Frank, John Wesley (1850-1940)

FRANK, PRAY, KNOUSE, ARTHUR, LANGFORD

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 2/2/2017 at 17:02:36

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, Monday, April 8, 1940

J.W. FRANK, 84, DIES AT HOME IN CITY

Was Pioneer Resident; Funeral Will Be at Foster's

J. Wesley Frank, 84, one of the pioneer residents of Hamilton county, died at his home, 614 Ohio street, yesterday afternoon, death being caused by pneumonia. He had been ill about ten days.

Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Foster funeral home, with Dr. Ira J. Houston, Congregational pastor, officiating, assisted by the Rev. W. R. Yard, of the Baptist church. Burial will be made in Graceland cemetery beside the body of his wife.

John Wesley Frank was born Sept. 4, 1850, in Rohrerstown, Pa. In 1855, the lad of five with his parents, John and Ann Frank and family arrived in the covered wagon holding their most valued possessions.

Enroute to Fort Dodge the family camped at Homer, then the county seat, where Sumner Willson, who was trailing pioneers, prevailed upon them to come to New Castle, now Webster City, and help build a larger city at the bend of the Boone river. Sumner Willson was a brother of W.C. Willson, both pioneer settlers of Webster City.

Arriving in this city the Frank family camped the first night near the settlement consisting of two houses near what is now the viaduct on Fourth street.

Of the many locations available the Franks chose the 120 acres of wooded ravines and rich farm prairie just south of the Brewer creek because it reminded them of the environment they had left in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Here the family labored and built until 1909.

Wesley went through the city schools, then engaged in farming with his father in the summer and in carpentering in the winter. A drive about town still reminded him of "when father and I built the Closz farm home, and many others."

In 1897, he and his father did the carpenter work on their brick home now occupied by C.E. Pilchard. The South school building was one of the last large buildings he helped build.

Mr. Frank had lived in Webster City continuously with the exception of two years in Minnesota before his marriage, Sept. 23, 1884, to Eva Pray, one of the popular school teachers of the city. After purchasing the Silvers property on Ohio street, Mr. Frank devoted his time to market gardening and small fruit growing.

The real heritage he leaves his children is a name, character and reputation for fair dealing that is above reproach.

As a young man he and his brother loved to hunt and fish when quail, prairie chicken and ducks were plentiful. The last few years he had been a great reader of biography and news, but the war news was the most important to him recently until the last.

For 15 years he had been the oldest member of the Congregational church in point of years where he had been an active member for 72 years, attending long after loss of hearing deprived him of much of the service.

One vivid recollection he often referred to was the buying and shipping of dressed turkeys to Chicago and New York markets the winter the Illinois Central came to the east bank of the Boone river. The train left at dawn.

Through the years of middle life he and his wife enjoyed the fellowship offered by the Odd Fellow and Rebekah lodges, where the late A.F. Hoffman and G.F. Tucker were among the leaders.

In recent years he had taken a keen interest in gardening, spurred by his entries for competition at the county fair.

His wife died seven years ago last November. He leaves a daughter, Amy, and a son, Milton, at home, and a daughter, Mrs. Irene Frank Knouse, of San Diego, Cal., and four grandchildren. There are also two sisters, Mrs. Mattie Arthur, of Ashland, Ore., and Mrs. Lizzie F. Langford, of Peterson. The latter has been at his bedside for the past ten days.

[newspaper clipping says 84 years but he'd be closer to 89 or 90 at death]