Spaulding, Nellie (Farley) died 1940
SPAULDING, FARLEY, HENKES, MCGONIGLE, KOETHER
Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 10/22/2013 at 18:51:34
The following news article was very difficult to read, type faded and the left side of each sentence mostly illegible. I've transcribed it the best I can, hoping that it will be of use to someone in their family research....
-- -- --Woman, 82, Falls 400 Feet to Death - Had Wandered From Cottage - Lived Five Hours After Found on Highway
McGregor, Ia. - Mrs. [illegible] Spaulding, 82, daughter of [illegible] Clayton County family, died at the McGregor Hospital [illegible] Saturday of injuries suffered [illegible] she accidentally plunged [illegible] from the top of Ridge-[illegible] Bluff, one of the highest [illegible] overlooking the Mississippi River.
The aged woman, who lived at [illegible] with her sister, Mrs. Agnes Henkes, 69, had come here [illegible] to spend several days at the latter's cottage on [illegible], just above McGregor, [illegible] of a Summer colony. Mrs. Spaulding wandered away from the cottage about 6 p.m. Friday. Mrs. Henkes said she did not become alarmed at the time, thinking her sister was visiting friends [at an] adjoining cottage. After [illegible] however, a searching party was organized and nearly [illegible], including Boy Scouts, [illegible], and members of the McGregor Fire Department, spend [illegible] hours before she was found [illegible] p.m. beside the concrete [illegible] on the Marquette-McGregor road by Charles I. Blount, [illegible] of the local telephone [illegible].
Unconscious, but still alive, the woman was taken to the McGregor hospital where she died at 3:45 [illegible]. Injuries included fractures of both legs, a fractured skull and a broken left hand. The area in which the cottages are located is rugged, covered [illegible] and underbrush, with [illegible] footpaths winding be-[illegible] trees. It was assumed that she lost her way and wandered aimlessly over the hillside.
Mrs. Spaulding was the former [illegible] Farley and was born on a farm seven miles west of here, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Farley, pioneer Clayton County [illegible]. She was married to De[illegible] Spaulding of Beulah and they moved to a farm near Renville. Her husband died 20 years ago, and in 1938 she moved to Monona to live with her sister.
Survivors include one son, Ray [illegible] home farm near Renville; [illegible] sisters, Mrs. Maude McGon[illegible] of Chicago and Mrs. Henkes of Monona; and one brother, Ray Farley in Canada.
The body will be taken to Renville for burial.
~Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, Sunday morning edition, June 16, 1940
~DOD: 6/15/1940-- -- --
This brief bio from "The History of the Minnesota Valley", by Rev. Edward Neill, 1882; Renville County, Chapter LXXXIV gives her name as Nellie and husband as W.D. Spaulding:
W. D. Spaulding was born in 1848, in Michigan. The family migrated in 1853, to McGregor, Iowa. While residing in that state he attended the common schools, also learned telegraphing and was employed as operator in different places. In 1878 he came to Renville and embarked in the drug business. Mr. Spaulding married in 1879, Miss Nettie Farley; they have one child.
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Added 6/1/2016:
Body Found at Foot of Bluff
The broken and bruised body of Mrs. Nettie Spaulding, 80 year old daughter of a pioneer Clayton County family, was found at the foot of a 400 foot bluff near McGregor Friday night, two and one half hours after a searching party of more than 150 McGregor persons began combing the hillsides for the aged woman. She had wandered from a cottage on the Heights and apparently became lost in the underbrush and timber of Ridgewood, an adjoining summer resort to the Heights.She was conscious when found, but died a few hours later in the McGregor Hospital.
She had come here only Thursday to spend a few days with her sister, Mrs. Agnes Henkes, 69, in the latter's cottage on the Heights. She left the cottage at about 6 o'clock Friday evening and her sister assumed that she was visiting a friend in a nearby cottage.
Later, when it was discovered that she was not there, a search was begun, and at about 8 o'clock the McGregor Boy Scouts, fire department and others were called to the Heights to begin a search of the woods for her.
