Viola D. Wilbur Lucas 1854-1931

LUCAS, WILBUR, VAN VALKENBERG, VALKENBURG

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 8/22/2010 at 09:04:42

Mrs. John Lucas
The links in the chain of events that make the history of Emmet county are breaking one by one. Soon none will be left of that group of sturdy pioneers who first broke the virgin soil of those prairies.

Mrs. Lucas was one of Emmet County’s early settlers. With her parents she came to a farm six miles northwest of Estherville in the early summer of 1866. She was a part of our history from that date until her death at the Ray Van Valkenburg home on Howard Street on Saturday, February 14, 1931.

She was born, Viola D. Wilbur, at Bridgeport, Wis., on March 30, 1854. On April 18, 1874, at Loon Lake, Minn., she was married to John Lucas. They made their first home on the farm – the Lucas homestead, northwest of town on the West Side of the river. In 1885 they moved to this city and have made their home here since that time. Mrs. Ray VanValkenberg, of Estherville, Iowa; Will Lucas, of Sheridan, Why.; Edgar Lucas, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Bert Lucas, of Chicago, Ill.; Percy Lucas, of Minneapolis, Minn., and Roy Lucas, our fellow townsman, survive. The son and daughter, who died in infancy, and Mr. Lucas, who died July 14, 1920, are buried in the family plot in the East Side cemetery.

Mrs. Lucas and her husband were charger members of the Baptist Church when it was first organized in this community and throughout the years have made every possible contribution to the welfare of our community.

Burial was made on Tuesday, February 17, from the residence at 2 p.m. and from the Methodist Episcopal Church at 2:30 p.m., the pastor, the Rev. W. A. WinterStein, in charge. (Estherville Enterprise, Estherville, IA, February 18, 1931)