founder of the city by that name. They were married in 1886. During 1887, Minnie married a young banker named Aquilla Jones Davis.

Finally, in 1891, Greer married Miss Fannie Augusta Arnold and it was they who took over the family farm when John and I retired.

We lived comfortably into the 1890s on the home farm, but I became critically ill during 1894 and medical science failed to find a diagnosis or effective treatment. As a result, death claimed me on Aug. 10, 1894, age 64, and I was the first to be buried here on the family lot where 12 of us now repose. (Research and script writing by Frank D. Myers.)

Circles now unbroken at the Copeland Mausoleum

I rarely write about current burials in the Chariton Cemetery --- too intrusive in most cases. But this is an exception because a recent interment involves one of the cemetery's most distinctive features, the Copeland-Wischer Mausoleum.

In a related matter, I also can report that a misidentified member of the extended Copeland family, buried just south of the mausoleum --- written about back in 2018 (Two Frank Davises and five lost souls) --- now has been properly identified.

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I knew that Sue Holman Davis (1938-2022), a longtime resident of Ottumwa, had died recently because she left a masterful piece of folk-art carving executed by her father, Dr. David Holman, to St. Andrew's Church. But it hadn't occurred to me that her remains had been interred in the mausoleum until, when visiting over the weekend with City Manager Laura Legois, Laura mentioned the complications of opening the mausoleum, locked securely for many years, and preparing it for an interment.

The mausoleum was commissioned shortly after the May 3, 1910, death of Sue's great-grandfather, Howard Darlington Copeland --- a major Chariton mover and shaker --- at the age of 56. The Copelands had deep pockets and their mausoleum reflects this. You'll find H.D. Copeland's obituary here. 

The name "Whicher" is embedded in granite above the entry door to identify it as the burial place, too, of H.D. Copeland's only daughter and son-in-law, Sue Darlington (Copeland) and Charles Whicher.

Carrie Eugenia (Custer) Copeland, widow of H.D., died on April 6, 1920, and her remains joined his in the mausoleum.

The next family member entombed here was Dr. Charles Maples Whicher, who was a prominent Des Moines physician and who died of a heart attack on July 28, 1930, age 60. The Whichers had no children.

Sue Darlington (Copeland) Whicher died, also in Des Moines, on Oct. 11, 1942, and became the fourth family member entombed in the mausoleum.

The fifth entombment here was that of Howard Custer Copeland, only son of Howard D. and Carrie, who died on June 15, 1950. 

His widow, Edith Clare (Larimer) Copeland, survived until March 4, 1978, but she had an aversion to the mausoleum and chose to be buried in a more traditional manner with her parents just to the southwest. So one of the six available crypts in the mausoleum remained unoccupied for more than 70 years.

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Howard C. and Edith Copeland had one daughter, Harriett, who married Dr. David O. Holman, and their remains had been until this summer the last to be placed in the vault. Dr. Holman died in 1993 and Harriett (Copeland) Holman, during 2003. Their ashes rest on a marble shelf under the stained glass window on the mausoleum's west wall.

The Holmans were longtime residents of Ottumwa who, upon retirement, moved to Chariton to make their home with her mother, Edith, in the Larimer-Copeland home at the intersection of East Auburn Avenue and North 5th Street. They continued to occupy the family home for several years after Edith's death, but eventually sold it and moved elsewhere.

David and Harriett Holman had two children, David Jr. --- an artist based in Loveland, Colorado, who died during 2014 --- and Sue, who married Frank Crowley Davis and had made her home in Ottumwa for many years.

Frank Davis died during 1982 at the age of 50 and was buried just south of the mausoleum although a tombstone was not erected on his grave until this summer. The lack of a tombstone had caused as the years passed considerable confusion about who exactly was buried there. That situation has been resolved with a GI tombstone commemorating his Korean War service.

Here is Sue Holman Davis's obituary as it appeared on the web site of Ottumwa's Reece Funeral Home earlier this summer:

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Sue H. Davis, 84, of Ottumwa, died at 1:30 a.m. July 10, 2022, at Serenity Hospice House in Oskaloosa.

