Ira Waldo 1825 - 1914

WALDO, BLASIER

Posted By: Joe Conroy (email)
Date: 6/30/2012 at 09:50:20

Williamsburg Journal Tribune
Williamsburg, Iowa
16 Apr 1914
Page 5

Ira Waldo.

One of York's First Settlers Dies in Des Moines. Buried in Daniel's Cemetery.

Ira Waldo died at his home in Des Moines on Monday, April 13th. Funeral services were held at the home and the body was then shipped to Williamsburg, arriving here Tuesday. It was kept in the Rock undertaking parlor until Wednesday when it was taken to the Daniel's Cemetery in York township and laid away beside the body of the wife who died in 1859. As an interesting chronicle of the old days, the body of Mrs. Waldo was the first one placed in this cemetery.

Dr. N. A. Swickard, pastor of the M. E. church, Williamsburg, officiated at the grave.

The following relatives accompanied the body to Williamsburg: Thomas Whiffen and Harmon Waldo, DeWitt, Neb., and Mrs. Maud Lichtleiter, Des Moines.

Ira Waldo was born in Western, N. Y. and was 89 years old at the time of his death. He came to Iowa county in 1859. He was married in New York to a sister of the late Edward Blasier and the wife died here the same year the family came to Iowa. Mr. Waldo took for his second wife a Mrs. Purdy and the home was then made on the farm now owned by Geo. Dane. He was a blacksmith by trade and his shop on the farm was the first one in this part of Iowa county. At the breaking out of Indian hostilities in the Black Hills district in the middle 60's, Mr. Waldo enlisted in the regular army and underwent the hardships of a trying campaign on the frontier. A son, Harmon, was then serving in the Civil War, in the same Company with his uncle, Edward Blasier.

In 1866 the Waldo family moved to Nebraska and it was only through the death of the old pioneer that many of the present generation learned that he was one of the early settlers of York township.