Kneebone- Newton

KNEEBONE NEWTON, NEWTON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/21/2010 at 16:27:49

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Kneebone-Newton
By June Leone Whitmore Miller Schumann

Henry Arthur Kneebone, Jr and Helen Irene Newton met in the Jefferson, South Dakota, area, working with farming crews.

Henry Arthur, Jr was born 24 May 1878 at Jefferson, South Dakota, the son of Henry Arthur Kneebone, Sr (of Jefferson, South Dakota, and also lived in Plymouth County, Hancock Township, Iowa) and Celia Miner Stowe. Celia came from New York with her first husband, Frank Stowe, and had a son, Frank. After her husband passed away, she married Henry Arthur Kneebone, Sr. Their children were: Henry Arthur Kneebone, Sr. Their children were: John, Henry ‘Arthur’, born 24 May 1878, Mary, Cora and Florence.

Helen was the daughter of Joseph Harlan Newton and Mary Wilson of Shelton, Nebraska. Their children were: Helen, born 12 January 1882, at Shelton, Nebraska; Hattie, Clarence, Harvey, Viola and Johnny.

Henry ‘Arthur’ and Helen were married 25 November 1902 and had a child which they lost and is buried at Petosa, Iowa. They moved to the corner of West 18th and Hamilton. Henry ‘Arthur’, known as Arthur or Bob, worked at Davidson Brothers Store in the shipping department.

They were now expecting their second child. Helen’s parents were moving from Nebraska to Georgia and wanted to visit before moving. Blanche Leone Kneebone was born March 12, 1905. Helen wrote, telling her mother to wait until she was out of bed, because her mother was afraid of the gas stove. Her father stayed home because of a broken arm, but her mother, with little Johnny, came to visit. The gas was not properly turned off and caught fire when (lit) in the morning, severely burning Arthur.

He yelled for his mother-in-law to get the boy, and carried his wife and ten-day-old baby across the street to the Messick home. He then fought his way back into the house through the fire, but didn’t find his mother-in-law and Johnny. He was nearly trapped himself and thought they had gotten outside. The house burned to the ground and the bodies were later found in the basement and returned to Shelton, Nebraska, Cameron Cemetery, for burial.

They rebuilt on the same lot. Later they built two houses north of theirs, 1806 and 1898 Hamilton Street. Arthur was working at Davidson Brothers Department Store in the shipping department and had just walked out of Rush Drug Store when it caved in. He helped with the rescue of the ones he had been eating with in the window well.

Arthur was ill with pernicious anemia for about two years, on crutches and in a wheel chair, before he passed away at age 52 years on 23 December 1934. He was active in lodge work; he was a member of Woodbury Lodge No. 684 IOOF, Pacific Rebecca Lodge No. 557 IOOF, and Encampment No. 44. He had held all the offices and was installing officer at the time of his death. He managed the IOOF Lodge’s baseball team.

Helen said when she was young she would rather dance than eat. She was always available to everyone, whether she knew them or not, for anything they needed. She sat with many terminally ill people. She belonged to the Pacific Rebekah Lodge 577 IOOF.

Their daughter and her family lived with them, and Helen was known to most everyone as Grandma. Her leg was amputated in 1963 and she spent the rest of her life in a wheel chair. She passed away 26 January 1978. Helen and Henry Arthur, Jr are both buried in Logan Park Cemetery, Sioux City, Iowa.