Joy Neal Kidney's Blog, page 37

The Williams Sisters of Jackson Township

Sarepta Williams Henderson, Alice Williams Wolfe, Emma Williams Stotts

Samuel and Martha Williams of Guthrie County’s Jackson Township had four daughters: Emma (b. 1855), Sarepta (1859), Georgia (1864), and Alice Edna (1872). They also had a son, Roy, who died young.

Emma, Georgia, and Alice are buried in Morrisburg Cemetery, along with their parents and grandparents. After Sarepta married, she moved to Kansas.

I wonder why Georgia wasn’t part of the photograph of the Williams sisters, since she also lived in Jackson Township.

Georgia Williams Davis Wilson, wife of Dan Wilson, mother of Fred Davis, and five Wilson children: Claiborne, Rectha, Alice, Fonnie, and Verna

 

Brothers Born of Adversity: How the Bonds of Friendship Helped Two Men Survive the Horrors of Japanese Prison Camps and the Infamous Hell Ships During WWII

Brothers Born of Adversity

This historical narrative weaves the true story of how two navy corpsmen’s bond of friendship helped them survive being prisoners of the Japanese Empire during WWII. In addition to being imprisoned in the Philippines and Japan, they lived through unimaginable horror on the infamous “hell ships,” of which only one of six men survived to see the war’s end.

Two army nurses, who were sisters of one of these men, would volunteer for duty in the Pacific Theater in hopes of finding their brother, even though it put them in harm’s way during the battle of Okinawa.

This book also explores how the men’s experiences growing up helped prepare them for the suffering they would endure, the impact on other family members back home, and how the years of torture and deprivation as POWs would affect their lives after the war.

The Author: Larry Dean Reese is a retired university financial administrator who served in various leadership roles at Florida State University. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Florida and was a licensed certified public accountant. He has been active in several Christian service activities. Larry has three grown children and seven grandchildren. He loves visiting his grandchildren, travel, studying history, genealogy, and writing.

My Thoughts: This is a gruesome episode from World War II that must not be forgotten. The author has masterfully woven the ordeal of the POWs of the Japanese with stories two men told their families about those terrible years. Since both men had already died, Larry Reese relied on several other sources to corroborate the memories told by their children. George Crowell and Frank “Max” Maxwell were Navy Corpsmen before the war, caught in the Philippines early in the war. They met as POWs at Bilibid prison, where they were held for more than two years. 

Conditions worsened dramatically after the Allied invasion of the Philippines in late 1944, when the POWs were loaded onto three overcrowded ships with no ventilation and little food or water. Using the buddy system, George and Max survived filthy conditions, an attack on their ship when one was wounded, caring for sick and disabled men, madness among some, cruelty by guards, dead POWs tossed overboard every 2-3 days. The miserable trip is presented day by day, giving the reader a sense of how hopeless it seemed to the prisoners. Even after arriving in Japan, they faced hellish abuses by brutish guards. 

Because the malnourished men were held at a camp 40 miles from Nagasaki, they probably witnessed the atomic bomb cloud on August 9, 1945. Meanwhile, two of George’s sisters had become Army nurses. When the war ended and George and Max were finally freed, the sisters met them at a transient camp. 

It’s a miracle that these two men survived the worst cruelties an enemy inflicted on them. They had encouraged one another, forming a critical bond connecting them for decades, even with their extended families. 

The book ends with details from the War Crimes Trials, for those who committed atrocities against the prisoners, lingering effects on men held as POWs, an extensive bibliography, and an index.

I’m an endorser of this significant book.

Please check out Larry Reese’s Amazon Author Page.

Pvt. D.S. Wilson, U.S. Army, Squadron D, Iowa State Teacher’s College – 1943

Danny Wilson enlisted in the Army Air Force in February of 1943. After a month at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, he was sent to ISTC, Cedar Falls, Iowa, for College Detachment.

“Iowa State Teacher’s College, Cedar Falls, IA., March 6, 1943

“Dear Folks,

“We left Jefferson Barracks at 6:00 P.M. yesterday and arrived at Cedar Falls at 7:00 A.M. this morning. We marched through about two miles of Cedar Falls before we got to this college. We are the first bunch of men to come to this Iowa State Teachers. This is really a keen place after getting out of J.B. We have taken over a lot of this college and I’m now writing on a desk in an assigned room in Seerley Hall (men’s dormitory). These rooms are steam heated with wash basin; and all kinds of drawers and racks to put clothes, etc., instead of in two barracks bags.

“The purpose for sending us here is to better prepare us for cadet training so that there won’t be so many eliminated.”

A letter home to his folks, Clabe and Leora Wilson at Minburn, from Dan Wilson, their fourth son to enlist in the military during WWII.

