Fred and Laura FLETCHALL and sons: Earl, Cecil, and Charles, moved from the Grant City, Missouri area to a farm one and one-half miles south of Benton in 1921. The farm was then known as the "Ike THARP Farm." The family continued to live in the Benton area until the early 1940's.

The boys, of course, grew into adulthood in those years. Earl, the oldest, married [December 28, 1929] Gretta PAGE and they were the parents of four girls and one boy. One of the girls now lives in the Mount Ayr area. She is Glenda KLOMMHAUS and she has three daughters. Two of Earl's daughters live in Illinois, and one daughter and Earl's son live in California.

Cecil, the second son of Fred and Laura, was married to Ethel NICKLES in the early 1930's [January 8, 1929]. However, due to exposure to blizzard conditions under unusual circumstances, he developed pneumonia and died in February [15] of 1933. [Cecil Clinton FLETCHALL was born near Grant City, Missouri on March 18, 1905. Interment was made at Benton Cemetery.]

Benton High School in 1932. In 1934, he attended Barber College in Des Moines. In 1935, he was married to Bernice VAUGHN and they later moved to Grimes, Iowa in 1938, where Charles operated his own barber shop until 1975. He served in World War II from September, 1942, until March of 1946. He was an instructor for one and one-half years in Iowa Barber College at the end of the war before returning to Grimes to operate his own shop. His wife, Bernice, worked for Bankers Trust for twenty-three years, retiring in 1977.

In 1969 and 1970, Charles and Bernice built a mobile home park in Grimes, which they owned and operated until December of 1977, at which time it was sold and Charles and Bernice retired. They now spend the winter months in Mesa, Arizona an the summers in Grimes.

Fred FLETCHALL died in 1956. Laura died in 1961. Earl died in 1957 and Cecil died in 1933. All are buried in the Benton Cemetery.

SOURCE: 1887 - Benton, Iowa Centennial - 1987. Pp. 166-67. Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library, Mount Ayr IA

Transcriptions and notes by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2012

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