Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 24

Merrill J. Goff, Cousin of the Wilson Kids, born 100 years ago

After the Great War, veteran Jennings Bryan Goff married Tessie Pauline Sauvajo in 1920. Their daughter Maxine was born March 8, 1921, Guthrie Center, Iowa.

Tessie gave birth to a son, Merrill Jennings, on January 27, 1924. Both mother and baby came down with mumps. Four days later, Tessie died from it. 

Tessie was buried in the Goff plot at Guthrie Center near a younger sister of Jennings, Georgia Laurayne Goff, who had died just over a year earlier. 

Tessie’s folks, the Sauvajos of Wichita, Iowa, tended baby Merrill while the Goff grandparents kept three-year-old Maxine, who was sick with measles. 

These folks, especially Jennings, must have been overwhelmed with mourning Tessie and tending sick little ones. He moved into the Victorian house in Guthrie Center with his parents and younger siblings. It wasn’t long before all of them moved to Dexter, to be closer to his oldest sister, Leora Wilson, whose husband Clabe had become a tenant farmer near Dexter. 

Maxine and Merrill Goff, Dexter, Iowa, Jan. 11, 1925

More about the life of Merrill Goff, a first cousin of the Wilson children.

Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots

True American Heroes

I’m so thankful for Robert Frohlich’s review from Amazon.com:.“When I received my copy of What Leora Never Knew, Joy Neal Kidney’s fourth book, I read it in one afternoon, intrigued by the tale illustrated with documents and photos. I wanted to cry when I read the toneless telegrams which announced one tragedy after another; ‘The Secretary of War desires me to express his regrets…’..“Joy Neal Kidney writes in sparse midwestern prose which only emphasizes the drama of each episode. The family carries on, waiting with hope for more news of sons missing in action. Life goes on; the family regroups, comforting Leora while sharing in her grief..“In her first three books, Joy Neal Kidney gave us a dramatic look at the history of one Iowa family, one small slice of America, where ordinary people live, strive, and sacrifice. The first book Leora’s Letters tells of the true story of a family that loses three of five sons to World War II. Now, in her latest book, Kidney, through painstaking research, paints a detailed picture of the lives of these three men, her uncles..“You should read this book, not because it’s a sad tale. It is really a heroic tale, representing all those ordinary farm boys, truck drivers, and factory workers who left their honest work to lay their lives on the line for their country. We owe them a debt that can only be repaid by our willingness to live up to their dedication and love for this country.”—–Robert Frohlich is the author of a compelling autobiography, Aimless Life, Awesome God .He has also recorded wonderful stories for Our American Stories.

Dahlia Star Quilt, 1943

Dahlia Star quilt pieced by Ruby (Blohm) Neal for her daughter-in-law, Doris (Wilson) Neal, 1943. Ruby asked Doris what color she’d like as a background. Grandma Ruby often had a quilting frame set up in the front room, where she’d be joined by family quilters, including Nellie Neal, Ruby’s mother-in-law.

Mom loaned it as a backdrop for a dessert table at the Historic Jordan House as part of a May Day Tour of Homes in 1988.

In 1991, it brightened a tea table here at home for our Silver Wedding Anniversary.

It was part of a quilt show at Hoyt Sherman Place in 1993.

Fascinating Meteorology at the M & M Divide

Aunt Darlene, sis Gloria, and Mom, at the M & M Divide west of Guthrie Center, Iowa, 1995

After reading my post about the M & M Divide, a woman sent a note that she’d lived there as a child. The weather was spooky, she admitted. It could be raining, snowing, or monsoon-like conditions on one side, but once you crossed the divide, it could be sunny and calm. I couldn’t find anything about this phenomenon on the internet, so I asked on the Historic Guthrie County Facebook page if anyone else was familiar with it.

Yes! Tim said he’d lived on the divide most of his life and “it’s all true.”

DP reported that when he moved to the divide 23 years ago, his grandma told him he’d “better have good tires for your buggy.”

Debra, who had lived along the divide for 25 years, said that sometimes the weather was strange, “even to the point of raining on one side of the house but not the other.”

Tim has seen tornadoes on either side of the divide, but he’s never seen a a funnel touch down on the divide. “They usually die out before they get there.”

Nadine said that she’d lived 50 years on top of the divide and that the tales were true. The weather is different and often crazy. “Temps, fog, wind, where system skips, starts, ends. Great view though!”

Doris told about traveling from west of Guthrie Center to Des Moines for an appointment with a relative when it started snowing. It got so bad on the way home that they had to stop to clean off the windshield wipers. Her relative left for her home in Audubon, to the west, right away. When she got to the M&M divide and on west, “there was no snow at all.”

