Emmigration from Rock Grove Township (Floyd Co) in the 1890s

HOCKMAN, ANKENY, WORKMAN, GAYLORD

Posted By: sheyna (email)
Date: 8/23/2018 at 18:06:34

My ancestors lived in Rock Grove Township (near Nora Springs, in Floyd County) throughout the second half of the 19th century. But for some reason the lot of them got up and left for Ontario, California, outside Los Angles around 1896. I'm finding so many families that I'm baffled and wondering what on earth went so wrong in Rock Grove in the 1890s? My first theory is the Panic of 1873? But that's just a guess.

By 1900 all of the below were in California:

-Catherine Lavona ("Kate") Hess Ankeny
-Cora Belle Ankeny Hockman (Kate's daughter) (in Calf. by 1898)
(Cora's husband David E. Hockman, either died just before, or during the trip to California, I can find no record of his death in Floyd County)

-David Hockman (senior)
-Sarah J. Forbes Hockman (his wife)
-Charles Henry Hockman (adult son) (in Calf. by 1898)
-George Brook Hockman (adult son)
-William S. Hockman (adult son)
-May Hockman (William's wife)
-Ruth Hockman (3-year-old daughter born in Iowa)

-Sarah Ankeny Gaylord
-John Gordon Gaylord (Sarah's husband)

In California they met up with Norman Workman who's was born in Rock Grove but had moved to Oregon several years earlier. Norman appears to have arrived in Ontario, Calf., around 1898.

I keep finding more of them, they left Rock Grove Township, Iowa about the same time and all moved to Ontario, California.

Any ideas?