Ancient Faces: Oh those Columbia girls!

A guy named Rick Maddy wandered into the LCGS library Thursday and I misheard his name as "Matty," which didn't mean a thing. Then "Maddy" dawned in one of those aha! moments and we were on common ground, although there haven't been many Maddy sightings in Lucas County lately.

Maddy used to be a tri-county name --- Pleasant Township in Lucas, Indiana and Washington townships in Marion and Cedar in Monroe --- all joining. Most of the remaining Maddys seem to have Albia addresses, however.

In any case, Rick's name brought this old photograph to mind, since the Ola Maddy in it was a friend of my grandmother. So I went home and got it so he could copy it although he didn't know offhand how Ola was related to him.

I have no idea why these seven young women were photographed together in Columbia, where they all lived, at some point before 1894 (Ola Maddy married John Stotts in that year). Could it be a graduation photo of some sort? The three young women in the front row appear to be holding what could be diplomas. And why are four of the women wearing some sort of ribbon device on their left shoulders?

These young and pretty Columbia girls from at least 115 years ago now, are (seated from left) Rachel May, Mag Askren and Adda McCorkle. Standing are (from left) Ola Maddy, Lula Flanagan, Eunice Caldwell and Jessie Brown (my grandmother). I'm guessing the photographer was Alpheus Elkanah Love, husband of my Great-aunt Laura (Prentiss) Love (Jessie's half-sister), but can't be sure of that because the card is not marked.

Although Rick hadn't lived in Iowa since he was about two --- his family moved to Washington --- there still were plenty of connections to make. I went to high school with his first cousin, for example, and know several of his Thorne cousins. Mumford was another old Lucas County name to which he had ties.

My buddy Darlene got Rick headed down the right track Thursday and I came in a little late, but it was a treat for both of us to be able to help him a little (and Betty Cross chimed in via telephone, too). I'll have more to say about Rick another time. But I've gotta tell you, if they'd run this guy up a flagpole, I'd salute!

Ancient Faces: Henry M. Spiker

It's not clear to me why my granddad, William Ambrose Miller, had this excellent three-quarters portrait of Henry M. Spiker in his collection of photographs --- but I am grateful that he at least identified it as Henry. The Spikers and the Millers were neighbors in English Township, of course, and Henry was about the same age as Granddad's uncles, Harvey and Rial Miller, so he may have been a friend of theirs. Henry also married Granddad's teacher at Sunnyside School, Barbara Amelia Molesworth, on 26 October 1887. Granddad was 11 going on 12 at the time.

Henry was the second of Joseph Frederick and Adellah W. (Brightwell) Spiker's eight children, born 31 January 1862 in Hancock County, Illinois. In 1875, when Henry was 13, he came with his parents, siblings and maternal grandparents, Richard and Elizabeth (Hagerty) Brightwell, to English Township, Lucas County.

After his marriage at age 25, he and Barbara settled down on a farm near that of his parents and other family members in English Township, but had no children. Like his father, Henry specialized in raising draft and utility horses.

In 1920, Henry and Barbara moved from Lucas County to the Ozarks, settling in Springdale, Ark. About 1930, Barbara fell and broke a hip, something very difficult to recover from at that time. She never recoverd fully and died four years later, on 24 September 1934, nine months after suffering a stroke. She was buried in Springdale.

Not long after Barbara died, Henry's health began to fail. Because he had no family in Arkansas, he returned to Iowa and moved in with his brother, Verne, at Hedrick. He died there of a stroke on 7 July 1936. Rather than taking the body to Arkansas for burial, Henry was placed beside his parents in the Chariton Cemetery.

Ancient faces: Jessie and Ida

Or subtitle this, how about them hats? This is a favorite photograph of my grandmother, Jessie Frances (Brown) Miller (left) and her niece, Ida Belle (Brown) Rogers, all dressed up in their Sunday-go-to-meeting best.

Jessie, who was born 19 January 1875 in Columbia, Marion County, Iowa, died on the 7th of January, 1945, before I was born --- and not knowing her is a regret. Her father, Joseph Brown, was 65 when she was born and so this is one of those families where time plays tricks and nieces and nephews end up older than their uncles and aunts. Jessie's mother, my great-grandmother, was Chloe (Boswell) Prentiss/Brown, Joseph Brown's third wife.

Ida Belle, born 15 April 1874 at Cincinnati in Appanoose County, Iowa, was a daughter of Jessie's half-brother, Archibald Steele Brown Jr., who was more than 30 years older, and is wife, Rebecca Brown (yes, she was a Brown, too, although of an unrelated family). Archie, a Civil War veteran, died when Ida was two and so she was raised by her mother and step-father, John Alden Corder, a major mover and shaker at that time in Appanoose County and by all accounts a kindly step-parent.

Although they lived some distance apart, Jessie and Ida were the best of friends --- a relationship that continued until Ida's death.

Ida married James Gallett Rogers on 22 July 1894 in Appanoose County and they settled down on a farm near Moulton. Eleven years later, on 3 July 1905, Jessie married my grandfather, William Ambrose Miller, and settled down on the farm in English Township, Lucas County, where the rest of her life was spent.

Not long after Jessie and Will were married, Ida and her family relocated to a homestead near Midland in Haakon County, South Dakota. Ida did not like South Dakota, not at all --- and expressed that sentiment frequently in correspondence with Grandmother Jessie. She agreed to live there, however, but made Jim promise that if she died there he'd return her body to Iowa for burial.

Sadly, Ida died too soon in South Dakota, on the 8th of March, 1919, just before her 45th birthday --- and the promise was kept. Both Ida and Jim are buried in the cemetery just west of Moulton.

But of course when this photo was taken, probably during the early 1890s, all of this was in the future and it was a happy time captured in this photograph for us to look at now and smile about.

Ancient faces: Tillis Miller

Memorial Day, in addition to honoring the sacrifices of men and women who have died in the service of their country, also is a time to remember family members and friends distinguished for us at least primarily by our love. In my parents' day, it was called Decoration Day, and my mother used to speak of her parents loading children, gardening tools, fresh flowers and food into a buggy or spring wagon --- later, a car --- and setting off on Decoration Day for the Columbia Cemetery. First, they cut the grass and straightened up the family lots (country cemeteries as a whole rarely were maintained in that day and age), then the flowers were placed and finally, a picnic and visiting with others who had come to the cemetery on similar missions.

Those days have passed, and many of the loved ones once remembered clearly are fading from our view. Tillis Miller is one of the almost-forgotten.

She was a daughter of Francis and Josephine Miller, called the "Swede Millers" to distinguish them from their neighbors, my own substantially larger Miller clan who were just "the Millers." Obviously, Francis was of Swedish descent; my own family, not so obviously, Scots-Irish.

A beautiful young woman, Tillis was a friend of my great-aunt, Cynthia (Miller) Abrahamson --- and that probably is why this elaborately printed remembrance of her was among the hundreds of photographs and bits and pieces of memorabilia that once belonged to my grandfather and now are mine to preserve and share.

Tillis is buried in the Oxford Cemetery in Lincoln Township, Lucas County, with many other members of her "Swede" family. My Miller great- and great-great-grandparents rest there, too.

So blessed be her memory!