She was born January 17, 1938, in Nora Springs, IA, to Dr. David and Harriet Copeland Holman. Sue married Frank Davis and he preceded her in death on August 8, 1982.

Sue was a graduate of Springfield High School in Springfield, IL, and earned a degree in Biology from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD. She received technology training from the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, LA. Sue worked at Ottumwa Regional Health Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital for 55 years.

She was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, D.A.R. and P.E.O.

Surviving is her son, Rob (Jennifer) Davis of Tuscaloosa, AL; sister-in-law, Betty Wilder of Pell City, AL; nieces, Cynthia (Gaston) Williamson and Kristen Holman; nephew, Norman Wilder; many great-nieces and great-nephews.

She was preceded in death by her brother, Dave Holman.

Funeral services will be noon, Monday, July 25th at Trinity Episcopal Church. Her family will be present at the church one hour prior to the service to greet friends Burial will be in the Chariton Cemetery in Chariton, IA.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Trinity Episcopal Church.

The family would like to extend special appreciation to Lisa Vanderhyde, Willis Hill and Lu Ann Frisch.

Reece Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

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And here is Dave Holman's obituary as it appeared on the web site of Loveland's Goes Funeral Home during 2014. I do not know his place of interment if, indeed, there is one.

Dave Holman of Loveland, Colorado, passed away peacefully at his home studio Tuesday night, July 29, 2014, surrounded by loving family and friends.

Dave was born in Rockford, Illinois. and grew up in Ottumwa, Iowa. He attended Ottumwa High School where he excelled in numerous sports activities including swimming, football, basketball and track and field. He set a record in high jump that remained undefeated until recently. He graduated in 1962. Following high school, He attended several colleges including Exeter, Ohio State, Simpson, Parsons and Monterrey Institute of Foreign Studies between the years of 1962 to 1972. He studied German language and literature and received his masters degree and bachelors of art in German studies and minored in French from the Monterrey Institute.

In 1971, he went to Europe and taught required English to junior high and high school level students at Friedrich Paulsen Schule in Niebull, Germany until 1973. Upon his return to the states, he attended Indian Hills Community College where he studied and earned an AA degree in electronic technology in 1975.

Dave’s true calling in the art world commenced in the 80’s when he was accepted in 1981 to the Atelier Prohl in Minneapolis, MN. He studied art in the Classical Realism tradition here where he learned to draw and paint the figure and portraiture fundamentals until 1984. Throughout his training, he participated in evening classes and portraiture and figure sessions, always honing his skills and talents as a fine artist.

After a brief period of working as a German interpreter and translator for the Forestry Service from 1987- 1989, Dave made the choice to focus his efforts in pursuing his dream of painting, drawing and becoming the best artist he could be. He worked tirelessly at his craft, traveled the southwest showing and selling his work and taught classes in portraiture. He won numerous awards and participated in art events in and around his hometown of Loveland. Those individuals fortunate enough to have created art with him will never forget his kind and patient manner and his passionate love of color, shape and line.

He is preceded in death by Dr. and Mrs. David Odgers Holman, and his grandmother, Edith Copeland, of Sheraton, Iowa. He is survived by loving daughter, Kristin Elisabeth Eve Holman of Loveland, and his sister, Sue Davis of Ottumwa, Iowa, as well as Rob Davis, nephew, and Jennifer Goode Davis of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

A memorial celebration of his life is scheduled for August 23rd, 9:30 am at Sunrise Ranch in Dome Chapel, followed by a reception. He is also Artist of the Month at the Loveland Visitor Center for the month of August.

Lewis Bonnett: Pioneer farming on a grand scale

Willy Black portrayed agricultural entrepreneur Lewis Bonnett (1830-1899) during Sunday's 18th annual Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour. Willy is a nephew some generations removed of Lewis. His great-great-grandfather was the Daniel Bonnett, also mentioned here. Here's the text of Sunday's presentation.

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Lucas County always has been livestock country and I was a pioneer in that industry. After moving to Chariton just after the Civil War, I amassed 4,000 acres during the next 30 years and became one of Iowa’s leading sheep producers as well as a leader in cattle and hog production.

My name is Lewis Bonnett and I followed the lead to Iowa from Illinois of my brother, Daniel, who settled two miles west of Chariton during 1856. My home place, which we called The Pines, was located three miles south of town, astraddle the Warren-Benton township line.

