Anna Roos b. 1854

January 18, 2019February 23, 2019 / Kirstin Miller

Anna Roos, 3rd great aunt on RootsMagic tree

Anna Christina was the 2nd child of Garbrand and Catharina Renistra Roos, born in 1854 probably in the Netherlands, near north western Germany where her parents were married. In 1862 the Roos family sailed to New York on the Adler, Anna was 9 years old. Her family lived in Ogle County, Illinois until she was about 18. roos, anna and devries marraige Then by 1872 the family lived in Grundy County, Iowa. In Grundy County on May 2, 1880 Anna married Ippe Devries whose family came to America from Germany in 1866 when Ippe was 15. Anna and Ippe started a family (at least 7 kids) and farmed. They’re on the census in Butler County in 1880 and 1900. On the 1910 census, the family was in Seneca, Illinois and owned a dairy farm. The older sons were farm hands, the oldest daughter a trained nurse.

roos, j devries, i land By August 1912 they were back in Iowa and featured in the Butler County Tribune and Aplington newspapers along with Anna’s brother John. “Allison: John Roos one of the wealthiest land owners of Jefferson township has sold out his land holding in Nobles County, Minnesota and has bought the Ippe De Vries quarter in section 26 of Bennezette township. John says Iowa land is good enough for him”. Anna lived to age 88, Ippe to age 86, both are buried in Pleasant View Cemetery in Aplington, Iowa.

Sources:

The Aplington News, 1912 Aug 29 page 1 column 6 top John Roos selling his Nobles, Minnesota land

Iowa, County Marriages 1838-1934 database, Roos, Anna and Ippe Devries 1880 marriage with license, return and marriage date of May 2, right side 3rd from bottom

1880, 1900, 1910 US census at FamilySearch.org

Find a Grave memorial

Amphyllis Angell b. 1636

January 12, 2019February 23, 2019 / Kirstin Miller

Amphyllis Angell 10th great aunt, on RootsMagic tree

Amphyllis was the daughter of Thomas Angell, an original pioneer of Rhode Island. She was born about 1636, lived through the beginnings of her country and when she died in 1694 the American Revolution was still 80 years in the future. Amphyllis married Edward Smith on May 9, 1663. Twice Edward and she were in the Early records of Providence with an ‘intention’ of marriage.

In 1687 Providence, Rhode Island, the townspeople were summoned. Anyone over the age of 16 had to supply a list of their real and personal estate, their possessions. A tax rate was set up, it was the Majesty’s Rate for King James II. Edward Smith, Amphyllis Angell’s husband was chosen as Commissioner for “ye mannageing ye bissnesse of his Majesties Rate. All which persons & Estates, are by ye sd Com. & ye sd Select men, to be assesed & rated as followeth vizt Every person aforesd, One shill & Eight pence by the head, & all Estates reall & personall att one penny for every twenty shill”.

The early records of the town of Providence pages 98-103 shows a list of persons taxed, male and female, anyone with an estate. This list of taxpayers in 1687 Providence contains Speedy ancestors: Angell, Arnold, Ashton, Olney, Williams; and a probable Miller ancestor: Johnathan Sprague. This tax or Majesty’s Rate lasted about 1 year and ended in 1688 when King James II lost the throne.

Amphyllis and Edward had at least 4 children, probably more. Edward Smith died without a will in 1693. Amphyllis and son Edward Jr presented Edward’s inventory to the council and asked to be administrators. Amphyllis died about 1 year after her husband.

Sources

Early records of Providence volume 17 page 93. September 1687 taxes
https://is.gd/y2Q6B5
Early records of Providence volume 3 page 32 and 35. Edward and Amphyllis’s marriages intentions
https://is.gd/KJfSQX

Jake Miller b. 1841

November 10, 2018February 23, 2019 / Kirstin Miller

Jake Miller 3rd great uncle, on RootsMagic tree

Jacob Miller was born August 6, 1841 in Elkhart, Indiana the 3rd child of 9. The family farmed, the kids went to school. Jake’s dad died when he was 13 and soon after the family moved to Iowa close to where his older sister, now married, was living near Nashua, Iowa.

Jake stayed single. In his later years he lived with his bother Jame’s family, then with his nephew James Archard Miller and family. When his brother James D married Mary Ella Gaines, Jake is on the marriage record testifying to the bride and groom’s ‘competent age and condition’. On census records Jake is a farmer, a horse breeder and a horse trainer. He lived in Janesville, Bristow and Greene, Iowa and was a welcome guest in the Janesville Waverly area. On the 4th of July 1885. “Mr Jacob Miller was down from near Bristow to spend the 4th with his friends around Janesville. Jake is always a welcome guest in these parts.”

