Andrew V. Ribbey (1857-1919)

RIBBEY, LEBAR, LE BAR

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 6/11/2024 at 19:06:25

From Story City Herald January 1, 1920 (page 4)

Obituary of A. V. Ribbey

Andrew V. Ribbey was born in Wisconsin about the year 1859, and moved with his parents to Illinois in 1861, where his father enlisted in the Civil war. His father was killed in the war and left a wife and five small children.

Andrew and a younger brother were placed in the soldiers orphans home in Illinois. From there he went to Nebraska and began working to earn a home of his own. He succeeded by working hard and saving, to accumulate enough to buy one of the choicest 80 acre farms in central Iowa, located northwest of Randall. In 1889 he came to Iowa and began to improve his land, building on it and farming it. A year or so later he began to shun his friends and neighbors, seeming to think that they wished to harm him. He was suspicious of strangers as well as of friends.

He told a friend that while he was living in Nebraska the church had employed him to ferret out a gang of toughs and he was afraid they would find him and perhaps kill him. This seemed to worry him, as he was always armed night and day.

Andrew was found dead in his house Tuesday, Dec. 16th. From all indications he had been dead about six days. His body was frozen stiff when found. The funeral was held at Webster City, Dec. 19th, where the remains were laid to rest beside his mother and brother Frank. May beautiful flowers testified to the sympathy felt for the man whose life had been so unfortunate, and whose ending was so tragic.

He leaves two brothers and a sister, namely, Mrs. Mary LeBar and Henry, both of Yakima, Wash., and Elmer, who was last heard of at Prairie City.