DANIEL AND I BOTH were born near Mount Vernon in Knox County, Ohio, me in 1830 and he, in 1832, middle among the 10 children of John and Elizabeth Bonnett. We were raised on a farm there and educated in the public schools although I attended a private academy, too, thinking that I might teach. In 1851, our parents moved west to a farm near Bloomington in McLean County, Illinois, and we went along.

My first work in Illinois was as a school teacher, but I soon satisfied myself that I was not suited for that profession. So I joined Daniel as a herder for the Birney livestock operation in McLean County, an outfit that marketed mostly in Chicago and owned land on that city’s outskirts. This was how we became familiar with the Chicago of the 1850s --- herding livestock where Rush Medical College later was built.

This also was how we determined that our futures lay in buying, selling and producing livestock, even though we would need to leave Illinois behind in order to develop the size of farming operations we had in mind. That was why Daniel moved west to Lucas County in 1856 and I followed nine years later.

During the late 1850s, I had renewed my acquaintance with Miss Maria L. Virgin, who had grown up in near Mount Vernon, Ohio, too, and we were married Dec. 12, 1859, at her parents’ home in Menard County, Illinois. I was 29 at the time and she was 25.

We began housekeeping on a farm in McLean County that I owned --- too small in acreage for production but large enough to operate a successful livestock marketing business. Our proximity to the Chicago market during the Civil War meant that we prospered mightily, generating the stake I would need to expand into production in Iowa once the war was over.

Maria and I arrived in Chariton during 1865. We traveled overland with two yoke of oxen and two teams of horses, shipping other stock and goods in rail cars to Eddyville, where the rails ended at the time. During our first year here we acquired 1,000 acres of unimproved prairie south of Chariton and built and moved into our new home there in 1866.

BY 1879, when a correspondent for the newpaper “Western Rural” visited us, we had accumulated 2,800 acres and had become a showplace, marketing 1,000 head of livestock a year, all shipped by rail from the Chariton stockyards. Chicago remained our principal market.

Our fields, a dozen of them averaging more than 100 acres each, all were fenced. We were pioneers in Osage Orange hedge fencing with the balance old-fashioned rail or the newest, barbed wire. We raised 400 acres of hay and 250 acres of corn and offered other Lucas County farmers a market for thousands of bushels of oats.

But mostly we raised livestock --- cattle, hogs and, after 1875, sheep, most Merino or Southdown. Our sheep herd in 1879 numbered about 1,200 --- valued both for flesh and, most lucratively, for wool. Sheep, however, were labor intensive in part because they had to be penned nightly to guard against coyotes and feral dogs so many producers were unwilling to take them on. We employed dozens of men and kept on hand 30 to 50 horses, including breeding stock.

By 1879, Maria and I had become the parents of seven children. Our first, daughters Anna and Emma, died very young in Illinois. John Virgin Bonnet, born during 1863, accompanied us to Lucas County and four children were born here: Arthur Isaac in 1865, George Yountz in 1868, Lewis Rex in 1873, and Elizabeth Ruth, in 1875. All four boys carried on the Bonnett farming tradition as adults. Ruth married Alfred Trump and moved initially to Kahoka, Missouri, where he had a store, and then to Chicago.

Like many rural families, the farm itself always came first. So we lived in the same modest house that we moved into during 1866 until 1887 when fine new home was built on the home place, now called The Pines because one of my passions had been to plant conifers in a region only the red cedar was native to. Some said we had the finest pine grove in Iowa.

Sadly, Maria had only three years to enjoy her new home. She died of heart failure on the 27th of March 1890 at the age of 56. Three years earlier, Dr. James E. Stanton --- owner of the Chariton Cemetery --- had built a public mausoleum here with spaces for 30 interments. After funeral services at The Pines, we placed Maria’s remains in one of those crypts and I reserved another as my eventual resting place.

IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING Maria’s death, I continued to expand and improve my operation and our sons joined me in partnership. I dealt with the challenge of providing water to the livestock by having nine more wells drilled across the property and more windmills installed. By 1896, my land holdings had increased to 4,000 acres, including tracts in Wayne County that allowed me to ship from both Cambria and Chariton. And more than 4,000 head of sheep now grazed our pastures.

But I was beginning to take life a little easier, too, as the doctors were worried about my heart. I spent several weeks each year traveling to visit family, old friends and familiar scenes in both Illinois and Ohio, took in major livestock expositions across the country and spent more time with my daughter and son-in-law in Missouri.

It seemed wise to plan for the future of my estate, too, and so during late spring, 1899, almost as if I’d had a premonition, I deeded to each my five children land valued at $25,000 in tracts ranging from 500 acres to more than 600.

The end came unexpectedly on June 10, 1899, in Chicago. I had accompanied a rail car of sheep to market and met up with an old friend. We checked into the Drovers’ Hotel near the stockyards, then on Saturday night set out for State Street to celebrate both the sale and a modest profit I had made that morning speculating in wheat on the Board of Trade.

Crossing a street after attending a vaudeville show, I suffered a heart attack and was carried to a room in the nearest hotel, a seedy operation above a bar, where I died. The nature and place of my death, confusion afterward and my prominence resulted in considerable gossip, but my son, George, and a family friend went to Chicago, sorted it out and brought me home. Following funeral services at The Pines, my remains were interred beside those of Maria in the Stanton Vault.

We rested side by side there for more than 60 years, but then what had seemed a secure final resting place turned out not to be. The cemetery had been sold by then to the city and the mausoleum was in such bad shape that the decision was made to demolish it. Our descendants evacuated our remains and reburied them over there, overlooking the Chariton River valley. They also removed the doors from our crypts --- iron-framed with inscribed marble inserts --- and had those mounted at our graves. We also have a modern stone, which is just as well. The marble slabs by now have broken and eroded and are no longer legible, but those relics remain the last trace of the old Stanton Vault still above ground here in the cemetery. And so far as our farming empire south of Chariton is concerned, that, too, has vanished. (Research and script writing by Frank D. Myers.)

This image of the Bonnett tombstone is several years old. It shows the fronts of the Stanton Vault crypts in which they were interred originally mounted flat in the foreground and more or less intact. By now, the marble has completely deteriorated.

Mabel Ann Black: Love and loss in a time of war

Mabel Ann Black's was the first story told during Sunday afternoon's 18th annual Chariton Cemetery Heritage tour. The young nurse, who also shared the stories of her brothers, Tom and Walter, was portrayed by Deb Black (above) --- not related although surnames are identical.

Here's the text of the script that Deb worked from as she told this family's story from a first-person perspective:

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MY ASSIGNMENT this afternoon is to tell you a story about love and loss, war and peace, involving myself and my two brothers. I am Mabel Ann Black, a nurse by profession, and my brothers are Tom and Walter Black, soldiers who were two of Lucas County’s four losses during the Spanish American War.

The three of us died two years apart as the 19th century ended and the 20th began of typhoid fever, a disease rarely heard of in Lucas County today. Our heartbroken parents buried us in the shadow of that big tombstone over there inscribed “Black” and moved on. In the years since, memories of us have faded.

Our folks, Charles and Amanda Black, lived at first near Sandyville, east of Indianola in Warren County, and all nine of us children --- two boys and seven girls --- were born there. But in 1891, my dad brought us to a farm in Benton Township, near Chariton, and four years later, into Chariton itself after he bought a thriving grocery store on North Main Street.

Tom was the eldest in the family, born in 1873 and 18 when we moved to Lucas County. I was third, age 12; Walter was 10.

Our parents were firm believers in the value of higher education and supporters of Simpson College in Indianola, so both Tom and I enrolled there.

As 1898 dawned, I had completed my studies at Simpson and was enrolled in the nurse training program at the University of Iowa. Tom had completed his studies and returned to Chariton to launch a career in journalism. Talented and personable, he was local news editor of The Chariton Herald. Walter still was a student in the Chariton schools.

SHORTLY AFTER RETURNING home to Chariton, Tom had enlisted in Company H, an Iowa National Guard unit stationed in Chariton. Company H was part of the Guard’s 55th Infantry Regiment and had been headquartered in Chariton since 1893 when local attorney Warren S. Dungan, then Iowa’s lieutenant governor, arranged this political plum for his constituents. Enough funds were raised locally to build an armory, located at the intersection of South Main Street and what still is called Armory Avenue, south of the square.

