ROBERTS Family (Click for Family Tree)

Today we head farther back in history from our previous post of Edith M. ROBERTS, (later McMurray, then Luck), when she was a part of the Prairie City High School Class of 1918. Four years earlier, on the 26th of June, 1914, Edith had graduated from 8th grade in the “Public Schools of the State of Iowa.” But what school was it?

We know that Edith could see her brother, George A. Roberts, Jr., and their sister Ethel Gay Roberts, later Robison, coming home from school- she wrote about this in stories to her family. The Mound Prairie schoolhouse was just a quarter of a mile down the road from their farmhouse. Edith adored her older sister and brother. Being the youngest by eight years, she would be at home with her mother, and could stand on a chair and watch out the window for her siblings to leave their one-room schoolhouse.

This is the schoolhouse down the road from their family farm as it looked in the 1970s. If memory serves, the schoolhouse was along W 60th St S, between S 60th Ave W and S 68th Ave W.

This building that housed eager (!?) scholars for many years was used for storing hay in the 1970s.

Edith’s father, George Anthony Roberts, Sr., was on the local school board and hired teachers- and the family also boarded them, more often than Edith’s mother, Ella V. Daniel Roberts, would wish. One more mouth to feed and another person in the small house was a challenge, especially if the schoolteacher had a difficult personality. (We have written earlier about some of those, and need to finish up those thoughts in some new posts. See notes.)

Finding this very old picture- 100 years old!- of the same or a similar schoolhouse in with Roberts family pictures was interesting. These photos were taken possibly in the 1920s, or even back into 1910 or so.

We believe that Edith attended this school, Mound Prairie, for her first eight years of schooling. She may have attended another school for the latter part, however, as her father had built a second house in Jasper County where he and her mother moved, but we do not know if Edith was already graduated by that time or if there was another school closer to the new place. We do know that in high school she rode her horse to her paternal grandparents’ house, that of John Roberts and Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts, in Prairie City. (They had moved there when John sold their farm and retired.) She would leave the horse at their house and go on to Prairie City High School, and she did the same for church on Sunday.

We also found some old pictures that we think may be children by this old school, or perhaps by another school. (Click to enlarge any of them, or request a higher quality picture.) It is likely that the same floor plan was used for many of the county schoolhouses, and similar exterior materials. Foundations may have been just what was around, especially if the soil was rocky, so those differences may help to differentiate schools.

We do know that Edith Roberts taught in some of the rural schools after she graduated either high school or college, so they could have been the children in her class. They might have instead been family or neighbors who attended this school near the homeplace, or another Jasper County school. Some of the Roberts, Daniel, and Murrell family lived in nearby, or in nearby counties, with some family as far away as northwestern Iowa, Missouri or Illinois- even out into the Dakotas. Some of the same children, especially four handsome boys that look like an energetic handful, are in multiple pictures we have. While the pictures are quite evocative of a very different time and lifestyle and enjoyable in their own way, we surely would like to identify the people and share with other descendants who would also enjoy these pictures. So if you can identify any of these children or the place, please let us know in the Comments section!

 

More images to come- please do let us know if you can help identify the people in the images or the places.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Family treasure chest of photos, the “Roberts Family Photo Album, circa 1910-1920s.”
2.  “Those Places Thursday: Jasper County Schoolhouse.”  https://heritageramblings.net/2018/04/19/those-places-thursday-jasper-county-schoolhouse/

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2022 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 

Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.

 Please contact us if you have any questions about the copyright or use of “Heritage Ramblings” blog material.

ROBERTS Family (Click for Family Tree)

First,  it is important to say that **we do not know for sure the identity of these people in the car. **  We are hoping that a kind reader out there will share some of their images to confirm or refute our educated guesses.

Second, what a fun picture! Wonder where they are going, dressed in their finery. Looking at the intricate and beautiful hats of the ladies, they most likely will not be driving very fast with the top down.

This RPPC (Real Photo PostCard- photos were printed on heavy cardstock for mailing) was found in a collection of wonderful very old pictures that included many persons in the Roberts family of Jasper County, Iowa. There were no names on this image to definitively ID the individuals, but because it was a postcard, we got very lucky that it was completed to be mailed to a person and has a signature. Sadly there is no postmark to give us an approximate date. With this information, however, plus previous research, we can make an educated guess about the people out for a ride in this amazing new machine, the automobile.