In a letter to his sister, Darlene, he added that the march through about two miles of Cedar Falls was “in a heavy snowstorm.”

He added, “It’s 3:30 P.M. and the tall structure (about 50 yds. from my window) which has a clock on each of its four sides and a bunch of bells on top, has been playing a series of tunes for a half hour.”

He’s talking about the ISTC Campanile.

When Dan learned his sister Doris was planning on joining the WAVES, he reported that there were 1500 WAVES also training at the Cedar Falls college. (The women’s branch of the US Naval Reserve was known as the WAVES.)

Doris Wilson instead married Warren Neal, another Iowa farmer who’d joined the “Air Corps” and become a pilot.

Daniel S. Wilson was commissioned and awarded his wings at Williams Field, Chandler, Arizona, in March of 1944. He became the pilot of a P-38 Lightning and was killed in action February 19, 1945, at Schwanberg, Austria. Dan Wilson is buried at the Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold, France.

The five Wilson brothers served in WWII. Only two came home. They are remembered on the Dallas County Freedom Rock in Minburn, and in their niece’s book Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II.

Iowa State Teacher’s College is now the University of Northern Iowa. For a few years, it was known as the State College of Iowa. Dan Wilson’s niece, Joy Neal, graduated from SCI in 1966.

 

From Gloom to Glory (poems) by Michael Lee Womack

The Book: In From Gloom to Glory, Womack pours hope, faith and light into some of the darkest valleys we’ll ever walk through. Using his own testimony, with suicide and depression as a reference point, the author structures the book into three parts: daily reminders that lift our spirits, a beacon call to not give up, and a positive note that brightens the gloomy clouds that sometimes hover over life. With 50 poems each centered on the theme of hope and faith against the odds, this is a book of inspiration that speaks to the soul of the reader, and a perfect gift for yourself or someone you love who is dealing with darkness or passing through a valley experience. God turns gloom into glory.

The Author: Those who have read his previous works may know him as a U.S. Army Veteran that has shared his testimony through his previously published work of poetry, From A Soldier’s Perspective. While there are various titles that Author & Poet, Michael Lee Womack, could be remembered by when the story of his life on Earth ends, he aims for others to know him as a humble and faithful servant of the Lord. In 2021, he completed his Bachelor’s in English through Thomas Edison State University, by whom he was awarded The Arnold Fletcher Award in recognition of outstanding academic achievement. He currently resides in his home state of North Carolina, where he aspires to one day become an English teacher.

My Thoughts: This collection of verses contains so many keys to restoration and hope. The author has experienced deep depression and misery. He understands what so many people cope with daily. He offers Christ as the true beacon of life. Michael offers encouragement for dealing with daily discouragements, promising that God’s desire is to restore the lost.

Especially rich is the poem called “A Better Me,” where God used the rough patches in his life to turn him around. If you struggle with depression and unfortunate life choices, these short pieces will be a blessing. If you know someone who’s lost, poet Michael Lee Womack offers so much support and the “God of the Turnaround.” Highly recommended.

I’ve also featured Michael Womack’s poetry collection, From a Soldier’s Perspective.

Please visit his website.

Introducing the Dexter Museum Board

The five members of the Dexter Museum have worked regularly during the off season, organizing and preparing displays for opening day, the first Sunday in May. 

The Dexter Museum was open one year when RAGBRAI (the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) came through. Since Dexter is noted for the Barrow Gang staying in Dexfield Park and the shootout in July 1933 (when Bonnie & Clyde and their driver escaped), Bonnie & Clyde were featured. Historians Pat Hostetler, Gloria Neal, and Doris Feller, Josie Bittner as Bonnie and Blaise Beane as Clyde, Tina Stanley (Rod’s niece) and historian Rod Stanley.

Pat Hochstetler is also on the Dexter cemetery board, the board of Directors of the Madison County Genealogical Society, and a newly elected Penn Township Clerk. She and her husband live on the farm where the United Airliner first crash landed January 19, 1955. They still have the $25 check given to her inlaws to pay for the fences torn out by the accident.

Gloria Neal, my sister who retired after teaching junior high art for 34 years, has found her museum niche by assembling Dexter history into notebooks. She was too young to remember it, but she attended the 1948 National Plowing Match, when President Harry Truman gave an address to an estimated 100,000 people just north of Dexter.

Doris Feller is married to the son of Marvelle Feller, whose family car was stolen by Bonnie and Clyde after the shootout in Dexfield Park. Not only that but Marvelle had to show Clyde Barrow how to shift gears in the car since it wasn’t a Ford, which was Clyde’s go-to getaway car. Doris wrote about the Barrow Gang and Dexfield Park for the book Reflections Along the White Pole Road for the White Pole Road Development Corporation. She was a long-time member of Questers.