Company H was very popular with Chariton’s young men. Memories of wartime horrors had faded since the Civil War and the Army reserve promised adventure and camaraderie, especially since there was little danger of actual combat. Tom advanced rapidly from private to corporal.

Walter was too young to be issued a rifle, but trumpeters were needed. So he was enlisted and at age 16, with our parents’ permission, was able to join the fun, too.

THE SITUATION changed dramatically during February of 1898, however, when the U.S.S. Maine sank in Havana Harbor after a huge explosion. Congress declared war on Spain on April 21 and Iowa Governor Leslie M. Shaw mobilized the National Guard, including Company H, the same day.

The men of Company H had been warned to expect mobilization and that evening marched to the depot, cheered by neighbors lining the streets. In Des Moines, they were mustered at Camp McKinley --- now the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

The Iowans left Des Moines in early May, expecting to see combat, but instead were put to work near Jacksonville, Florida, developing a new Army camp christened Camp Cuba Libre. The site of the camp was not wisely chosen, however, and was subject to flooding. Nor had the Army provided adequate sanitation or effective health care. The result was much sickness.

Tom, promoted to quartermaster sergeant, developed typhoid during early July, probably after drinking contaminated water, and the fever took his life early on the morning of Tuesday, July 19, 1898, at the age of 25.

His remains were escorted home to Chariton by our brother, Walter, and our parents purchased the lot here for his burial.

Walter returned to Camp Libre after a week’s furlough, but a few weeks later was diagnosed with typhoid, too, and hospitalized. On Sept. 12, the war winding down, the men of Company H were sent home. Walter traveled by hospital car, then was brought to our home where he died on Sept. 28. He was buried by Tom’s side. He was 17.

The Chariton Democrat eulogized Tom this way in its edition of July 22: “Handsome, earnest, brilliant, genial Tom. None knew him but to love him. One of the most gentlemanly soldiers in Company H, a man who would have made an unsullied citizen.”

Two months later, The Democrat remembered Walter this way: “A young man of exemplary habits, honest in business, faithful to himself and his God in life, and loving and kind to his parents and sisters.”

I RETURNED to Iowa City after Walter’s funeral and completed my nursing program, then worked for a time in the new University Hospital.

While doing so, I became acquainted with a young man from Iowa City who had completed his medical training about the same time I became a fully fledged nurse. His name was Dr. John R. Gardner. Romance blossomed, our match seemed ideal and during April of 1900 I came home to Chariton to prepare for marriage. Dr. Gardner moved to Lisbon, Iowa, to establish a practice and it was agreed we would marry in about a year.

I worked that summer and fall as a private duty nurse, caring for patients in and around Chariton.

During the late fall of 1900, I was called to the Keller home in Benton Township to nurse Mrs.Keller, ill with typhoid, a disease we as a family knew too well. I became infected, too, but after a month’s illness seemed by Christmas to be improving. Dr. Gardner had been called to Chariton to help care for me, so we were together at Christmas, still looking ahead to a bright future.

But then acute pneumonia set in and within hours I was dead --- on Sunday, Dec. 30. My sorrowing family and friends, as well as Dr. Gardner, brought me to my grave here at my brothers’ side two days later.

THREE YEARS later, my parents sold their grocery store and home in Chariton and moved back to Sandyville, where Father died during 1916 and Mother, during 1924. They chose to be buried in the Sandyville Cemetery rather than here.

Dr. Gardner continued his practice of medicine in Lisbon and during 1905 married Miss Pearl Smith and they had three children.

He was highly honored as a military veteran, veteran state legislator, outstanding physician and pillar of the Lisbon community when he died at the age of 89 on June 18, 1965. My brothers and I, by that time, had been largely forgotten. (Research and script writing by Frank D. Myers.)

This image from the Lucas County Historical Society collection shows Quartermaster Sergeant William T. Black's funeral cortege and was taken during July of 1898 in Jacksonville, Florida, as the men of Company H prepared to send his remains home to Chariton.