Bird Williams

WILLIAMS, MESSNER, ANDREWS, ACKERMAN, THORP, RIDER, EISENHOWER, MOECKLEY, SABIN, MORRIS

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 3/15/2011 at 21:03:01

The Bird Williams family came to Emmet County in 1912. They moved to a farm ten and a half miles northeast of Estherville, Iowa. Bird Williams came from Illinois and his wife Carrie Messner came to America from Germany, when she was three years old. They came by train to Estherville from Madison County, then by lumber wagon to their farm.

They had eight children: three boys and five girls.

Oscar married Alice Andrews of Council Bluffs; they had one daughter, Ruth Ackerman; Oscar lives with her in Wyoming.

Walter was married to Ethel Thorp. They had seven children: three girls and four boys. They lived in California until Walter's death in 1959.

Emma was married to L. E. Rider; she lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

Helen was married to Arnold Eisenhower; they had two daughters: Alice, Mrs. George Moeckley; had a boy and a girl. Gladys, Mrs. Eldon Sabin had three boys and a daughter and Gladys and Alice live in Montezuma, Iowa.

Arnold lived in Estherville until his death in 1972. Helen still lives in Estherville.

Rachel Williams was married to Allen Morris; they had three daughters and now farm near Winterset, Iowa. Their daughters live in Des Moines.

Stroud Williams is a farmer near Winterset, Iowa. They had two sons and three daughters.

Ruby Williams died at the age of five and a half years in 1918 during the flu epidemic.

John Griffith moved a barn from Estherville to the Williams farm with teams of oxen. The Williams children walked one and a half miles to attend the one room country school, called the Reimer School.

The first tractor Bird owned was called a Bates Steel Mule. He owned a threshing machine and threshed oats and barley for several neighbors. His first car was an E. M. T. It had no doors and the steering wheel was on the right side.

The family picked corn by hand using husking pegs. They had a big garden and canned all their vegetables and fruit. They churned butter in a barrel churn. They made their own soap in an iron kettle.

The family attended the Christian Church in Estherville, driving a team of horses, summer and winter for many years.

Contributed by: Mary Lou (Ziemer) Grymyr. Source: "History of Emmet County, Iowa Vol.III" Page 447, 1976.