Charles Wesley Rees

REES, PARTRIDGE, RUKES, SHOEMAKER, GRIENKE, BATHO, BARNES, ALLISON

Posted By: Mark Sparling (email)
Date: 1/5/2009 at 21:31:50

Charles Wesley Rees, the fourth of a family of six children, was born on March 26, 1864. At that time, his parents were living on a farm near Colesburg, Delaware Co., Iowa. When he was five years of age, his parents moved do a farm near the town of Farley in Dubuque County. Four years later they moved to another farm in Dubuque County near Worthington. It was in the fall of 1874, that, in the company of others, they came in a covered wagon to Buena Vista County. With the exception of two years which were spend on a Homestead Claim in South Dakota, the rest of his life was spent here.

His schooling, which began in John’s Creek School in Dubuque County, was completed in the pioneer schools of this County. His early manhood was spent working with his father on the farm until his marriage to Sarah Elizabeth Partridge which occurred on October 13, 1897. He immediately took his bride to a wheat farm about one and one half miles north of Storm Lake. Two years later he moved to a farm near the town of Marathon, where he lived for one year. During the spring of 1900, he and his family moved to the place southeast of Alta where the remaining years of his life were spent. He was converted during the Billy Sunday meetings that were held in Alta during the year of 1897. His membership within the Alta Methodist Church began on November 18, 1900. Throughout his life he was a faithful follower of Christ.

He was the father of seven children, all of whom survive him except Lester who passed away in the year 1930. His living children are: Mrs. James Rukes of Greenville, Iowa; Mrs. L. W. Shoemaker of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Mrs. Alfred Grienke, of Alta, Iowa; Mrs. Elvin Batho, of Kitchener Ontario, Canada; Archie Rees of Greenville, Iowa; and Marvin Rees, who is a Corporal in the Chemical Division of the Army of the United States and is stationed at Atlantic City, New Jersey.

He is also survived by his widow, Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Rees, of Alta; and by two sisters, Mrs. W. A. Barnes of Rembrandt, Iowa; and Mrs. Eugene Allison of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

- Alta Advertiser, 8 OCT 1942, p. 6