“I’ve lived on the divide for more than 50 years,” wrote another reader, and “it’s a different world on the divide!”

What a fascinating weather phenomenon.

Poignant. Soulful. Inspiring. Somber. Brilliant.

Craig posted this moving review on Goodreads:

“In a word: Poignant. Soulful. Inspiring. Somber. Brilliant.

“One simple word can not encapsulate this story. Moved by a deep love for her grandmother Leora, Joy Neal Kidney spends decades searching for the real story behind the death of three of her uncles in World War Two. Five uncles served, and only two made it home was memorialized in her first book, Leora’s Letters. This work is the story of what it took to bring you that book. What Leora Never Knew depicts the incomprehensible impact such a loss had on her family and the great resolve it birthed in the author to make it known. She has honored both those who were lost and those forced to endure such a loss. Frequent tears dot the pages of my book and warm my soul. I am so grateful this story has been told and the family legacy has been honored.”

Craig Matthews is the author of three powerful novels. Here is his Amazon Author Page.

And from his LinkedIn page: New Year – New Book.
Happy New Year!

Since it is the beginning of another trip around the sun, it’s a great time to start writing another book.

This is the second in a series; the first Charity’s Fire is on its way to being published in February. The whole series of books explores how the spiritual and physical worlds are distinct yet connected within the same space-time continuum. (Written as if we had eyes to see both things happen simultaneously.)

Inserting a book project into my life means other things take a back seat for a while; since I don’t have the luxury of locking myself into a writer’s dungeon for a month, I have to figure out how to spin another plate without wrecking anything else. And still, this is my most advantageous time to write.

So write I must. No one is going to write my stories. No. One. Else.

[Joy: I’m looking forward to his new book. I’ve read the manuscript of Charity’s Fire. What an astounding story!]

Because of Iowa History Journal: An Interview with John Busbee

Especially if you’re a fan of the “Leora books,” you might like to listen to an interview about Leora’s Early Years with John Busbee on Wednesday, January 17, at 11:32 (CST). I’m holding John’s “What the Buzz” mug (from Jesus Christ Superstar). John Busbee’s weekly program is called “The Culture Buzz,” as is his monthly column in Cityview Magazine.I met John in 2019 because of a story in a 2014 issue of Iowa History Journal about the six Littleton brothers who lost their lives as a result of the Civil War. Five years later, John Busbee, who’d written the article, and another man gave a talk about the family. His bio mentioned that he was working on a book about them, so I wanted to ask about the book..Afterwards, I met him and mentioned that my first book was about to become a reality. “Let me know when it is,” he said as he pulled out a business card..John not only did an interview about Leora’s Letters on his Culture Buzz program on KFMG-FM, he edited two Leora books and wrote endorsements for three. He has also reviewed them for Iowa History Journal , which shares fascinating facets of Iowa history throughout the year, every other month..It’s amazing to look back at the connection of the Leora books and John Busbee, all because of Iowa History Journal..John wanted to archive an interview of all four books, so recently we did one about Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots.

John Busbee is the founder of The Culture Buzz , he received the Iowa Governor’s Award for Partnership & Collaboration in the Arts, an Iowa History Award for “Last Measure of Full Devotion,” is a contributor to Our American Stories , and he writes a monthly column for Cityview Magazine..No, his book about the Littleton brothers isn’t finished yet, but I’ll let you know when it is!—–Author friend, Cherie Dargan, will be interviewed at 11:00 on the same program! I shared her newest book last October.

Civil War Novels and More, by Greg Seeley

Greg Seeley

Greg Seeley was raised on a farm north of Afton, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a major in history and received his Master’s Degree from the University of Iowa. Greg is a retired certified public accountant and lives in Overland Park, Kansas with his wife Carolyn, a retired math teacher. Henry’s Pride is Greg’s first novel. He is also the author of a book of verse entitled The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems.

Henry’s Pride

Inspired by the handwritten journals and letters of the author’s great grandfather, Henry’s Pride is the story of men and women on both sides of the Civil War. Writing nearly in real time 150 years after the events, from 2012 to 2015, Greg Seeley takes us on a journey behind enemy lines, onto the battlefield, to the neglected farms back home, and inside the prison camps during this divisive period in American history.

Meet Henry Hancock, a prideful Union sergeant and later captain, who faithfully performs his duty while trying to make sense of what he calls “the nation’s nasty business.” Meet his brother Jonas, injured, mustered out of the army, yet still traumatized by his experiences in an artillery battery. Meet Theodore, a runaway slave too young to join the Union Army, who becomes a hired worker at their Minnesota farm. You’ll also meet Darius, the young heir to a Georgia plantation, fighting for the Confederacy to protect his inheritance while Hamilton Stark, his overseer back home, goes to extreme lengths to prevent runaways and head off a slave insurrection.

