Kessey, Anna J. (Mrs. Nels) 1861-1947

KESSEY, JOHNSON, KLEIN, SMITH

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 7/15/2022 at 08:03:09

From the Alton Democrat, November 20, 1947:

Mrs. Nels Kessey Dies At O.E.S. Home

Mrs. Nels Kessey, early resident at both Orange City and Alton, died Nov. 8 at the Eastern Star home in Boone where she had been a resident for several years.

Mrs. Kessey came to Orange City in the ‘80s from Decorah with her husband, a young attorney and former school superintendent. With the late G. W. Pitts Mr. Kessey founded the Bank of Northwestern Iowa at Alton and Northwestern State Bank of Orange City. The couple built a home in north Alton on the west bank of the Floyd River where several children were born. Mr. Kessey passed on while the children were still young and the family moved to Sioux Falls where the eldest daughter, Bee, died a few years later.

Mr. Kessey was buried at Orange City, where an infant son was also laid to rest, but in 1894 his body was disinterred and moved to the family lot in the Decorah cemetery. It was here that Mrs. Kessey was buried following rites at the Home in Boone.

Mrs. Marlys Huntoon, formerly of Waterloo, is the only surviving child, and there are a number of grandchildren. Captain Ray Kessey of Ft. Townsend, Wash., and the younger son, Floyd of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, both died some years ago.

Mrs. Kessey was happy in the beautiful surroundings at the Boone O.E.S. home and wrote friends here of her great interest in her grandchildren, several of whom saw service in the late war.

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RESEARCH NOTES

Her death certificate has Mrs. Anna Kessey, widow of Nelson; born Nov. 19, 1861 at La Crosse, Wisconsin; parents Gilbert Johnson and Gertrude Klein; died at the Eastern Star Home, Boone, Iowa, where she had been a resident for six years, at 6 p.m. November 6, 1947; cause, cerebral hemorrhage with left hemiplegia, duration 2 months; due to arteriosclerosis; buried at Decorah, Iowa.

Her FindaGrave.com page has her as Anna Johnson Smith; born 19 Nov 1861 in Dane County, Wisconsin; died 6 Nov 1947 in Iowa; buried in Phelps Cemetery, Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa. Parents Gilbert Johnson (1830-1871) and Gertrude Klein Johnson (1837-1900). Two husbands listed: Nels Kessey (1851-1893, married 1879) and George Ernest Smith (1864-unknown, married 1899). Four children listed: Beatha E. Kessey (1882-1896), Raymond Johnson Kessey (1884-1937), Marlys Esther Kessey Huntoon (1886-1981), and Donald M. Kessey (1889-1898).

The Iowa Gravestones Photo Project lists her as Anna (Johnson) Kessey, one of six – the others being Nels, Donald M., and Beatha Kessey, and Dewitt C. and Marlys (Kessey) Huntoon – grouped around the Nels Kessey family stone. There is a photo of her headstone, Anna Johnson Kessey.

The 1900 U.S. census for Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa has an entry for George E. Smith, age 36, born Feb. 1864, born in New Jersey, a salesman, married one year; wife Anna K., age 36, born Nov. 1863 in Wisconsin, father born in Norway, mother born in Germany; daughter Marlys Kessey, age 13, born Sept. 1886.

The 1905 Iowa state census index on Ancestry.com shows her living in Waterloo as Anna K. Smith, married. Apparently the marriage dissolved in 1908 or 1909, and she resumed the surname Kessey. Waterloo newspaper articles refer to her as Mrs. George E. Smith at the time of her daughter Marlys’ marriage to Dr. D. C. Huntoon in May 1908, but by April 1909 she is called Anna J. or Mrs. A. J. Kessey.

She is still living in Waterloo in the 1920s, as Anna J. Kessey (1922 city directory, 1925 Iowa state census). She was not readily located in the 1930 census. The 1940 census shows her living in Iowa City with her widowed daughter Marlys K. Huntoon and three female lodgers (public school teachers).