Walter Armstrong Family

ARMSTRONG, DAVENPORT, HEISTAND

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 4/22/2015 at 21:36:33

Monona County, Iowa History
1982

Walter Armstrong Family, p 96 – 97

Walter was the fourth child in a family of ten. He was born in Madison, Kansas, in 1928 to Bert and Viola Davenport Armstrong.

They moved from El Dorado, Kan., in 1937 to Little Sioux where Bert worked for Darrell Walters for two years. Then they farmed around Turin, Soldier and Moorhead areas.

In 1943 Bert and Viola bought a farm east of Mondamin. Walter’s mother, sister and brother still live there. His father passed away in May 1974. Walter had four brothers – Lester, Kenneth, Ronnie, and Keith – and five sisters – Lela, Rosie, Ruby, Patsy, and Mary.

I was born north of Moorhead in 1924 in a place called the Crows Nest to Roy and Minnie Heistand.

When I was about one year old, Dad bought a place six miles east of Moorhead. My two sisters and one brother were born there – Bernadine Raymond, Beth Gray, and Elvin. Elvin farms south of Soldier.

Later in the mid-thirties, my parents lost their place and moved to a farm south of Moorhead, and moved later to other farms. Dad passed away in Feb. 1953 and my mother passed away May 1977.

My mother’s parent’s names were Clemant and Bessie Bunn Lovell. They were married in England in 1878 and came to America in 1884, and bought a farm six miles east of Moorhead. They had ten children: Annie, Bessie, Rose, Louise, Minnie (my mother), Maude, Bertha, Ernest, William and John.

Walter and I were married Nov. 1945. We were blessed with four lovely children.

Dennis, our first born, now deceased, married Evelyn Parr. They had three children, Jeff, Shelly and Stacy. Jeff and Shelly live with us and Stacy has been adopted by her aunt Diane, her mother’s sister.
Donna, our sweet loving daughter, married Duane Lee. They have three darling boys, Terry, Richard and David. They live in Turin.

Dale, our loving son, is married to Linda Spencer. They have two lovely children, Heidi and Charles – he goes by Chuck. They live a mile and a half from us.

Crystal, our other loving daughter, is married to LaVern Lee. They have three lovely daughters, Cindy, Shawntell, and Sandy. They live four miles southeast of Moorhead.

We bought a farm in 1972, two miles west of Moorhead. We raise and sell feeder pigs, have some cows and calves, raise corn and hay. We enjoy farm life. We were both raised on a farm.

When we moved here, we had to build a hog house. We used what lumber we could from the old hog house, and other used lumber from a barn we tore down and built a ten pen hog house.

We also built a machine shed, and two open sheds for hogs. We are building a barn now out of lumber from our old barn and other used lumber which we had left.

Walter also works on construction running a dozer mostly but runs other equipment when needed, had helped build roads, dams, and terraces. Submitted by LaVonne Armstrong.