Again, while we do not know for sure that this image is of the people we listed in the caption, there are quite a few clues that have helped us to come to these conclusions. Here is a bit of the thought process and information used to verify steps in our hypothesis- it is not quite a genealogical standard of proof, but as close as we can get with the data we can find:

1. The car and clothing of the persons in the photo suggest the early 1900s time period in the United States.

2. On the front grill of the car, the name appears to be “Cadillac.” A Google search for Cadillacs from 1900-1930 was a starting place to ID the car, so we could determine approximately when this was taken and who in the family would have been alive at that time. Using the comprehensive “New Cadillac Database” was easy as one can to scroll through all the pictures and confirm with the text the specs and profile of a vehicle. Identifying features of the vehicle include distinctive square lights on the side with round lights in front. There is a curved cowling to separate the longer hood from the four-seater body. The car had a top (a demi-tonneau) that could unfold above the seats for protection from the weather if needed. If this non-car-person’s assessment is correct, this may be a 1909 Cadillac Thirty, an exciting new vehicle with a 30 horsepower engine. Top speed would have been about 50 mph, which isn’t bad considering how few roads were paved, especially in rural areas like Iowa. This model may have been the Model G demi-tonneau. The base price was $1350 (about $46,000 today), with a speedometer, lamps, a generator for the lamps (instead of oil or gas lamps), a detachable tonneau, a second battery, etc. all adding to the price- selling cars hasn’t really changed much, has it? This could instead be a 1910 or 1911 model, 1911 being the last year a crank was used to start the car. So we can say that likely this car is circa 1910, which helps us pin down the time. [Please do leave us a note if we have not found the correct Cadillac model- we appreciate true expertise in identifying this vehicle!]

3. We know the Roberts family had cars fairly early-on, as Edith M. Roberts spoke of her grandparents, John Roberts (1832-1922) and Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts (1835-1917) having a car. Her father, George Anthony Roberts, Sr., enjoyed driving it before they had their own.

“I can remember the Reo runabout grandpa bought.  To have an automobile then was something.  They would drive out to visit us during the week, but never on Sundays.  Always they were in church on that day.  No one did anything on Sunday but go to church and make calls in the afternoon.  They would come chug-chugging in the farmyard… It was quite level at that time.  Grandpa so tall, and grandma so little, with her veil flying back of her in the wind.  They wore tan dusters.  They would come in for dinner.  Mother would have chicken and noodles, because they like that, and all the goodies that went along with a good country meal.

“After dinner dad would go out and get in the automobile and drive it around in a circle.  Of course I was right behind him having a ball.  No one else in the family had a car at that time.  About four o’clock they would leave and the next week they would visit one of the other children. “

REOs (pronounced ree-ohs) became available in 1915, and were produced until 1953. R.E.O. are the initials of Ransom Eli Olds, the founder of the company. And, for those of a certain era, the name of a 1915 truck called an ‘REO Speedwagon’ was the origin of the name of the excellent 1970s-80s band REO Speedwagon! (The letters were spelled out in the band name, however.)

4. Another good clue for identifying this image was on the back. As a postcard, the name and address were there: “Mr. Geo Roberts Jr” of Monroe, Iowa. We know that George Jr lived in Jasper County, Iowa, for his whole life. Georgie, as he was known, was born June 11, 1889 on the family farm near Monroe, Iowa in Jasper County, to George Anthony Roberts, Sr. (1861-1939) and Ella Viola Daniel (1866-1922). Georgie worked the family farms, both as a boy as well as when an adult. This helps us know to look at extended family and friends of the Robertses.

5. “Guy” is a less common name in the family, and a search within the family tree takes us to Guy Leslie Roberts, born December 9, 1890, in Mound Prairie Township, Jasper County, Iowa, to Jason Lee Roberts (1859-1940) and Julia French Roberts (1863-1917). Bingo! Jason Lee was the oldest of the three Roberts brothers born to John Roberts (1832-1922) and Elizabeth Ann Murrell Roberts (1835-1917).

That meant that Guy and Georgie were cousins, and they all lived about two miles apart in rural Jasper County! Since there is no postmark the photo postcard was not actually mailed and likely presented in person, again suggesting that we most likely have the correct “Guy.”