At 10:30 that night, her body was found in a heap on the shoulder of the Marquette-McGregor road.
She was last seen at about 6:30 that night, walking hurriedly along the road that connects the Heights with Ridgewood. Nothing was thought about her then and it was not until late in the evening of the search that it was learned she had gone to Ridgewood.
It is believed that she walked out on a path toward one of the lookout points on Ridgewood, became lost and confused and stumbled and slid down the steep hillside, finally rolling over a cliff about 100 feet above the road.
While the search went on above the road, another group patrolled the highway.
Loose rocks on the paving called attention to the side of the road later and Charles Yount and wife and Mrs. Norma Thien, discovered the body along the road. Harry Eichendorf previously had noticed a body along the road and had gone to notify authorities, neither of the cars connecting the body with the lost woman.
The Interstate Power Co. was searching the road farther along and those in the truck rushed Mrs. Spaulding to the hospital where it was found she had fractures of both legs, an arm and a fractured skull.
Mrs. Spaulding was the former Nettie Farley and was born on a farm seven miles west of here, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Farley, pioneer Clayton county residents. She was married to Delos Spaulding of Beulah and they moved to a farm near Renville, Minn. Her husband died 20 years ago and in 1938 she moved to Monona to live with her sister.
Survivors include one son, Ray, on the farm near Renville; two sisters, Mrs. Maude McGonigle of Chicago and Mrs. Henkes of Monona; and one brother, Ray Farley in Canada.
The body was taken to Renville Monday for burial.
~source: June 20, 1940, North Iowa Times.
~clipping contributed by Michelle Pettit (McGregor Public Library)
~transcribed by S. FerrallNotes, from Ron Harris:
Delos was the eldest son of Benjamin Franklin Spaulding. Delos was a brother of Clarence. Delos would be the uncle of E. Leslie Spaulding (http://iagenweb.org/boards/clayton/obituaries/index.cgi?read=494568). Nettie was the daughter of Peter Farley. Her sister was Agnes Farley Henkes. Agnes' daughter was Eleanore Henkes Koether of Giard. Eleanore married Eddie Koether._______________________
Added by Reid R. Johnson 10/13/2023:
Claton County Register, 19 June 1940.
MCGREGOR: Mrs. Nettie Spaulding, 82 of Monona, died at 3:45 Saturday morning at the McGregor Hospital from injuries received from a fall off a steep bluff on Ridgewood, a summer resort near town. Mrs. Spaulding was spending a few days with her sister, Mrs. Agnes Henkes, at her cottage on the Heights.
She left the cottage about 6 p.m., but Mrs. Henkes thought she had gone to a nearby cottage to visit friends. When it began to get dusk, Mrs. Henkes became alarmed and, failing to find her, sent out the alarm. This was answered by the Boy Scouts, Fireman and many men from town.
They searched the whole Heights hill, then it was learned that she had been seen going toward Ridgewood. Here the cottages are farther apart and the grounds more overgrown. The searching party was all over both hills for about three hours, when a car driving between Marquette and McGregor found her lying along the pavement, where she had fallen over the side of the steep bluff.
She was taken to the hospital, where it was found that both legs were fractured, also her left hand and skull. She suffered severe bruises also.
The body was taken to Renville, Minn., her former home, Sunday, where services were held Monday. She is survived by a son, Ray, on the home farm at Renville, two sisters, Mrs. Agnes Henkes of Monona and Mrs. Maude McGonigle of Chicago and one brother, Ray Farley of Canada. Mrs. Spaulding was born on a farm about seven miles west of McGregor, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Farley, pioneers of that community. She married Delos Spaulding of near Beulah, a member of another pioneer family of that part of Clayton County. Most of their married life was spent on a farm near Renville, Minn., where her husband died about five years ago. For the past two years she has made her home with a younger sister, Mrs. Agnes Henkes, formerly of Giard, but now living in Monona.
Clayton Obituaries maintained by Sharyl Ferrall.
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