Peter & Agnes Gambs

GAMBS LOUCKS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/27/2010 at 20:18:11

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Peter and Agnes (Loucks) Gambs
By Maxine Gambs McCaw

Peter Gambs and his wife, Agnes Adelaide Loucks were early pioneers in Smithland, living there over half a century. They were active citizens of the community. Both were charter members of the Evergreen Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Peter served for many years on the School Board and was an active member of Amicable Lodge 289 of the Masonic Order. A veteran of the Ciavil War, he always marched with his comrades in the Memorial Day Parade. Agnes was one of the founders of the Smithland Cemetery Association and of the Twentieth Century Reading Circle and was a member of the ‘Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic’ and of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Peter Gambs, son of Nicholas Gambs and Anne Marie Chatillon, was born in Rimling, France, on May 30, 1843, and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1854. He lived on a farm near Miltonsburg, Ohio, until the age of twenty-one when he enlisted in the Grand Army of the Rpublic. The tradition is that he was paid $1000 by a local merchant to go in his place. As the second best-fit man physically in his regiment he was kept back form the actual battles for recruiting and guarding. He was one of the guards for the body of Abraham Lincoln as it was being transported from the train to the Capitol in Columbus, Ohio, enroute to Illinois for burial.

In the fall of 1865, Peter Gambs followed his two-half brothers, Nicholas and John Gambs, to Smithland, Iowa. There, in March of 1866, he used his $1000 to buy a farm of 120 acres on the north edge of town from the founder, O B Smith.

Agnes Adelaide Loucks, daughter of Adam Loucks and Jane Moore Collier, was born near Eureka in Montcalm County, Michigan, on September 11, 1850. Her family moved by covered wagon to Albion, Iowa, when she was four years old. After she finished her own education, she taught country school near Albion and then, in the fall of 1869, went to Smithland to keep house for her brother, Richard Henry Loucks, who was the druggist, and her cousin, Dr R C Rice, who was the doctor in Smithland.

Peter Gambs and Agnes Loucks were married on March 1, 1871. They lived and farmed in Smithland until the fall of 1920 when they moved to Santa Monica, California, where Agnes passed away on March 9, 1921, and Peter on January 18, 1929.

Six children were born to them: LeRoy S Gambs, 1872-1960, Walter Henry Gambs, 1874-1957, Kate Gambs (Mrs Otto J Rahn), 1877-1951, Kizzie Belle Gambs (Mrs William Griffen), 1879-1972, John Howard Gambs, 1882-1948, and Dale Collier Gambs, 1888-1973. They had five grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren.