Flood

Clyde Flood b. 1888

/ Kirstin Miller

Clyde Flood 1st cousin 3x removed on RootsMagic tree

Clyde William Flood was born in South Dakota on March 6, 1888 to George and Lucy Lewis Flood. He had a younger sister Edith, also born in South Dakota, they returned to Butler County, Iowa when the kids were young. In Butler County Clyde and Edith grew up with their cousins Elmer Angell and Philippa Flood Mockford.

Clyde, Edith and Philippa’s grandma Delia Angell Flood was the sister of Elmer’s dad Charles Angell. The Flood and Angell families would have gotten together for picnics and holidays. Clyde and Elmer Angel were close in age, so were Philippa Mockford and Edith Flood.

Snapshots of Clyde and cousins

Clyde grew up on a farm so he would have helped his mom and dad with chores, planting, crops, livestock. At the 1905 Butler County Fair, Clyde won premiums for flowers he raised including a first place for Dahlias. Clyde and Elmer Angell both fought in World War 1. Clyde enlisted in 1917 and served 17 months in the Iowa 95th Aero Squadron, promoted to Corporal . “The squadron was initially formed in early August 1917 at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where 150 civilians were sworn into the United States Army as soldiers. The newly-sworn in men were sent to Kelly Field, Texas, where they arrived on 19 August and were organized as the 95th Aero Squadron.” Elmer died in the Meuse–Argonne battle, in France, 1918.

Flood, Clyde WW1Clyde came home in May, 1919 via the May 7 Clarksville (Iowa) Star newspaper. “Chas. Thomsen and Clyde Flood arrived here Sunday morning having received their discharge from the army after service over seas.” Though 1920-21 Clyde was active in getting a Butler County post for the American Legion. December 15, 1921 he was elected Sergeant at Arms. September 25, 1924 via the Clarksville (Iowa) Star newspaper, “Iving and Milo Isaacson, Clyde Flood and Dave Kramer drove to St Paul the first of the week where they represented the Allison Post of the American Legion at the National Convention. They returned last week and report having a find trip and a mighty good time at the convention”.

He liked cars too. In November 1934 Clyde bought a brand new Chevrolet Coach. April on 1936 he got a new Chevrolet Carry All Suburban.

Flood, Clyde with a trukeyClyde found work at a turkey farm after he returned from the war. Mr. Nicholas, the farm owner, had a broken electric fan. Nichols was ready to throw it away- Clyde was looking for work, asked to look at the fan ‘from an old battery he got enough material to start’ then fix the fan. Clyde stayed at the turkey farm for 20+ years. In 1944 the Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette had a story about the Nicholas farm and all the birds being shipped overseas for the the World War 2 soldiers Thanksgiving Dinner. Clyde is featured in the story, he was 56 in 1944.

Clyde married Mary ‘Mayme’ Noonan June 27, 1941 in Mason City. They married later in life and didn’t have kids and lived at 420 South Fillmore Avenue there’s a Walgreen’s there now. Clyde died January 25, 1950 at The Des Moines Veteran’s Hospital. Mayme died in 1971. Both are buried Memorial Park Cemetery, Mason City, Iowa.

Sources

George Flood b. 1860

/ Kirstin Miller

George Flood 3rd great uncle on RootsMagic

George was born March 8, 1860, the 3rd of 7 children, of William and Delia Angell Flood. He was born in Butler County, Iowa and grew up on a farm near Shell Rock, the former Lowtown area. In 1862 George’s dad William went off to the Civil War. William came back in 1865, farmed and was a blacksmith. George picked up blacksmith skills from his dad and on census records his occupation was blacksmithing.

In 1886 George married Lucy Lewis, they lived in Aurora, South Dakota. Their 2 kids Clyde and Edith were born there. George and family were back in Iowa in 1900 and on the US census that year George is a blacksmith, Lucy a housewife and both kids are in school. They live at 27 Locust Street in Allison, Iowa. Their neighbors are from Iowa, Connecticut, the Dakotas, England, Germany, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin; and are farmers, a furniture and hardwire merchant, laborer, lawyer, meat dealer, music teacher, peddler, printer’s apprentice, postmaster and servant. George and Lucy stayed in Allison, Butler County, Iowa. George’s sister Nettie lived with them family for several years. George was the administrator of his uncle Charles Angell’s estate along with Leander Angell, Charles’s son, George’s cousin.

George’s daughter Edith married Roy Rathbone, they lived in Sumner, Iowa. George, his sisters Nettie and Matilda Flood Mockford visited Edith and family in August, 1928 and brought George’s granddaughter Lucy Rathbone back to Allison for a week long visit. George’s son Clyde signed up for World War 1 in August, 1917. Clyde was in the 93rd Aero Squadron and returned home March, 1919, worked on a turkey farm and married Mayme. George lived with Clyde and Mayme in his later years after his wife Lucy’s death.