 

Next: A few more identification details and photos…

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Family treasures chest of photos and ephemera. A special “thank you” to all of those through the last 150 years or so who have preserved and passed on the beautiful images of our dear family.
2. A special “thank you” to Edith M. Roberts McMurray Luck for the stories she wrote about her life growing up along with her sweet biographies of our ancestors, and the grand-daughter who encouraged her to put those thoughts on paper for the generations to come.
3. “Descriptions and Specifications of Cadillac Cars 1905 – 1912.” https://www.newcadillacdatabase.org/static/CDB/Dbas_txt/Cad05-12.htm
4. REO cars, and REO Speedwagon- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REO_Motor_Car_Company, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REO_Speedwagon

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2022 by Heritage Ramblings Blog.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 

Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.

 Please contact us if you have any questions about the copyright or use of “Heritage Ramblings” blog material.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

The year was 1918, and the world was changing rapidly. The students in the photo above were born 1899-1900, the turn of a century that went from candles to gas lights for reading and doing homework, to electricity that eventually would power the lighting in their rural Iowa homes, and later computers. The US Post Office started the world’s first air mail delivery that year, with time zones and daylight savings time becoming official. World War I would finally end that November after four years of global bloodshed, but the first “Spanish flu” case was seen in nearby Kansas- that epidemic would take even more lives, a large number of them young people. Mechanization on the farm was improving although farming was still a hard and time-consuming job- note that there is only one male student in the graduating class. Other young men had likely dropped out of school by the 8th grade or even before, as they were needed on the farm or in the family business, thinking further schooling would not prepare them any better for the career they had ahead of them. Some of the young men might even have been in France or somewhere else in Europe, fighting in World War I.

Edith Roberts (later McMurray, then Luck) is the student standing second from the left. Her parents, George Anthony Roberts, Sr. (1861-1939) and Ella “Ellie” Viola (Daniel) Roberts (1866-1922), and her siblings, George A. Roberts, Jr. (1889-1965) and Ethel Gay Roberts (later Robison) (1891-1969) lived on the family farm in Mound Prairie Township in Jasper County. Edith paternal grandparents were living at 108 N. Sherman in Prairie City while she was in high school. Perhaps she stopped by to see them after her classes some days, or took them some of the fruits and vegetables she, Ethel, and their mother had canned, or the delicious butter that Ellie made and sold in the local stores. Her grandmother, Elizabeth Ann (Murrell) Roberts died in 1917, and her grandfather John Roberts (1832-1922) may have moved in with his son William Edward Roberts who lived with his family on Jefferson Street by the time Edith graduated.

They all would have received one of these beautiful envelopes in May of 1918:

Within would be the announcement of Edith’s graduation, along with the names of her classmates:

Commencement exercises would take place at the Opera House in Prairie City on Friday, May 24th, 1918, at 8pm. Those who would walk across the stage and receive their hard-earned diploma were:

Ruth V. Schakel	Bessie M. Krohn
Edith M. Roberts	Blanche A. Peery
Lora L Wooddell	Marjorie N. Graham
Beth M. Anderson	Berlin P. Ballagh
Lillian C. Pannenbacker

It would be interesting to follow up and learn more about the later lives of Edith’s classmates. As for Edith, she attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. She began with interest in a degree in music and teaching, however graduated in June of 1923 with a B. A. in Zoology- very unusual for a woman in those years! She did take courses in the science of education and psychology, so also received a certificate from the School of Education so that she could teach. She valued education her whole life, enjoying any chance to learn and imparting that love to her son and grandchildren.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Family treasure chest of photos and ephemera.
2. There are ten persons in the class photo, but only nine are listed as graduating. Perhaps one of the women is the teacher for the class? The reverse of the photo does not list names.

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2021 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

George Anthony Roberts (1861-1939) and Ella Viola Daniel (1866-1922) had known each other as very young children in Warren County, Illinois. Both families migrated across the rich midwest prairie to Jasper County, Iowa in 1868, via covered wagon- what an adventure for young children! George and Ella grew to adulthood in Jasper County and then married on 16 Apr 1885. Ella was just 18 years old, and George 23.

