Thomas Glover

GLOVER GILLIAM SAUNDERS LAMBERT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/26/2010 at 22:44:08

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Thomas Glover
By Gertrude Johnson Glover and Esther Glover Flammang

King George III of England gave land grants, sometime between the years 1760 and 1820, to people who wanted to settle in Jamestown, Virginia. Among these was the Glover Land Grant. It was written on sheepskin and given to Thomas Jefferson Glover and is wife, Martha Gilliam Glover, who were among the first families of Virginia.

Thomas J and Martha had one son, Thomas Edward, 1832-1917. Then Martha died, and Thomas J married Mary Saunders. They had two sons, Samuel and John. Mary died, and Thomas J married Margaret Lambert. Their children were William Lafayette, Benjamin Franklin, and Joshua Robert. The family moved to Carter County, Kentucky, near the Big Sandy River, where they owned slaves. In 1957, they moved to Lewis County, Missouri, where they lived until 1865, when they moved to Fremont County, Nebraska.

In 1866, Thomas Edward Glover married Eliza Lusetta Harmon, 1834-1889. Their children were Elizabeth Francis, 1869-1918, John Will, 1869-1964, Samuel Andrew, 1871-1913, and Keziah May, 1873-1955. The family was living near Bennett, Nebraska, when John Will was born. When he was seven years old, they moved to Macpaul in Fremont County. There they lived near the ‘Lime Kil’ that John Will often spoke about. This was home for five years, during which time there were two ‘overflows’ and one grasshopper year. They raised only two crops during the five years they lived there.

In 1881, Thomas Edward moved his family to Whiting, Iowa – then the following year to near Sloan, eventually settling six miles west of Sloan n the timber. There Thomas and his brothers, Benjamin and William (John Will’s uncles), bought 400 acres of timber at $10 an acre. There were no roads and no fences. They operated a saw mill, and John Will worked it.

1891, Thomas Edward and his family moved to a farm east of Bronson, Iowa. It was in this area that John Will met Venona Mary Dean, 1870-1931. They were married at the First Baptist Church in Sioux City, Iowa, on February 20, 1894. They lived with his parents and farmed near Bronson for the next six years, then purchased their own farm, two and one-halfmiles northwest of Lawton, Iowa, in 1900. About 40 acres of this farm was prairie sod, and John Will used three horses and a walking plow to breadk the sod.

John Will and Venona May Glover had four children: Iva Frances, 1895-1981, Ernest Ray, 1896-, Ethel May, 1902-1975, and John Harrison, 1904-.

(Ernest) Ray Glover married Gertrude Ione Johnson on April 18, 1917, In Sioux City, Iowa. Judge Searls perfored the ceremony. Ray and Gertrude lived with Ray’s parents until their new home, situated on a quarter section of land one-half mile north of the home place, was built in the fall of 1918.

Six children were born to Ray and Gertrude. They were Venona Eleanor, 1918-, Gertrude Esther, 1919-, Ernest LeRoy ‘Bud’, 1921-1969, Junior Ray, 1925-, Elwyn Richard, 1926-, and John Wayland ‘Bill’, 1929-.

In addition to farming 1917-1946, Ray owned and operated his own truck commercially for fifty-five years, when amputation of this left leg forced retirement form trucking.

Ray and Gertrude moved to 201 North Helen Street, Sioux City, Iowa, in 1946 and left the operation of the farm to their sons.

All of the children married and raised families. There are eighteen grandchilden (and two deceased) and thirty-four great grandchildren (and one deceased.