I came across a charming story of a house and its occupant the other day --- published on Page 1 of The Chariton Leader of April 25, 1933 --- and skimmed right over the address, then looked again and realized the dwelling referred to is home to good neighbors of mine in this neighborhood.
It's a lovely piece, but not perhaps entirely accurate --- I'll come back to that later. It's headlined, "Mrs. J.N. Field Finds that 70 Years in the Same Home is no Incentive to seek another Place in which to Live."
That's "Aunt Etta's" current home, in the Chariton Cemetery, at left. Look at it in passing and you might conclude that her given name was "Jetta." Then you notice the period after the J. Here's the article and the explanation of her distinctive name ---
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Mrs. J. N. Field, 217 South 12th Street, isn't planning to move this spring. In fact, the thought hasn't once entered her head. For Mrs. Field has lived at the same place for 70 years and has become rather accustomed to it.
Seventy years ago she was born in a house where the little white home with the green shutters that she and her husband now live in stands. The original home, sided with walnut, was replaced 50 years ago.
The builder of the present residence was the father of Mrs. Blanche Stewart of Chariton, who was a contractor here at that time.
A visit to Mrs. Field's home reveals many interesting features, the principal of which is Mrs. Field.
She was named John Etta, after her father. She signs her name J. Etta. But to the host of friends, both young and old, who are constant visitors at her home, she is "Aunt Etta."
Her interests in life are many, and keep her young far below her 70 years. She is a constant reader, has her flowers, a large garden, her housework, many callers, and in her spare time assists her husband, who is janitor at the Columbus school.
"I am no stranger to the school," Mrs. Field said Monday afternoon. "I taught school in Chariton for 30 years, and spent 25 years of the time there. The first five years were at the Garfield building.
"I began teaching after graduating from the high school then located in the Columbus building. I was sent to fill the place of a teacher who had gone insane. After one day in her class, one could readily see why," she said.
There were only two in her graduating class. "You can see," she said, "that we were far from crowded in those days."
The interior of the Field home would send antique collectors into a frenzy. Hand carved walnut furniture predominates. The prize of the collection is a bedroom suite. The bed and dresser were made by a Dr. Brant, at one time a dentist here, and are believed to be nearly 75 years old.
The bed has a feature that is especially prized by collectors. The tree was not large enough to make the full width of one board, and a small piece of bark was used on one side. It is a sure mark of antiquity.
In another room is a hand painted china doll on a tiny hand carved bed. The doll was given to Mr. Field when she was two years old. It also has a cradle, the age of which is not known.
"That's one trouble with us when we're young," Mrs. Field said. "We don't appreciate the value of such things, and by the time we do those who could have told us the age of them are gone."
Mrs. Field and her husband have their annual garden already under way.
"We always have a large garden," she said. "There are so many people, you know, who haven't any and we always like to have something to give them."
It takes no time to realize that her philosophy of life is contained in that one sentence. She likes everyone, makes them welcome at her home, and is always willing to offer a kindness.
Constant reading has given Mrs. Field an insight into the events of the present. She shows no liking for constantly living in the past, and expresses every confidence in the future.
"I didn't vote for Mr. Roosevelt. I didn't work for him, but like most everyone else I am falling in line in the belief that if we all work together better times will come," she said.
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There are a couple of discrepancies in the story, beginning with the fact that J. Etta did not live at this location consistently during all of her 70 years.
She probably was born in the previous house on this site on Oct. 20, 1862, daughter of James N. and Margaret Layton, during the year her father enlisted in Co. E, 34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and marched off to war. I suspect she was born soon after he had departed.
But after the war, James relocated his family to a farm in Union Township, where they were living in 1870. By 1880, however, they had moved back into Chariton and he had gone to work as a wagon maker, most likely in Henry Glenn's shop.
The builder of the current house, identified somewhat circuitously by Mrs. Field, actually was her brother, William F. Layton, who died at age 38 of cancer on Dec. 28, 1892. He was a contractor and carpenter by trade, specializing in houses, and everything suggests he was a very successful one. The will he left behind is a marvel of detail --- each carpentry tool, branded with his initials, was willed separately. J. Etta, rather than a tool, was bequeathed his guitar and guitar box. If Mrs. Field was correct in her estimation of its age in 1933, the house would have been built about 1883.
As the only surviving child, J. Etta became the mainstay of her parents and lived here with them --- while teaching school --- until her father's death in 1907 and her mother's death, a year later. Both died in the house and both were buried after funeral services in it.
After that, J. Etta may have roamed a while because the house was rented for a time --- to the Bertrand family until they purchased a permanent home of their own.
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J. Etta was 48 when she married James N. Field, a land speculator and sometimes farmer who had located in Chariton some years earlier and who was 52 at the time. Their marriage occurred in Ottumwa on Aug. 31, 1911, and seems to have been a considerable surprise to their friends in Chariton.
The couple moved about for a few years, living for various lengths of time in Nebraska and elsewhere, then returned here for the remainder of their lives.
James died at age 81 on Dec. 22, 1939, of a heart attack in the waiting room at Yocom Hospital while waiting to have the wound left behind by minor surgery on his hand a few days earlier dressed.
Etta continued to live here until October of 1946 when somehow the two-burner kerosene stove used for cooking in the kitchen fell on her, breaking a hip and fracturing her shoulder. The neighbors who found her concluded she had become dizzy, grabbed onto the stove for support, then pulled it over. Although soaked in kerosene, the stove was not lighted so both she and the house were spared.
Etta did not survive her injuries, however, and died on her 84th birthday, Oct. 20, 1946, at the Baker Nursing Home --- and the first phase this home's history ended.
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