George died in 1936, his obituary from the Clarksville, Iowa newspaper May 28, 1936: “George Flood, a pioneer resident of the vicinity died at the home his son Clyde at Mason City last Wednesday afternoon, He had been in failing health for a long time. Funeral services were held at the Whitaker Funeral Home at Dumont Friday afternoon with members of the IOOF lodge of which Mr Flood was a member, taking part. Burial was in Lowell Cemetery beside his wife, Beside his son Clyde he is survived by a daughter Mrs Roy Rathbone of Sumner and three sister Mrs Matilda Mockford of Allison, Mrs Eunice Culver of Detroit Michigan and Mrs Tena Lotts of Sebastopol, Calif.”.

Sources

William Flood b. 1829

/ Kirstin Miller

William Flood 3rd great grandfather .

William was born in Vermont, 1829, no information on his parents. He was in Iowa by 1852 and in Butler County, Iowa by 1856 when he married Delia Angell. The 1880 census shows the Flood and Stewart families as neighbors. In 1916 the families were connected when Philippa (Flood) Mockford and Harve (Stewart) Speedy married.

The 1880 Agricultural Census shows some of the Flood family’s farm property and production

  • The farm had 10 acres of mown grasslands, 20 acres of hay, 95 acres of tilled land, 25 acres of meadow and 5 acres of woodland.
  • Total farm value $2400, machinery value $200, livestock value $726.
  • Livestock included 7 horses, 4 cows, 32 pigs and 40 chickens.
  • The farm produced 200 lbs of butter and 100 eggs.
  • Crops included 80 acres of Indian corn producing 200 bushels, 4 acres of oats producing 60 bushels, 7 acres of wheat producing 80 bushels, 2 acres of apple trees, 20 bearing trees producing 15 bushels of apples.
  • Forest products were 15 cords of wood cut.

William was also a blacksmith and passed the trade on to his son George. And he was in the Civil War Union Army 32nd Regiment Iowa Infantry Company E, a soldier promoted to Private, then Corporal.

Of the Iowa 32nd, ‘There was probably not another infantry command subjected to such an experience as the Thirty-second Iowa Infantry. They marched and kept up with a cavalry division for over four hundred miles. No troops displayed greater heroism during the War of the Rebellion.’ http://bit.ly/2DFBpJy Volume 5 page 57 of Roster And Record of Iowa Soldiers In the War of the Rebellion.

William Flood b.1829, father of Matilda Flood b.1858, mother of Philippa Flood Mockford b.1891, mother of Elizabeth Speedy b.1917 m. Stanley Roose b.1915

William Flood in Civil War 1862

/ Kirstin Miller

William Flood, 3rd great grandfather, married to Delia Angell, was a Civil War soldier in the Iowa 32nd Infantry. He registered after Governor Kirkwood on July 9, 1862 made a proclamation calling for 300,000 Iowa men to join the war effort. At HathiTrust in the Roster and record of Iowa soldiers in the war of the Rebellion, Volume 5 (William’s info is on page 57) there is a 10-20 page description of the the soldiers’s battles and movements. They walked from Iowa to Nashville, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama. They walked in soldier’s uniforms with their supplies on their backs.

Today in Iowa it is 90 degrees, heat index 104. I carried out the garbage/recycling in a tank top, flip flops, shorts with no gear on my back. I broke a sweat- WTF? Were these ancestors of mine a different species? How in the world did they do what they did, everyday.

Lizzie Flood b.1867

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth Matilda Flood great aunt of Elizabeth Speedy who married Stanley Roose. Lizzie on RootsMagic tree.

Elizabeth went by Lizzie and was born January 28, 1867 in Butler County, Iowa. The year she was born, Harvard opens the 1st dental school, Nobel files a patent on dynamite, Nebraska becomes a state and Charles Dickens gives 1st public reading in the US.

screenshot 2Lizzie was a dressmaker. She was single and rented her home, in Iowa around 1900. Did she wish to stay single, did she have marriage proposals that she refused?  Did her parents hassle her to get married, start a family and settle down? Three of her sisters married and had children, one did not. Both her brothers married.

Lizzie died at about 36  years old, following an operation. She is buried near her family: mother Delia Viola Angell and father William Flood, brothers and sisters in an old cemetery near Clarksville, Iowa.

Postcard Waterloo, Iowa US HistoricalI think Lizzie liked living with her four sisters, two brothers and parents but was restless to be on her own. So she moved out of her family’s small town home at 20 years old and went to the closest city, then lived on her own until her death. Maybe she was a successful dressmaker during the day, then at home in the evenings she designed her own dresses and pondered opening her own dress shop. After Lizzie’s death her youngest sister, Nettie, owns a millinery shop. Perhaps Lizzie’s estate left all to her sister?

Flood, Lizzie swatch book

Lizzie may have kept a notebook similar to this Swatch book where she recorded her ideas for dress designs and her knowledge of textiles and sewing.

The Swatch book is at Winthur.org in their Digital Collections.

“Swatch Book :: Textile Patterns and Designs.” Swatch Book :: Textile Patterns and Designs. Winterthur Digital Collections, n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2016.