VISITORS AND QUERIES
BY KAREN HANSEN
Glenn and Darlene Owens of Treynor, Iowa wanted help with reading the inscription on the badly weathered tombstone of the wife of I. P. CHASE. Her short obituary did not give her first name. I found the 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1885 and 1900 Census records of the Chases. Most had her name as Maria, but we decided that it was actually Mariah. Barb Butcher had an older photo of the stone that was helpful. They ordered a plaque for the back of the stone to preserve the information. Their son also repaired the stone. The inscription as we read it:
MARIAH.
Wife of
I. P. CHASE.
Died Aug. 31, 1883.
Aged 50 Yr’s.
5 Mo’s. 11 D’s.
Now we would like to know if Isaac Paul Chase is buried with his wife, Mariah. He died in Doon, Lyon County, Iowa and his death record says that he was to be buried at Walnut. Jim Hansen witched for Mariah and Isaac’s graves and it does appear that he is buried south of Mariah, but has no stone.
Barb Butcher found obituaries for William and Mary WHITSETT and for his parents, John and Catherine WHITSETT, from The Oakland Acorn for Darlene Ross from Issaquah, Washington. Darlene was having trouble finding William in Pottawattamie County, but we discovered he had entered the Clarinda State Hospital two weeks before he died there. Clarinda is in Page County, so there may be a death record there. We also photographed side-by-side tombstones of these WHITSETTS in the Oakland Cemetery for her.
Darlene Ross asked that we straighten the tombstone of Orval DEEN. Jim and I did that one, the Mother stone on the DEEN family plot and also raised the Henry Harderson stone.
Mark Benge of Norwalk, Iowa was sent information on Earl CADDOCK and other wrestlers.
Sara Breeden of Maquoketa, Iowa and Shirley Schmidt of Thornton, Iowa visited our genealogy room. They are interested in the HOFFA and WILKINS families, but we do not know if they found any information.
We have been trying to find the marriage of Chris LUND and Hazel MCCUEN for Jim Brindley of Minnesota. It was not at the Shelby County Courthouse, so we checked census records to see where they were living. The 1925 Iowa Census shows that they were married and living in Shelby County, Jackson Township. In 1905, 1915, 1920, and 1925, Hazel’s father, Aaron McCuen, and family were in Audubon County, Lincoln Township. We suspect that Chris and Hazel’s marriage record could be in Audubon County.
Charles “Dick” and Audrey Dixon of Springfield, Missouri were recent visitors to Walnut and were looking for family history. Audrey grew up in the Denison area and is tracing the JONES branch of her family who settled in Pottawattamie, Shelby, Crawford and Carroll Counties in the mid to late 1800’s. She would like information especially on Claus JONES, which is sometimes spelled JOENS. This story on the Dixons was in The Walnut Bureau, June 10, 2010, page 5, along with their photo. We have received their address from the owners of the newspaper and have contacted them offering our help.
KH