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Mrs. Julia Graves |
A Great, Great Grandmother |
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Mrs. Julia Graves, having
been a great grandmother for 24 years and during these
years a great grandmother to seven children, is now a
great great grandmother at the age of 82, having been
born on Aug. 11, 1848, in Rock county, Wisconsin.
She with her daughter, Mrs.
Ruth Abbott, and granddaughter, Mrs. Esther Borland,
were overjoyed when a daughter, Shirley Mae, was born
Sept. 23 to Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Borland of Elma. Mr.
Borland is the great grandson of Mrs. Graves and the son
of Mrs. Borland.
Mrs. Graves, nee Julia Hall,
married Scott Vanransler Graves March 7, 1866, and at
once came to Iowa in a covered wagon, locating on a farm
near Alpha, where they resided until 1890, when they
moved to Oelwein. Thus Mrs. Graves has been a resident
of Fayette county for over 64 years and a citizen of
Oelwein forty years.
Shortly after the Graves
moved to Oelwein Mr. and Mr. Abbott and family came here
and have since made their home. As their daughter Esther
married E.L. Borland on Sept. 28, 1905, and continued to
maintain her home here, the three grandmothers shown in
the picture, acclaim residence in Oelwein for the past
40 years. It is of interest to learn how closely this
family has lived together.
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To Mr. and Mrs. Graves were born
two daughters, Ruth, now Mrs. Abbott, and Edna, now Mrs.
McKee, who lives here during the summers and part of the
winters. Of the third generation, in addition to Mrs.
Borland, the Abbotts raised Mrs. Julia Brownell, who, when
married, moved to a farm just east of Oelwein and has
maintained her home in, and near Oelwein for the forty
years, and one son, Merle Abbott, who has lived there the
thirty-two years of his life.
The history of this family is
exceptionally interesting. The family tree traces the Abbott
family back to the landing of the Pilgrims in the Mayflower,
for John Cabot, who later changed his name to Abbot, is an
ancestor of this family. Cabot settled at Concord, N.H.,
where relatives still reside. On a branch of the Hall limb
they find that Calvin Coolidge is a member of the family.
Mrs. Graves says that her husband, who passed away June 2,
1922, traced his family back to Queen Mary of Scotland. |
~source: Telegraph-Herald and
Times-Journal, Dubuque, Iowa, Sunday morning, October 26,
1939
~ transcribed by and submitted to Fayette County IAGenWeb by
Sharyl Ferrall
Clayton County IAGenWeb |
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