Thrift, Hannah Jane; Josiah; Eunice (A Trip into the Past)

THRIFT, LAWRENCE, JEWETT

Posted By: Jane Adams (email)
Date: 6/17/2005 at 21:21:17

Des Moines Tribune
Sat., Sept. 2, 1967
Page 16.

A TRIP INTO THE PAST.....By Lillian McLaughlin.

A 57-year-old San Franciscan, Arthur J. LAWRENCE, Thursday and Friday made his first visit to Des Moines so he could stand on a certain high knoll in Union Park.....overlooking Saylor road and the Birdland boat basin, historic in LAWRENCE’S family and in Polk County. In a log cabin that once stood there, his grandmother, Hannah Jane (Jennie) THRIFT, was born, daughter of Josiah M. THRIFT, who became tailor of the Fort Raccoon garrison in 1843, and his wife, Eunice Jewett THRIFT. Jennie was the first white child born in Polk County..... LAWRENCE had with him a stern photograph of old Josiah, who, Polk County historian Johnson BRIGHAM wrote, “died in 1881, one of the last of the little band of enlisted men who came to Des Moines with Capt. James ALLEN in 1843.” Other photographs of Joe’s wife Eunice, the 19-year-old bride whom he fetched the same year to Fort Raccoon from Libertyville in Jefferson County; of Lawrence’s grandmother, Hannah Jane, and her handsome husband, Myron LAWRENCE, whom she married in Boonesboro (Boone) in 1861; of her brother William also born in the Union Park cabin, who was to serve as adjutant general of Iowa from 1905 to 1909. And, tied with a faded ribbon, tucked in the pages of a letter with dimming script, a lock of Jennie’s hair!

Some years ago, through a death in the family, Lawrence came into possession of an old trunk filled with family keepsakes, scores of photographs and daguerrotypes (many, sadly, not identified), letters, and a 1911 copy of the publication Christian Worker, with an article on Eunice Jewett Thrift: “The First Settler in Des Moines, by her nephew, George A. JEWETT.” JEWETT, a member of Des Moines’ Central Church of Christ, was editor of the publication. A Des Moines lumberman, one of the organizers of Drake University and its secretary for many years, he was the grandfather of Gerald A. JEWETT, president of the Jewett Lumber Co. today. .....The Thrifts took a ‘squatter’s‘ claim on a piece of land on the high ground of what is now Union Park..... Hannah Jane THRIFT born there in a log cabin March 15 1845, being the first white child born in Polk County, and William H. THRIFT in 1847, who was adjutant general under Governor CUMMINS.

“Mrs. THRIFT’S father and mother (my own grandfather and grandmother)”, JEWETT continued, “came in 1845 and settled on the land just east of the Thrifts in what is now Capitol Park addition.” Joe THRIFT resigned as garrison tailor in 1850 and went to California in search of gold, his wife remaining in Iowa. He returned in 1853 and opened up “a tailor shop on Second Street, the then business street of Des Moines, where he remained until 1856, when they removed to Boonesboro, Boone County. In 1873 the family moved to California..... A relative that LAWRENCE found now living in Des Moines is Gerald A. JEWETT, former president of the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, the Des Moines YMCA, a trustee of Drake University, and a Tribune Community Service Award winner.....

The lock of Jenny’s hair LAWRENCE left in a proper place, the Iowa State Department of History and Archives.

This data has been transcribed for genealogical purposes; I am not related to the subject.