Mr. Seeley, a loyal student of history, interweaves these very compelling and realistic stories with letters to and from home, describing a world so vivid and human you will be instantly transported.

My thoughts: Henry’s Pride captures historical events during the Civil War, from both sides, through the stories compelling characters. Inspired by the journals and letters of an ancestor, the author has written a masterful book that Civil War buffs will especially appreciate. (Smattering of crude language)

Henry’s Land: A Broken Peace

In Henry’s Land: A Broken Peace begins where author Greg Seeley’s debut novel, Henry’s Pride, leaves off. The Civil War has come to an end and the characters are left in various predicaments. Most of the Federal soldiers have returned home – many bearing the physical scars of war, others with wounds less obvious but equally traumatic. Life, for the most part has returned to normal as it was prior to the war. The Northern economy has prospered.

Henry Hancock and his family and friends, although faced with a severe drought, are essentially comfortable and well off in Minnesota. In the defeated South, some of Seeley’s characters, including a former slave and his one-time overseer are drawn together in an unexpected bond brought on by a common hardship. Meanwhile, ex-Confederate soldier, Darius Morgan, still languishes in a Norther prison awaiting his parole. Southerners struggle with their new-found poverty and with navigating a barren Georgia landscape left in the wake of General William T. Sherman’s devastating March to the Sea.

My thoughts: Henry’s Land continues the Hancock saga from the Civil War book, Henry’s Pride, with characters from both the northern and Confederate areas, even ones with nefarious intentions. Things are ripe for a third book in the series. (Some crude language in this one.)

Horse Lawyer and Other Poems

The Horse Lawyer and Other Poems chronicles the struggles and triumphs of three generations of an Iowa farm family over a 125-year period. The “story” begins with a soldier coming home from the Civil War and setting foot for the first time on his newly-purchased farm and ends when the land next changes hands in the early 1990s. The book is the story of the family, their friends, and their neighbors as they try to adapt to the changing world around them. Their lives and personal aspirations are shaped by two world wars, a harsh climate, the dust bowl, and the Great Depression. They seek to meet this adversity and thrive through love, self-reliance, work, faith, and a strong sense of community.

My thoughts: What a compelling way to preserve and share the soul of three generations of farm families, through the author’s fatherline in free verse. Not only that, but they lived on the same nook of Iowa soil over a span of 125 years. A favorite!

Ira Seeley’s burial place, Greenlawn Cemetery, Afton, Iowa

Where would the Japanese have gotten the information?

Luanne posted this wonderful review on Amazon.com:

“Joy Neal Kidney has documented an American saga of hard work, dedication, patriotism, and above all, sacrifice with her four Leora Books. I have reviewed Leora’s Dexter Stories, Leora’s Letters, and Leora’s Early Years previously. These first three volumes tell the Wilson family history and the tragedy of losing three sons to WWII through the mother, Leora’s, perspective. The fourth book in the series, What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter’s Quest for Answers, describes Kidney’s own search for more answers about her uncles’ military careers.

“The book contains heartbreaking information, such as Leora receiving news of Dale being MIA on her birthday. Dale’s sister Doris was pregnant and had only told Dale in a letter. But the letter was returned to her, marked ‘Missing in Action.’ Kidney puts together information and shares it in an easy-to-read style. For instance, the Wilsons received three notes from radio operators that Dale had been taken POW of the Japanese, but this was never confirmed. The information included personal identity info that was not on their ID tags. Where would the Japanese have gotten this information if they didn’t have Dale?”

—–

Luanne Castle is a poet, writer, blogger, cat mom, family storier, and artist. She’s the author of several compelling books of poetry. Here is her website.

Ray Bubba Sorensen Mural for an American Legion Post

A new mural inside the Radcliffe American Legion may turn out to be a tourist attraction. The mural was done by The Freedom Rock® artist, Ray Bubba Sorensen.

It will be officially revealed Sunday, January 21, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Radcliff Legion’s monthly winter breakfast fundraiser.

Radcliffe, Iowa, population 555, is an hour north of Des Moines.

Tractor/Winter Photos by Joe Kenney

Joe Kenney has puttered over graveled roads from eastern Nebraska to western Iowa and beyond. He posts his winsomely composed photos, taken with just his cellphone camera, on Facebook. He also freely gives permission for folks to reshare them. Now is the perfect time, since we’re to get our first snowstorm of the season here in Iowa this week. 

Here are a couple of favorite tractors-in-winter photos. The first one is the cover photo this month for the Historic Guthrie County, Iowa, Facebook page.

Monteith, Iowa, in winter by Joe KenneyFun mailboxes in winter, Salix, Iowa

A few bonus photos by Joe Kenney: