L J Riordan

RIORDAN JEFFERS HOWE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/14/2010 at 19:58:24

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

L J Riordan
By Bruce Riordan

Lemuel Jeffers Riordan was born in Lewis County, New York, on January 31, 1835, the son of John and Eunice (Jeffers) Riordan. They were six children in his family: Eunice, Mary, Thomas Baldwin, an unknown name of baby boy, and James Henry. Lem, the youngest, moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, when he was twenty and worked as an engineer in a shingle mill. Later he moved to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where he met and married Harriet Howe on July 4, 1860. Harriet was born on Boon County, Illinois, on February 17, 1840. She was the daughter of James and Fatima (Blackmer) Howe and niece of Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine.

Lem and Harriet came by wagon to Iowa in May 1882. The older children walked the distance and tended the livestock. They settled on a farm three miles north and two miles west of Correctionville. A year later, the Riordans donated an acre of land for a schoolhouse on the southwest corner of their farm.

Eight of their nine children were born in Wisconsin. Their names were: Maybell, Mrs Frank Moffatt, born August 27, 1861; Mary, Mrs. Frank Leonard, born August 27, 1863; Newell, born November 23, 1865, married Eva Gibbons; Eunice, Mrs. Al Ward, born August 19, 1869; John, born June 27, 1872, never married; and William, born September 24, 1873, never married; Hattie, Mrs. Henry Dreeszen, born July 2, 1876; and Orlean, born August 26, 1879, married Della Jacobs. Albert, the youngest child, was born May 15, 1891. Harriet died May 16, 1891, one day after Albert’s birth. Mary, his older sister, raised Albert the first year; he then returned to his father’s home and was cared for by Hattie.

Lemuel married Emma Mallert, May 18, 1895. They had three daughters: Goldie, Mrs. Robert Holcomb, born November 9, 1896, and now living in Sutherland; Orfa, Mrs Earnest Bleasdell, born April 12, 1898; and Bertha, Mrs. Francis ‘Jim’ Hash, born August 30, 1899; Lemuel died February 11, 1923; Emma died May 8, 1952.

Albert graduated from Correctionville High School in 1913 and attended Northwestern University dental school in Chicago one year. Lack of funds prevented his continuing his education. Albert married Gladys Baker, daughter of Art and Kate Baker of Pierson, September 6, 1916. (See Arthur Baker)