The family must have been full of joy as they prepared for their first child to be born. John Robert Roberts was born on 14 Mar 1888, but sadly he passed away in June. One year later, on 11 Jun 1889, they became the parents of George Anthony Roberts, Jr. They must have been very excited as little Georgie passed the three month mark and beyond. Georgie grew up to be a very hard-working man, growing crops and raising livestock as he got older, and eventually working the farm he inherited from his parents. He also worked the sections of farm his sister, Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck, inherited.

It has been challenging to research the photographer of this portrait for greater accuracy in estimating a date when it was taken. Georgie was always short, so we have to consider that in estimating how old he was in the photo; he and Ella are siting up on a riser, so that alters our perception of height as well. If Georgie was a year and a half, the photo could have been taken in late 1890. Georgie’s sister Ethel Gay Roberts was born on 28 Jan 1891, however, and Ella does not look as if she is at the end of a pregnancy. So possibly the portrait was taken mid-1890, around Georgie’s first birthday.

This picture is a good example of why it is wrong to assume, or use current ways of thinking in analyzing our ancestors, their photos, and artifacts. If one did not know who the people were in this picture, a person today would assume that the child was a girl, because of the dress. However, back in the day, little boys wore dresses during their youngest years. There were numerous reasons:

1) Changing diapers was easier with an outfit that was open at the bottom- and remember, they only had cloth diapers back then, with no plastic pants to put over them to contain moisture;

2) Dresses are easier to get a wiggly or newly walking toddler into, vs. pants;

3) Dresses allowed more growth, whereas pants are outgrown fairly quickly; and

4) In general, our ancestors generally did not have many closets or storage areas, but did not need them as their wardrobes did not include as many outfits as we tend to have today. If boys and girls could wear the same clothes when very young, passing down dresses that had to be handmade, or finally could be store-bought but expensive, would make sense to our frugal and often cash-strapped ancestors.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Thanks to those who share the wonderful treasures of our family history.
2. See also “Wedding Wednesday: Ella V. Daniel and George A. Roberts,” http://heritageramblings.net/2014/08/20/wedding-wednesday-ella-v-daniel-and-george-a-roberts/

 

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We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2019 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 

Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.

 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

It is only fitting to provide a lovely picture of Edith (Roberts) [McMurray] Luck on the blog since this is Thanksgiving weekend. Why, you ask? Have you enjoyed the posts, the stories, the pictures, and the family tree knowledge provided by this blog? If so, Edith deserves a big “THANK YOU” from you, dear reader, as well as from myself- she, along with one other influential person, was the start of my love of family history when I was a child. Edith talked about her family, shared pictures and stories, and made her descendants proud of their ancestors. What a gift! What a legacy!

Edith also preserved so much of our inheritance, even though the bibles, papers, and photos were stored in a hot-in-summer, cold-in-winter attic for decades. She drove family all over the county to visit relatives and hear their stories. She wrote lovely tales of growing up on a farm in Jasper County, Iowa in the early 1900s, and she included details about the personalities of her parents (George A. Roberts, Sr., and Ella Viola (Daniel) Roberts) and grandparents, and the parents of her first husband, Dr. Edward A. McMurray, Sr. That she preserved the legacy is so wonderful- many do not have much information about those who came before. So many do not have the family heirlooms that one can hold in the hand, knowing that others with the same blood held those objects too, so long ago. All of that legacy having such personal aspects is an amazing gift, as well.

“You come from strong pioneer stock- you can do anything you set your mind to.” How her words resonated for her descendants, in times of struggle or challenge, her oral legacy helping to make us realize that if the ancestors could persevere, we could too. Studies have shown that children who know their family history have more resilience, and that makes sense. Understanding that others have had similar- and worse!- obstacles to face in their life helps us realize we are not alone in having roadblocks thrown at us as we navigate life. Knowing how dire the circumstances of our ancestors might have been at times makes one feel ‘wimpy’ in comparison, until one realizes those same genes make us who we are today. The ancestors have given us this gift through our DNA and our stories, down through the ages. That resilience, that fortitude, can be found within ourselves if we but search for it, tap into it, and use it to persevere.

Edith also showed us the joy of family, the happiness that comes from loving deeply, and from giving and supporting each other and the community. These are gifts that help to make us whole, and fulfilled.

Thank you, dear Edith- and all our ancestors.

 

[More to come about this photo!]

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1. Family treasure chest of photos, lovingly shared.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2019 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 

Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.

 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.