Stokes, Albert T. (66th Birthday, 1936)
STOKES, EYRES
Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 11/15/2011 at 18:54:47
LeMars Globe-Post
May 7, 193666 YEARS AGO ALBERT T. STOKES FIRST CAME TO PLYMOUTH CO.
Drove Horses From Sioux City To Locate On Stanton FarmSixty-six years ago a small boy, 10 years old, hopped into a farm wagon, without springs, for the comparatively short and easy ride from the frontier town of Sioux City into Stanton township, a few miles south of the insignificant new hamlet of LeMars to take up a homestead.
Four other children rode in the wagon with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stokes. There was a home already prepared for the, one of the first frame buildings in the county, for the father had gone ahead and found a farm. Then he called for his family.
The pioneer children got quite a thrill out of seeing many Winnebago Indians on their way back to their homeland in Wisconsin for fishing. It had been a year or so before that the government moved them from, their home in Wisconsin to the reservation in Nebraska.
When the family got to Stanton township, they noticed Plymouth Creek, and learned that their father had located his farm and driven across the creek in the month of March without knowing there was a creek there. It had been the famous hard winter of ’69-70.
The Stokes family endured “hard times” all during the Seventies, but so did everybody else. From ’78 on prices got better, and everything looked brighter. This, Mrs. Stokes says, was due to the Bland-Allison law, which obliged the government to get partly off the single gold standard by coining some silver money. Wheat went up from 35c a bushel to about $1 a bushel.
Albert Stokes, the oldest boy, worked for his father until he was 30 years old. Then he was married to Miss Annie Eyres of Union township and bought a farm of his own in Section 6, Union township, known as the William Ruth homestead.
Four children were born to this couple: Hazel, now director of a cafeteria in Kalamazoo, Mich.; Carlton, at the old home place; Thomas R. Thermopolis, Wyoming; Alfred Gordon, also on the home place.
In 1929 Mr. and Mrs. Stokes moved to LeMars. In September of 1934, Mrs. Stokes died. Since then, he has been living with his sister, Mrs. John Harker.
Mr. Stokes will spend his 66th anniversary in Plymouth county, as usual. He will come downtown about 2 or 3 o’clock, play cards at the Elks for an hour or two, and then go back home again. He is enjoying reasonably good health.
Plymouth Documents maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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