Stoker, Margaret

STOKER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 21:58:41

Margaret Stoker

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.385)
MARGARET STOKER, of Pottawattamie County, was born May 29, 1822, in Wilkes County, North Carolina, the daughter of John and Rhoda (JUDD) STOKER, the former a native of North Carolina. Mrs. STOKER was in her seventh year when her parents moved to Wayne County, Indiana, where they lived until after her father's death, which took place when she was about seven or eight years of age. He left his widow and nine children, of whom Mrs. Stoker was the youngest. In 1838, when she was sixteen years of age, the family moved to Iowa, on the Des Moines River, when the state was still a Territory and where they lived until the mother's death, which occurred one year later.
In 1839 Mrs. STOKER was married, at the age of seventeen years to Eller STOKER, who was born in Jackson County Ohio, the son of Michel and Catherine Ella STOKER, the mother a native of North Carolina and the father of Germany. Eller STOKER was reared in Ohio, when about twenty-one years of age moved to Missouri, where he lived two years and then came to Iowa, and afterward moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, where he became a member of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, in 1846. He then came back to the old homestead, where Mrs. STOKER still lives, and cultivated a portion of the land before his death, which occurred July 18, 1855, lacking but a few days of being thirty-nine years old, and leaving a widow and seven children, viz.: Orson Hyde, who lives near Yorkshire, Harrison County, Iowa, is married and has seven children: Allen, who lives near Union Grove, Harrison County and has five children; Michel E., lives near Union Grove, Harrison County; Lavina, the wife of William SPEARS, lives in Pottawattamie County, and has six children, Mary, wife of William SHENE, of Garner Township, has three children; Calpernia, lives in Minden Township, the wife of George SPEARS, and has four children; and Lucretia, who lives in Garner Township, the wife of William HEILEMAN. Mrs. STOKER has had a wonderful experience on living in Iowa and she has witnessed the growth and prosperity of the State.

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.97, Garner Twp.)
STOKER, Mrs. Marguerite
Council Bluffs, was born in North Carolina in 1822; daughter of John and Rhoda Judd. When Mrs. Stoker was quite young, she moved, with her parents, from North Carolina to Indiana, where she was raised and educated. When seventeen years of age, she married Mr. E. Stoker, born in Ohio in 1816. At the time of her marriage, she was living with her mother (her father having died ten years before) on the Des Moines River, near what was called Meeke's Mill at that time a flouring mill, subsequently a woolen-mill; there she had lived a year previous to her marriage. The first two years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Stoker lived in the eastern part of Garner Township, and then moved onto the present place. When they first settled in this township, almost their only neighbors were Indians and half-breeds, and they were obliged to procure their provisions in Missouri. When the Western lands first came into market, Mr. Stoker purchased 160 acres; he also entered land, and subsequently added to this till the farm now consists of 360 acres. Mr. Stoker died in 1855, leaving his wife with seven children, two of whom live in Harrison County and five in this county; they are all married, except the youngest son.