Miller, Jake obituary

Christian Roos b. 1859

November 3, 2018September 1, 2019 / Kirstin Miller

Christian Roos 3rd great uncle on RootsMagic tree
Christian (named for his grandfather Christian Renistra) Roos was born in Harlingen, Netherlands or maybe Germany. In early August 1862 he was 3 years old and sailed, on the Adler, with parents and 3 older siblings to New York, arriving on August 18, 1862. From New York the family went to Ogle County, Illinois and then in 1880 they were living in Butler County, Iowa.

screenshot 2

Roos, Chris potetntial politics In 1885 Christian ‘Chris’ married Geske ‘Grace’ Lubberts and they both owned farm land including the Riverside Stock Farm run by their sons, Bertus (named for his Lubberts grandfather) and George. Chris and Grace also had 3 daughters who married and then farmed in the area. Chris lived to age 92 in the Aplington, Iowa area. He and his wife are buried in Pleasant View Cemetery.

There may be more to Chris’s story. August of 1912, a Chris Roos is elected Supervisor of 2nd district, Albion Township, maybe at the Democratic (state or county) Convention. In the Iowa Recorder of August 21st is the National Ticket with presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson at the top of list, then vice president, governor, etc. and Chris Roos Supervisor at the bottom. Probably this Christian Roos.

1917 Atlas of Butler County, Iowa (Mason City, IA: Anderson Publishing Co., 1917); image 17 of 48 shows land owned, image 33 of 48 lists businesses in Monroe township.

Ethel Speedy b. 1880

October 13, 2018March 16, 2020 / Kirstin Miller

Ethel Speedy, 2nd great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Ethel was born 8 July 1880 in Butler County, Iowa. On the 1895 Iowa census Ethel age 17, her dad Manford 55, mom Elizabeth Stewart Speedy 43, siblings Eva 20, Harve 11 and Ernest 6 years old live in the Jackson Township of Butler County. And under one roof they respect 3 religions: Manford is Baptist, Elizabeth is Methodist, Eva and Ethel are Congregationalist.

“Iowa State Census, 1895,” database with images, FamilySearch

Also on the census Ethel is a teacher, she Ethel taught at Walnut Grove in 1904 and at Belle Plaine in 1908. November 25, 1909 Ethel married LeRoy Mead. Herman Wild, husband to Ethel’s sister Eva is witness to the marriage. The Meads stayed in Allison, Iowa for a while then moved to Marengo, Iowa. Roy Mead was a clothing clerk then an insurance salesman. From Ethels’s obituary, before her death she was at the University of Iowa hospitals. Her sister Eva and husband Herman Wild and her brother Harve and wife Philippa Mockford ‘had been with her much of the time since then.’ Ethel died on May 30, 1939. Ethel and Roy Mead are buried at Allison Cemetery.

Thursday, June 4th, 1908

Thursday, February 4th, 1904

Newspaper snapshots from the Clarksville (Iowa) Star, Digital Archives of the Clarksville Public Library.

Lulu Stewart b. 1870

September 15, 2018October 6, 2019 / Kirstin Miller

Lulu Stewart 1st cousin 3 times removed or 3 generations away on RootsMagic tree

Lulu was born in Shell Rock Iowa in 1870 the youngest child of John and Martha Graham Stewart who were both born in Pennsylvania. In 1894 Lulu married Daniel Zahniser, also of Pennsylvania. They married in Shell Rock and were living in Mercer, Pennsylvania by 1900 and had at least one child. Daniel was a a bank teller, Lulu managed the home.

Lulu Stewart

The Overlook, a Historical Postcard

In her later years or months Lulu lived at The Overlook in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. The Overlook Sanitarium was founded by Dr. Elizabeth McLaughry in 1911. Dr. McLaughry signed Lulu’s death certificate and the Dr. stayed active in her hospital from 1911 to about 1946. “The vast grounds of the sanitarium featured a scenic view and the staff made sure the patients enjoyed the outdoors as a sort of mental therapy.” Read more about The Overlook and Dr McLaughry at Lawrence County Memoirs

Lulu died in 1944, her husband Daniel lived for another 7 years, they’re both buried in the historic Easton Cemetery, in Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania.

Allen Preston Gaines b. 1900

September 15, 2018January 19, 2020 / Kirstin Miller

Allen Preston Gaines 1st cousin 1x removed (1 generation back) from Faber Miller who married Gladys Cable. Allen’s aunt Mary Ella Gaines Miller was grandmother to Faber Sr.

Allen Preston Gaines was born September 25, 1900 in Wadena, Minnesota, the oldest child of Charles and Mary Trewie Gaines. Allen and his family were in Lane, Oregon when Allen was 10 years old, then in Everett, Washington by 1920 when Allen was 20. Allen married Mary Ingram April 4, 1925, they settled in Boise Idaho, raised a family then in later years moved back to the Everett, Washington area where both are buried.

