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Jane Lovitt

LOVITT MANIFOLD

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/24/2010 at 21:19:36

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Jane Lovitt
By Virginia Luse

As I remember Grandpa Lovitt, I think of him as a tall, kind gentleman. On our frequent visits to the farm east of Shenandoah, Bud and I vied for the first look at the white picket fence around Grandpa’s house. It was different from most houses I knew. It had a front and back stairway, feather beds, an old zinc tub that was used for storage, next to the kitchen, and a new bathroom, built on, with a stool and a tank that was way up in the air, and made funny noises when you flushed it. They also had a pump in the yard that had the coldest water. A ‘Wash’ house was a novelty, that also held apples from his orchard. ‘Egg gathering’ was a frightening experience to a ‘Town girl’. We would visit Uncle Fred’s and ride his pony. After one visit I had the most terrible itching around my waist, and I learned what ‘chiggers’ were. We always visited the Earl May or Henry Field radio shows in Shenandoah. A big event, like a theater. Grandmother Rosa Lee Manifold Lovitt was known for her ability to cook and make and sell butter.

Grandmother Sanborn had a front and back stairway also, and two kitchens, one for winter and one for summer. They had built on, a large dining room and bedroom above it. In the upstairs hall, which was very large and a lace collar. He was five years old. Grandma dressed her boys this way, as you can see by the family picture.

Dad, Cliff, has many stories to tell of their two-cylinder Auburn. How one cylinder burned out coming form Correctionville, and he found it would run, down-hill on one cylinder, so Grandpa Sanborn and Bill would get out and help push it uphill, and they would ride downhill, all the way to Moville. Dad was quite a mechanic and at 16 was an authority on the newfangled ‘car’. They had a Moon, a Maxwell, Packard, Humpmobile, and Oldsmobile. He tells of breaking a wrist rowing in a rowboat to rescue some neighbors in a stopped launch, then trying to turn the crank to start a car to go get wrist set he broke the other wrist. This was at Okoboji, on Sunset Beach where they had a cottage.

Mother had a sister, Ethel, who married Forrest Chantry and lived in Malvern. No living children but they helped raise a niece and nephew.

Aunt Ethel was a graduate of Cedar Falls in music, and sang and played until in her seventies. Uncle Forrest was very philanthropic, gave to Fire Department, gave ground for the elementary school and furnished the Kindergarten. They both lived until they were 92.

Aunt Grace married Fred Goodall. They had two children, Merle, a barber and farmer, and John, who farms Grandpa Lovitt’s farm. Merle is deceased. Merle had two children, and John had two, both had a boy and girl, I think. They both lived in Shenandoah.

As I look over the genealogy that Lynett’s mother, Isis Dean, researched I find a record from England of a Knight Nicholas Sambourne, born in 1350. There is also a picture of a castle in England called the Timsbury House which has the notation which says it was the residence of Somersetshiere Sambourne for three centuries. Isis tried to find it and found it had been destroyed in 1968 for a housing development. Other records of Richard Sanborn of New Hampshire, 1655 and George Washington Sanborn, Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1822.

The name has been spelled Sanbourne, Samborne, and then Sanborn. Let us hope that the name of Sanborn, Lovitt and all other family names can continue for a very long time. Ban the Bomb!


 

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