Flora Middleton

MIDDLETON BEEBE HANSON MARTIN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/6/2010 at 23:48:49

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Flora Middleton
By Mrs Delma Martin LaFave and Mrs Sally Martin Ruttkay

Dad, to us, was just plain ole ‘Lee Martin,’ Pete to his friends. We were all kept in the dark about our dad’s background, never knowing until now any of our relatives on our dad’s side. In 1978, we decided to start searching, never dreaming what we would find out. Boy, were we in for a surprise!

Lee Martin, in reality, was Flora Middleton, born March 21, 1900, in Russiaville, Indiana. As a young boy he migrated through Iowa with his father, James, and his mother, Lettishey (Beebe), and his brother, Ira, and sister, Bessie. They then traveled onward to South Dakota, to Pesho to be exact. At age fifteen, Flora lied about his age, and joined the United States Army in 1915. Take into mind, Flora’s parents were very strict Quakers; when they heard his news, they immediately disowned him. The Quakers do not believe in bearing arms for any reason. But Flora’s love for his country and the military surpassed his family’s feelings by far.

This was the start of a very intriguing life for this man-child. Through his fingerprints the FBI has established he enlisted in the Army seven different times within twelve years between 1915 and 1927. All enlistments were under assumed names, ranging from Lee Martin, Harry Smith, Harry L Smith, John Clarence Allen, Harry Martin, Harry Lee Smith, and of course, Flora Middleton.

Whether this man was living in a fantasy world for this twelve-year span or if he enjoyed out-witting the Army, we’ll probably never know. But when he was in service under one of his many aliases, during World War I, he was critically wounded, losing the use of one lung. Although the loss of the lung brought him ill health in the years that followed, never once did he ask for any compensation from the government for any reason. Still this didn’t slow down as he re-enlisted shortly after his dismissal form a military hospital in the Hawaiian Islands.

As all good things must come to an end, he was caught and made to finish out one of his enlistments for five yeas under the name of Lee Martin.

Dad married our mom, Esther Hanson on December 8, 1929, in Mount Vernon, South Dakota. Still using the alias name of Lee Martin he raised eight children, four sons and four daughters. We moved quite a lot back and forth between Iowa in and around Woodbury County, and in South Dakota near Mount Vernon, Letcher, and Loomis, to name a few of the many places. We usually moved when Dad was in need of a job. He could do just about any type of work, from breaking horses to roofing a house. He did a lot of farming, sometimes leaving for months to follow the wheat harvest, going clear up to the Canadian border and working his way down to Texas.

Lee Martin, (Flora Middleton) died May 21, 1962, in Sioux City, Iowa. He is buried in the Public Cemetery at Howard, South Dakota, under his alias name of Lee Martin. Shortly after Dad’s death, Mom received his discharge and believe it or not, it was honorable. Mom also received a certificate from President John F Kennedy stating it was awarded to him by a grateful nation in recognition of devoted and selfless consecration to the service of mankind in the Armed Forces of the United States.

In loving memory of our Dad. . .