Sanborn Family

SANBORN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/14/2010 at 21:41:35

History of Woodbury County, Iowa, 1984

Sanborn Family
By Virginia Rose Sanborn Luse

When the Sanborns and Lovitts came to Iowa from Illinois, they also brought along their family names which they used and reused. Some were George, Clifford, Nicholas, Gratia Nourse, Isabelle, Virginia, Rosa Lee, John Cynthia Jane, Richard and Charles. Through the years the spelling sometimes changed, but the sound remained much the same.

Many of the Sanborns who lived in Illinois were grain elevator owners and dealers, including Uncle George who ‘had a seat’ on the Chicago Grain Exchange (see picture). Grandpa Sanborn’s brother, Charles, had already moved from Pecatonica, Illinois, to Cushing to run a grain elevator, lumber year, and later the Cushing Paralyzer, a local paper. Uncle Charles was the wit of the family. He encouraged Grandpa William Sanborn and wife, Isabelle, to move to a new town called Moville, at the end of the railroad to establish a grain elevator. A short time afterward on June 28, 1888, they had their first child, naming his George Clifford Sanborn, after Uncle George. This was the beginning of George Clifford Sanborns. Dad named his son, George Clifford, II, ‘Bud’ He named his son, George Clifford, III, ‘Skip’, and he named his first son, George Clifford, IV, ‘Jed’.

After Will Sanborn and Bell had Cliff, they had Florence Addie, William Lincoln, Gratia Nourse, Frank S ‘Shubal?’, Addie.

When ‘Cliff’ graduated from the ‘up on the Hill’ Moville High School, he went to Pecatonica to live with his Grandma Sloan or Sanborn and took the Interurban to Rockford, Illinois, where he attended the same Brown’s Business College at Ames, which he attended five years because he had only eleven years of school available in Moville. He graduated in Mining Engineering and ‘signed up’ to go to Alaska as a Mining Engineer, but changed his mind and married on January 1, 1913, Lulu Jane Lovitt, born July 26, 1891, at Shenandoah, Iowa. He met Jane at Iowa State. They moved to a small house near Grandpa Sanborn. They later built a beautiful two-story brick house in the south part of town. Their contractor was his sister, Florence’s husband, Robert Riesche, who built the present Moville High School, the now torn-down Martin Building, and many other places of business in Sioux City and surrounding towns.

After marriage, Cliff went into the grain cattle-feeding and lumber business with his father. Later, they added the International Harvester Implement Business. They also had farms they operator.

For the last 36 years Cliff and Jane, she died in 1977, spent all or part of the winter in Mesa, Arizona. They had a large group of friends and only three of the women and still alive, besides Cliff (dad) who is 95. Dad now lives at Countryside Manor in Sioux City, having outlived all his brothers and sisters and their spouses. Dad was active in Boy Scouts; he started the troop with Reverend Elwick before Sioux City had a troop in 1912?. He was a Rotarian in Sioux City for years, a Post Districa Governor, and belonged to the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity for over seventy-five years, having received the Diamond Owl Award this year. He is an ex-Mayor of Moville, and ex-board member of the United Methodist Church, Masonic Master Mason, and Past Worthy Patron of Eastern Star. As an avid golfer, he has wooden-handled golf clubs to prove it. As recently as when he was 92, he had an Eagle on hole number 9 at the Meadows. At 94 he was still walking the course and pulling a cart down at Mesa, Arizona.

Florence Sanborn married Robert Riesche. They had three children, Isabelle, Boby Jean and Gratia. Gratia is the only one living and she married Charles Duecy and lives in Paradise Valley in Scottsdale.

William Lincoln married Susan Wormley from Kingsley. He was an oil burner dealer and successful inventor who lived in Chicago, Illinois, and Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His widow now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Frank married Tilen Torgenson of Milford, Iowa. He was a contractor and builder in Seattle and Alaska. His home was on the front of Sunset magazine. He had two sons ‘Sandy’ and Bill who reside on Mercer Island, Seattle, Washington.

Gratia married George Nelson and moved to Denver. They had three children, Richard is a college professor and lives in San Bruno, and Isabelle is head of the Psychiatric Division of the criminal insane in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Neal married Gertrude Teachout form Des Moines. They live in Seattle, and he was in the oil burner business. They have tow children: Susan, Seattle; and Sally, California.

Clifford Sanborn and Lulu Jane Lovitt had three children: one died at birth, then Virginia Rose Sanborn; and George Clifford Sanborn, II. Virginia Rose Sanborn married Dwight Bacon, from Cedar Falls, who was killed in the crash of a bomber at Mono Lake, California, during World War II. Virginia graduated from the University of Minnesota in Dietetics, and took her internship at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She returned to Moville, and taught Home Economics in the Moville Public and Lawton School Systems and obtained a teaching certificate. After one year of teaching she married Wayne Wendell Luse, born 1919 at Kingsley, Iowa. He had lived most of his life at Strawberry Point, Iowa. He started college at Morningside, then Virginia and Wayne transferred to Iowa City, where he obtained a degree in business and she acted as a dietitian at University of Iowa Hospitals. Wayne was offered a job by Fred McDermott at Farmer’s Mutual Insurance Co. in 1950, at Moville. They had four children, William Arthur Luse, born 1951, graduated from the University of Iowa in Fine Arts. He married LeAnne Shindel, graduate of University of Iowa, from Dewitt, Iowa. They lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are divorced.

James Wayne Luse, born 1954, died at 19.

Cynthia Jane Luse, born 1956, graduated from University of Iowa in Business, Insurance and Employee Benefits. She married Paul Douglas ‘Doug’ of Iowa City, who graduated from Iowa City, then received a Law Degree from Hamlin College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Both Cynthia, Doug and Bill live in the Twin Cities. Rosalie Luse, born 1962, lives in Glenwood, Iowa.

Wayne served seven years in the United States Navy after graduating from Strawberry Point High School. He is now Secretary of Farmer’s Mutual Insurance Company. He is also the President of the Board of Directors of the Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company in Grinnell, Iowa.

Wayne and Virginia have been reasonably active in community with Cub Scouts, United Methodist Church Choir, Church Board, and Bible School, Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star Woman’s Club. Virginia substituted in the school system and taught Home Economics and Art in Junior High for four years.

George Clifford Sanborn II was born October 21, 1923, in Moville, Iowa. He attended school at Moville Public School and graduated in 1939. He graduated form the University of Iowa. He was an outstanding athlete in football and baseball. He enlisted in the Navy, August 12, 1942, and became a Lt. J.G. He married Ruth Anderson of Denver, Colorado, whom he met at college. He was recalled to the Korean War in 1955, moved to Chincotigue, Maryland, and served for one and one-half years. They moved back to Moville, and went into the International Harvester Business with Cliff. Ruth died of Bulbar Polio in 1953. Their children were:

George Clifford Sanborn, III ‘Skip’ born 1945 in Denver, Colorado, married Lynette from Minnesota, and Skip from Pilot’s School in Oklahoma.

Their children are George Clifford Sanborn, IV, ‘Jed’, twelve years, Gregory Dean, ‘Greg’, nine years old, and Nicholas, ‘Nick’, seven years old. Skip’s family live in Eagan, Minnesota, and he owns and operated Sanborn Flying Service in St Paul, Minnesota.

Susan Sanborn is an executive with Sears, and lives in Sacramento, California.

Star Sanborn married Bob Eby, a jewelry; they have a daughter, Stephanie, and live in Woodinville, Washington.

Sally Sanborn married Kevin Sievers from Storm Lake. She is an Electrical Draftswoman, and he is a veterinarian. They live in Duvall, Washington.