Rod Stanley, a retired history teacher and coach, endorsed Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression and also Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots. He is a historian, speaker, also a member of the Guthrie County Historical Village and Museum Board. Rod has also contributed to Our American Stories. 

Mary McColloch (not pictured) is also a long-time librarian, for years at Dexter, now with the Stuart Library.

The regular season for the Dexter Museum is from May through October. At other times you may contact Rod Stanley at 641-757-9173; rstanley@netins.net, or Doris Feller at 515-833-2717. They’ve made the Dexter Museum a fun place to visit.

The site of the Bonnie and Clyde shootout is on private property, but Rod has permission to take interested people to see the area. He gives programs about them, as well as other local history.

Stories from Guthrie County, Panora Library, April 28

Clabe Wilson’s Williams grandparents pioneered in Jackson Township, south of Panora, Iowa. Many of the stories will be about Clabe’s family–Frog Pond School, his father’s famous Duroc Jersey hog, how mental health issues were handled in the early 1900s, the marriage of this quiet man to Leora Goff. 

You are welcome to come to the Panora Library to hear stories of national and world events reaching into the Heartland of America to affect the lives of folks like Clabe and Leora Wilson.

After Clabe’s father died, his widowed mother with two young daughters, ages 2 and 6, moved into Panora. The house still stands, at 105 W. Lane, and is in the photo on the cover of Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots. The man who lives there now gave permission to include the address.

New Poetry by Luanne Castle

Poet Luanne Castle has published two volumes of poems during the last year. 

Our Wolves

[image error]From Luanne’s website: “For many years, I explored fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood stories from around the world, and taught them in my children’s literature class. Traditional literature, like folk and fairy tales, was one of my favorite topics of the course. I was particularly fascinated with the French and German (Perrault and Grimm) versions of Red Riding Hood and decided to address the subject in a poetic way.”

“Our Wolves looks at the identity of wolves in our everyday lives and the varied ways of viewing the wolf. For example, this character cannot be seen as merely bad or even redeemed or misunderstood, as in some interpretations of the fairy tale. Similarly, ‘Little Red’ is not simply a victim or a representation of innocence. Instead, this collection reveals the tale as a conduit for many voices and interpretations of gender, identity, and feminism.”

My thoughts: The author, enchanted by different Red Riding Hood stories, explored them from different angles and from the points of view of each character in the classical tale–the wolf, the grandmother, the woodcutter, even Little Red herself. Creative and fascinating. I also enjoyed this interview in which Luanne tells more about the inspiration for the poems.

The captivating cover art is by Kiki Suarez.

Rooted and Winged

The poems of Rooted and Winged explore the emotional and physical movement of flight and falling. They are of the earth, the place of fertile origins, and of the dream world we observe and imagine when we look upward. Golems and ghosts that emerge from the ground, as well as the birds and angels that live above us, inhabit the collection. We will always be striving for flight, even as we feel most comfortable closest to the earth.

My thoughts: Many of these fine poems take the reader into the worries and wonders of living with desert flora and fauna, a sensual journey for someone from the Midwest. I was especially taken by the poem For an Adopted Child, and those that included exquisite and compelling images and details about grandparents, especially the one named Spotlight.

The Author

Kin Types, a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her first collection of poetry, Doll God (Aldrich), won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry. Luanne’s Pushcart and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, American Journal of Poetry, Pleiades, River Teeth, TAB, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, and other journals.

Here is one of Luanne’s poignant new poems, “Inside the House We Lived in When Dad Went Broke.”

Please visit Luanne Castle’s Writer Site

And her Amazon Author Page

Kin Types, also by Luanne Castle, is a favorite chapbook that helps keep alive stories of ancestors who would be otherwise largely forgotten. Several of Luanne’s poems have encouraged me to work on poems about my motherline, of six generations of women with Iowa roots.

Dallas County Freedom Rock Selfies

Several of these selfies with the Dallas County Freedom Rock at Minburn have been such nice surprises! 

I’m with Emina Hastings, the Nineteen14 Depot restaurant in the background. Dedication day of the Dallas County Freedom Rock, October 19, 2019. Emina took photos for me that day and also did my author photos for the Leora books. (Emina came to Iowa as a teenager with her family, refugees of the Bosnian War.)

The Young Patriots Club sang at the dedication. You can see the young Wilson pilots among them.

I have never met the first relative who visited the Freedom Rock, Clay Wilson from California, great great grandson of Delbert Wilson, who is the second brother from left on the Rock.

