LAPHAM, Jay A. 1854-1932

LAPHAM, RANCHE

Posted By: Diane M Scott (email)
Date: 6/10/2011 at 09:36:13

Jay A. Lapham 1854-1932

#1:

The Laphams were New England people of Revolutionary stock. From the East they came out to Wisconsin, where Jay. A. Lapham was born, and he was a child when the family came to Iowa and settled at Bradford.

On April 8, 1881, he married Ella Ranche. Ella Ranche was born at old Bradford in Chickasaw County, Iowa. Her father, John Ranche, who came from Germany, was a carpenter and cabinet maker by trade and he helped build the famous Little Brown Church in Chickasaw County.

Jay A. Lapham and Ella Ranche were students together in the old Bradford Seminary, of which he subsequently became principal. He took some advanced work in the University of Chicago.

He was county superintendent of schools of Chickasaw County from 1880 to 1886, and for fourteen years taught in the Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, served six years as county superintendent of schools of Mitchell County, and for two years taught in Central College at Pella.

After retiring from school and college work he became director of religious education for the American Baptist Publication Society.

Rev. Jay A. Lapham for many years had been an ordained Baptist minister, and he filled pulpit assignments nearly every Sunday until he retired. His wife taught school at Ionia, Iowa.

They had four children, the oldest, Burnett, dying at the age of seventeen, and the youngest, Judson, passing away at the age of four. Their daughter, Joyce Elinor Lapham, is an A. B. graduate of Des Moines College, also has advanced credits from the University of Chicago and Columbia University, and is a teacher at Cleveland, Ohio. Their son Percy Charles Lapham attended the Osage High School, also studied at the Central Academy and then at Pella, Iowa, Central College, and took his A. B. degree at Des Moines College, 1912.

Note: Story of his education and accomplishments etc. from: A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,BUSINESS, ETC. By EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV
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#2:
Osage City Cemetery:
Jay A Lapham….death/burial April 4, 1932
Ella A Lapham….death/burial September 30, 1943
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#3:

1900 US Census: Osage, Mitchell, Iowa

Jay A. Lapham, 46, born January 1854, Wisconsin
Ella R., 42, born November 1857, Iowa
Burnett L., 17, born September 1882, Iowa
Joyce E., 12, born February 1888, Iowa
Percy, 9, born December 1890, Iowa
Elizabeth Ranche, mother-in-law, 72, born June 1827, Germany