Isaac James & Mary Cathern Ortman Parks

PARKS ORTMAN KOLFFMAN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/13/2010 at 18:15:13

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Isaac James & Mary Cathern (Ortman) Parks
By Gerald and Faye Goodwin

Elizabeth Kolffman was born in Pennsylvania in 1818 and died at Danbury, Iowa, in April 1897. She married man by the name of Ortman. Their children were: Mary Cathern, born September 3, 1851, at Fairfield County, Ohio, and died January 26, 1921, at Remsen, Iowa, buried in Danbury; Oliver; Lizzie; Will; John; and George.

The husband of Elizabeth and a son died of black measles while they were northern soldiers in the Civil War. Elizabeth was a small person about four feet ten inches. She had dark brown eyes and dark hair. She lived her last thirteen years in Danbury.

Mary Cathern Ortman was married to Isaac James Parks on February 20, 1869. Isaac James was born at Farmland, Indiana, December 8, 1849, and died at Danbury, February 26, 1904. They were the parents of fourteen children.

William Ulysses was born at Dexter, Iowa, October 3, 1870; he died at Portland, Oregon, in September 1921. He never married.

Olive, born 1872, died 1942, married Ambrose Jermann.

Josephine Ornettie, born 1874, died 1923, married Albert Allen Watson.

Mae, born 1877, died 1957, married Tom Virtue. Her second marriage was to Arther Warren.

Lonnie, born 1879, died 1880.

Lottie Luella, born 1880, died 1911, married Frank Stamper.

Arther James, born 1883, died 1944, married Bessie Phelphs.

Cora Ellen, born 1887, died 1965, married Tom Leech. Her second marriage was to Art Cardwell.

Stella, born 1887, died 1891.

Harrison, born 1889, died 1889.

Orval C, born 1890, died 1890.

Mary Cleao, born 1892, died 1960, married William R Utesch.

Addie Pearl, born 1894, died 1921, married Oscar Wright.

Alice Gertrude, born 1897, died 1938, married Harry Chort.

Isaac James and Mary Cathern Parks were married February 20, 1869. They moved to Iowa in the fall of 1869, settling at Dexter; then in the year 1884 they moved to Danbury.

Isaac James had brown curly hair and brown eyes. His mother died when he was an infant, and he was cared for by a neighbor lady who had lost an infant. Isaac had one older sister, Liddy, and also other brothers of sisters (half) from the union of his father and step-mother, whose identity is unknown.

Isaac left his father’s home when he was a boy of 14 years, and worked with a circus fro a time in his youth. Later in life he was a farm laborer, and did custom corn shelling and grain threshing. He invented the horse-powered unit used on corn shellers. The idea was stolen form him through photographs, and because of his financial status he was unable to claim his rights to the patent. Isaac was also a Lay Minister of the Free Methodist Church and because of his popularity he was often called upon to preach as many as three services a week. He filled the pulpit for the Church in Danbury and also a rural church in the area. He died at Danbury, February 26, 1904.

Mary Cathern had black hair and blue eyes. She was a practical nurse by profession. After the death of her husband she continued in this work as long as her health would permit. She was mid-wife in many homes in the Correctionville and Danbury vicinities. She lived on a farm near Washta, Iowa, for two years before she moved to Correctionville with her three youngest daughters, Alice, Addie, and Cleao. She died at Remsen, Iowa, in the home of her oldest daughter, Olive – Mrs. Ambrose Jermann, January 26, 1921, at the age of 69 years 4 months.