Allen was an apprentice mariner on the SS Emergency Fleet Corporation at the Port of Seattle and has a record: Applications for Seaman’s Protection Certificates, which includes a photo, thumbprint, physical description and identifying details, including tattoos if any. This application was a passport and provided protection on sea voyages from -forced recruitment by navies of other nations-. The Protection Certificates began in the American Revolution, disappeared for a while, returned around WW 1 then were obsolete by the 1940s, more at Wikipedia: Protection papers

Gaines, Allen 1919 page 2 application for Seaman's protection

Allen Preston Gaines March 7 1919

Sam Miller b. 1883

July 7, 2018February 23, 2019 / Kirstin Miller

Sam Miller great uncle of Faber Miller who married Gladys Cable.

Sam Miller was born February 20, 1883 in Lafayette, Bremer County, Iowa. This person is new to the Miller side of the family tree, just recently added when he was mentioned in his sister Lola’s obituary. He doesn’t have a lot of records and went by both Sam and Ira, his name may have benn Ira Samuel Miller. On the 1885 Iowa census he is Ira age 12 living with his family the 5th of 7 kids. Next record is the 1900 US census he is Samuel Miller, a boarder in the home of Avery and Maude Chambers. His next record is the 1930 US Census, he is Sam, married to Gladys living in Amery Wisconsin (same place his parents and brother Frank had lived). Sam is a barber and Gladys is a telephone operator and like most of their city neighbors they own a radio set. In the WW 2 draft registration April 27, 1942, his name is Ira Sam, a barber, living in Amery, Wisconsin, his wife Gladys is next of kin.

draft 1

The Old Man’s Draft required all US men between 45 to 64 to register not for a military draft but to get information on labor skills of the workforce in 1942. A long questionnaire was part of the registration but wasn’t kept, only the cards. More info here.

Leonard Cable b. 1889

July 1, 2018February 23, 2019 / Kirstin Miller

Leonard Cable b. 1889 brother of Gladys Cable who married Faber Miller. Leonard in RootsMagic tree.

Leonard was the son of William Cable and first wife Nellie Stroud. Leonard was born in Pleasant Grove Township near Greene, Iowa in 1889. The Cable family lived on a farm. In Senior Grammar School Leonard and his sister Ruth were listed as perfect school attenders, never tardy never absent for at least 2 years.

Cable, Leonard and Ruth

Leonard’s jobs included railroad mechanic, paper hanger, machinist and a shipping clerk at a furniture store. He stayed in touch with his dad after his parent’s divorce and in 1915 stopped for a visit in Greene, Iowa on his way home to Kansas. Leonard’s WW 1 draft card shows him in Chicago, 1503 E 64 St, a machinist, living with and taking care of his mom. Leonard stayed single and died in 1920, age 31, of lobar pneumonia.

Emma Wisbar b. 1886

June 23, 2018August 17, 2019 / Kirstin Miller / 2 Comments

Emma Wisbar great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

An update for Emma Wisbar and Lee Cheney: Both Emma and Lee had a child prior to their 1920 marriage. Emma had a son, Vernon, on September 18, 1908, she was 20 years old, there is no record of a father. An Iowa delayed birth record for Vernon shows his birth date and place, mom and no father’s name. sister Lena Wisbar was a witness on this record. In the same year 1908, Lee Cheney married Winifred Thompson and in 1909 they had a daughter Irma Cheney and must have divorced soon after. Lee’s ex-wife and daughter were also in California, living in San Diego in 1930.

Emma Wisbar was was the youngest child of Martin and Mary Walters Wisbar. She was born in Butler County, Iowa April 7, 1886. The 1900 US Census shows Emma attending school, she could read and write. In her home both German and English spoken. In 1910 Emma was 22, living with her parents and 2 of her 7 siblings. She was a server in a restaurant.

The 1920 US census has Emma living in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Louis at 312 East 1st Street in Waterloo, Iowa with 3 other boarders. Emma was 33 years old and a waitress in a hotel. Lee Cheney was another boarder. He was 36 and a barber. The 1920 census was taken on January 7 and Emma and Lee Cheney were married on September 9, 1920.

On the 1930 US census Emma and Lee have moved to Oakland, California, both still working, Lee a barber, Emma a waitress at the YMCA Their rent was $22 each month. They lived about 20 miles west of San Francisco and probably traveled to see the Golden Gate Bridge being built from 1933-1937. Both Emma and Lee lived into their 70s. Lee died on January 27, 1962 and Emma exactly 2 weeks later on February 10th. Both are buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Oroville, California, Find a Grave Memorial

Ancestry. Iowa, Marriage Records, 1880-1937
L H Cheney, barber age 38 m. Emma Wisbar 33 years, Fort Dodge, Iowa September 9, 1920.

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