This popped up one day on Instagram, named only c6_crazy. When I told him how I was related to the brothers, he returned with his recumbent bike for a selfie. The Raccoon River Valley Bike Trail runs through Minburn.

Steve Radakovich is a classmate from Earlham. He sent this one after reading Leora’s Letters.

Rod Jensen read Leora’s Letters while wintering in Florida. After returning to northern Iowa, he read the Depression Era book and took a trip down to see the Wilson brothers on Minburn’s Freedom Rock.

One of my favorite Freedom Rock selfies is of Val Plagge and her children (one of them took the photo). Val is a very busy farmer, wife, mom, volunteer and blogger (Corn, Beans, Pigs, and Kids), but she took the time to read Leora’s Letters while in a tractor cab in the field, waiting on the combine!

 

 

Alan Lovelady and the Des Moines Cycle Club (almost two dozen riders) visited the Dallas County Freedom Rock last weekend, riding into a strong headwind on their way back. “I’ve read and enjoyed three of your books, Joy. I even told the story to my biking companions today!”

If you visit the Dallas County Freedom Rock at Minburn, I’d love it if you’d post a selfie with the Wilson brothers!

Unraveling Sunlight and Henry & Grace–Poems by Joe Barca

Unraveling Sunlight

The Book: Unraveling Sunlight is a collection of poems that will make you think, make you feel, and let you breathe. It’s filled with magic and melancholy, whimsy and wonder. It’s a journey from darkness to light. 

The Poet: Author of Unraveling Sunlight. Fast talker and slow runner. Husband. Father. Owner of a Wheaten Terrier. From New England. On Twitter @shepherdmoon53. 

My Thoughts: The opening poems are raw, open with grief. “Empty” is especially poignant, as is “She’s Gone.” Thoroughly captivating are “My Haven” and the winsome “Nurture.” Five Stars!

Henry & Grace: A Love Story and Other Poetry

The Book: This book is a collection of micro-poetry, a spill of sunlight that brushes your inner world and touches your emotional space. In addition, it includes a life long love story between Henry and Grace – a series of poems that stand alone and link together, a literary string of pearls.

My Thoughts: This charming book of poems is served to the reader for savoring in three parts: Micropoetry, Longer Poems, and Henry & Grace. There are about six dozen wisps of Micropoetry. My favorites are Grandmother, Mother’s Apron, New Years Eve, and Spring Rain. The Longer Poems, not much longer, are delectable morsels, especially the one named Gardens. Henry & Grace is a love story in poetry, with all of its fascinating ups and downs.

A Poet with Panache

Poet Mary Jedlicka Humston is an encourager extraordinaire. 

A former high school teacher, Mary graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a BA in English Education. She has had over 150 poems and essays published at the local and national level in newspapers, magazines, books, and online. One of her poems was chosen to be projected on the Krakow City of Literature UNESCO Poems on the Wall in 2014. Mary has presented programs on cancer, dealing with chronic illness, prayer, writing, and the Little Free Library movement. She is a member of National League of American Pen Women and The University Club Writers of Iowa City. She lives in Iowa City with her husband Jim.

I first met Mary at the Cedar Falls Christian Writer’s Workshop in 2016, where she was a presenter. She has been such a cheerful encourager for the “Leora stories.”

Leora’s Letters

2019

“Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss for an Iowa Family During World War II by Joy Neal Kidney is an engrossing true story about an Iowa farm family during WW II.

“That Joy Neal Kidney is writing about her own family’s history makes it even more poignant. She includes many of the actual letters that were sent and received between many of her family members during the war.”

Leora’s Dexter Stories

March 2022

“Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression by Joy Neal Kidney was an enlightening read about an Iowa family (Joy’s relatives) in a small town as they navigated through a period in US History that tried the souls and hearts of communities everywhere. Kidney’s short stories give us a glimpse of how one family persevered through challenge after challenge yet retained hope for the future.

“I would highly recommend Leora’s Dexter Stories by Joy Neal Kidney.”

Leora’s Early Years

November 2022

“Really enjoying Leora’s Early Years: Guthrie County Roots by Joy Neal Kidney. The research by Kidney is meticulous and provides a clear background to the life of her grandmother Leora. She adds photos of her Iowa relatives and such detail to acquaint you with her family.

“(Her two other books center on Leora as well: Leora’s Letters: The Story of Love and Loss For An Iowa Family During World War II and Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression.

“May you enjoy each book like I have!”

[image error]Mary brightens wherever she is. She regularly posts chalk encouragements in their driveway for anyone walking or driving by, as well as those of us who follow her on Facebook.

Mary coauthored a terrific book about letter writing with Mary Potter Kenyon called Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink.