Ray Allen Newman

NEWMAN RIGGLES

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/24/2010 at 21:05:08

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Ray Allen Newman
By Eva Deppe Newman

Ray Allen Newman was born March 14, 1893, near Onawa, Iowa, on a farm. He is the son of Ben Thomas and Malissa Alice (Riggles) Newman.

Ray’s dad, Ben, was born October 18, 1857, in Indiana, and died in 1945. His mother, Malissa, was born May 2, 1964, in Kansas and died in 1948. Ben and Malissa were married December 29, 1880, in Kansas. After living in Kansas for a few years, they moved to Mapleton, Iowa, where Ben worked as section Foreman for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. He had his feet frozen during a snowstorm at the Monona County cut out. He then moved to Woodbury County and operated a fruit farm near Lawton, Iowa. He peddled fruit and produce house to house, in Sioux City, using a horse and wagon.

While living on the fruit farm, the entire family had smallpox around 1905. Dr Ray, of Lawton, doctored them. Ben and Malissa had thirteen children: Jess Thomas, Anna Pearly, John William, Jim Owen, Ben David, Emma, Charles, Ray Allen, Roy Clifford, Cecil Jennings, Katie, Nora, and Merle.

As a young man, Ray and his brother, Jim, and Jim’s wife, Bessie migrated to Saskatchewan, Canada. Ray returned home to enlist in the army during World War I. He enlisted at Sheldon, Iowa, and then went to Colorado and Texas before serving in France with the Balloon Signal Corp. They landed in Brest, France, and went to Bordeaux. He was acting Mess Sergeant. He returned to Iowa after WWI. He is a charter member of the American Legion, having been a member sixty-four years.

I was born, Eva Deppe, November 22, 1900, in Sac County, Iowa, on a farm. My dad, Henry, was born July 2, 1859, and died March 6, 1941, at the age of 82. My mother, Sarah (Hartman) was born November 2, 1867, and died May 16, 1954, at age 86.

Dad came to the US form Germany, at the age of 21. He arrived in Storm Lake, Iowa, with only $9.00 in his pocket and worked for a farmer who had been a friend of his parents. There, he met my mother at church. My mother’s dad was a Methodist Minister. Mom and Dad were married at the German Reformed Church, at Schaller, Iowa, in 1886. They spent nineteen years on a Sac County farm, four years in Ida County, and one year in Sherburn, Minnesota. They moved to Storm Lake in 1912, upon retirement.

They had eight children: William, Louise Marie, Fred, Adam, Edward, Paul, Eva and Emma. My dad called me ‘Dolly’.

I worked as a waitress. Then I went to Rock Rapids, Iowa, and worked for my sister, Louise and her husband, Henry Christensen, in a café. This is where I met Ray Newman. We were married December 16, 1919. We will be married sixty-four years this month, December 1983.

Ray worked as a baker and hotel chef, before returning to Sioux City. In Sioux City, he did cement work for Coomer and Small, and worked 19 years as a butcher for Amour and Company. At this time we live on Fairview Blvd.

We then moved to Oto, Iowa, and farmed for five years. We moved back to Sioux City and owned and operated the East End Café, in Morningside, and later the White Way Café, in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. While doing this, we also raised turkeys and hogs, and fed cattle on our acreage on Christy Road. We sold this and bought a home on South Lakeport, where we have lived the past twenty-eight years. We owned and operated Ma and Pa’s Café, in South Sioux City, Nebraska, until we retired in 1960. Ray did the cooking and I ran the front and did the book work. We worked at least fourteen hours a day.

We have three children: Dayrl Owen, born August 24, 1921, at Belmond, Iowa; Alma B, born January 18, 1923, at Webster city, Iowa; and Donald Alfred, born May 7, 1928. For information on Don, please refer to the Tom Fowler family in this book.

Dayrl married Della Mae, daughter of Frank and Malissa Hanson, in 1945. Mae was born September 22, 1926. In 1942, Dayrl went into the army, serving in the European Theater of Operations, in 782 Separate Tank Battalion. He worked for the Iowa Public Service Co., for thirty-two years, until he retired March 1, 1984. Della attended school in Mapleton, and worked as a waitress until she was married. She worked at Zenith for one year. She enjoys her seven grandchildren. They have four children: Sharon Kay, born July 9, 1946; Ray Stanley, born October 25, 1948; Sheila Kathleen, born February 5, 1951; and Michael Owen, born July 27, 1952.

Sharon married Michael Harris, son of Edward and Evelyn Harris, in 1964. Michael was born April 15, 1943. They live in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and have three children: David Michael, born November 11, 1967; Edward Dayrl, born May 22, 1970; and Sarah Jane, born July 31, 1976.

Michael Newman married Sherry Beargeon, daughter of Ralph and Amelia Beargeon. Sherry was born February 2, 1954. Mike is a technician with the 185th Air National Guard. Sherry is employed part-time at Sears. They have three children: Shannon Marie, born July 12, 1976; Ryan Michael, born March 11, 1979; and Christopher Owen, born May 19, 1982.

Ray married Annie Marie Hanson, daughter of Ken and Mary Hanson. Anne was born September 23, 1947. Ray works as a mechanic for Friendly Ford Co. They have one child, Dayrl Ray, born October 15, 1974. They are expecting another child in February of 1984.

Sheila works as a secretary in the Public Works Department, for the City of Sioux City.

Alma B Newman, second child of Ray and Eva Newman, was born at Webster City, Iowa. She came to Sioux City as a young child and attended public school and graduated from Central High School in 1940. She worked at T S Martin Company, as receptionist in the Fur Shop, until her marriage to Carl Stekelenburg of Salix, Iowa, in August 1941. They farmed at Brown’s Lake (Island) for several years and operated a café in Salix before moving to Kingston, Missouri, and later to Fayette, Missouri, to farm. They have three children and seven grandchildren. (See Stekelenburg history.)

Alma’s career covered over thirty years of Institutional Food Service Management in four state universities, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, as well as Neiman Marcus Health Spa. She later retired from Sky Chef, American Airlines. She attended Tarrant County Junior College and the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Recently she worked as Food Consultant and published and marketed the cookbook ‘Range Pilot’ from Alma’s Kitchen.

She and Carl have enjoyed considerable travel to the South Pacific and Europe. They presently reside at Grove, Oklahoma.