Ole H Rye

RYE HANSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/14/2010 at 21:14:10

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Ole H Rye
By Grace Culbertson

Ole H Rye was born in 1857 in Valders, Norway, his childhood home being a farm on an inland fjord. With his parents, Helge and Astri Rye, a brother and four sisters, in 1867, Mr. Rye crossed to America on the ‘Nord Kap’, a sailing vessel carrying lumber during the Civil War. The voyage lasted six weeks and four days and was saddened by a death and burial at sea, in addition to the other terrors encountered, such as icebergs, whales, and mid ocean storms. The family settled near LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where Mr. Rye later worked in a dry goods store.

From LaCrosse, Mr. Rye moved to Sloan, Iowa, farming for two years and alter working for Ed Haakinson, a pioneer president of the Sioux City Stockyards Company. Mr. Rye moved to Sioux City, then a town of 5,000 population, in 1876. Two years later he married Hannah Amelia Hanson. They were the parents of four children, Horatio Orville, Arthur Manfield, Edna Amelia, and Chester Logan. Following her death, Mr. Rye again married, his second wife being Augusta Oline Johnson. They had eight children: Morton Adler, Grover Wilford, Maylon Irwin, Ethel Louise, Mabel Esther, Verna Gladys, Raymond Theodore and Grace Augusta.

Ole Rye was a salesman for the J Schulein Brothers, dry goods, boots and shoes, for nine years. He was deputy sheriff of Woodbury County for two years, and for twenty years was inspector of public works for the Sioux City street department. He belong the First Ward Improvement Association, the Pioneer Club, and the Nordmendenes Singiing Society, now known as the Nordic Male Chorus of which he was president four times. His brother, Lars Helgeson Rye, also settled in Sioux City and was a policeman there.

Horatio Orville Rye was born in 1879 and died in 1958 in Omaha, Nebraska. He worked as a salesman and owned grocery stores in Omaha. He married Eva May McMIllan.

Arthur Mansfield Rye was born in 1881; he died in California. He worked in a laundry in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He married Anne Oliver.

Edna Amelia Rye was born in 1884. She worked in the Sioux City Journal book bindery. When her father’s second wife died, leaving several small children motherless, it was Edna’s and her half-brother, Morten’s wish that they, the two of them, take over the task of helping their father keep the family together.

Chester Logan Rye, born 1886, was studying to become a druggist. He became ill with what is now known as Strep infection. After being ill just a few days, he passed away at age eighteen.

Morton Adler Rye, 1891-1961, married Ethel Lewis. They had one son, Robert Rye, born in 1917, who worked in an automotive shop in Los Angeles, California. Robert married Lucille Terrell in 1938, and they had two children, Robert Orph and Danny Michael. Robert Orph Rye, born in 1938, is the head of the government Geology lab in Denver, Colorado. He married Margaret Frances Reni and their children are: David Wesley, born 1968; Mark Steven, born 1970; and Jonathan Robert, born 1976. Daniel Michael Rye, born in 1946, is a Geology professor at Yale University. He married Joan Zehner and their children are: Robert Owen, born 1968; Marlene Frances, born 1971; and Bryan, born 1983. Morton married 1892, Merrill, Iowa; died 1965; To this marriage came an adopted son, William Joseph Rye, born in 1929. William lives in Sioux City and works for the railroad. He married Joan Claire Murray in Sioux City. Joan died in 1978. They had one son, William Joseph, born in 1965.

Grover Wilford Rye, 1892-1958, married Hilma Johnson. They had nine children: their story is given separately.

Maylon Irwin Rye, May 1, 1895-January 30, 1959, was warehouse foreman for Brunswig Drug Company, Phoenix, Arizona. He was born at Smithland, Iowa, and died in California.

Ethel Louise Rye was born October 16, 1897, at Smithland, Iowa. She did clerical work at Interstate Sheet Metal Company until her retirement.

Mabel Esther Rye, born March 14, 1900 in Sioux City, was a cashier at Carpenter Paper Company until her retirement.

Verna Gladys Rye, born June 12, 1903, at Sioux City, worked in the office at Paul Electric. She is now retired.

Raymond Theodore Rye, March 31, 1906-March 22, 1972, married Alice Eudora Steele in 1928. He was Traffic Manager for National Food Stores, formerly Tolerton-Warfield, and is well-remembered as a square dance caller. Their son, Raymond II, is a geologist with the Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. He married Ellen Thompson in 1966 in Washington, D.C.

Grace Augusta Rye, born in 1909 in Sioux City, married Kenneth Culbertson, November 19, 1938. They are the parents of two sons, Michael Perry, born 1940, and Richard Lee, born 1941. Michael married Daisy Billiot and they are the parents of two children, Mark Jon, born 1968, Sioux City; and Dawn Louise, born 1972, in Sioux City. Michael is a salesman at Nutra Flo. Richard married Sharon Streeter and they are the parents of three children: Dennis Alan, born 1963; Bonnie Kay, born 1965; and Scott David, born 1971, all born in Sioux City. Richard is also employed by Nutra Flo. Kenneth Culbertson passed away January 8, 1969.