Warner Gayus Munger, 1827-1920

MUNGER, BARRY

Posted By: Clay County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 11/30/2010 at 06:58:32

Nearing the 100 Mark
W.G. MUNGER Begins his 90th Year Sunday --
Some Reminiscences of an Early Day.

Peterson's oldest citizen passed his eighty-ninth birthday Sunday of this week, and is now entered upon his Ninetieth year. To see Mr. Munger as we do every day we do not realize how near the century mark he has arrived. He has retained his strength and vigor of several years past and his mental faculties are as bright as they were several years ago. With no accident or severe illness we fully believe Mr. Munger will round out his hundredth year.

We had a pleasant chat with Mr. Munger Saturday and the tales he told of his early life and experiences we believe worth relating. The Mungers are among American's earliest settlers. In the year of 1620 a young man named Munger, age seventeen landed near Boston. Presumably he came on the Mayflower which brought the first shipload of people to America from England following the landing of Captain John Smith at Jamestown in 1609. From this beginning the Munger family started in America and in 1827 the subject of this article was born in Ohio near Sandusky, on March 19th. The family moved four years later to Indiana, and when Mr. Munger was ten the family moved again to Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.

Mr. Munger launched out upon a career of hardship and one filled with much danger and exciting times when he joined a logging crew and helped float a great drive down the Mississippi. He left the loggers upon hearing of a Government Overland Train being started across the Plaines and took a job driving an ox team. Everything went well until they arrived in Wyoming. It was in September of 1857. The Mountain Meadow Massacre happened and the Mormons were still continuing their depredations when this wagon train arrived in that locality in October. They had been joined by another wagon train and were camped in a circle for the night near Green River. The Mormon outlaws came upon them at Midnight and after allowing them to take their personal effects burned the wagons and rounded up the cattle. Col. W.F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) was driving a lead team with the freighters but was not as famous at that time as later. Mr. Munger in the company with four or five young men, left the camp and went on down the river and struck out over land to Fort Briger. There another Mormon outfit were camped and the Munger party accompanied them to Salt Lake. They remained there during the winter and in the Spring went on to California where Mr. Munger remained for seven years.

Mr. Munger returned to the States by water landing in New York in 1865. He was in Buffalo, New York when news of the assassination of President Lincoln was flashed over the country. He returned to his home in Wisconsin and came out to Iowa late in the '60's with Anson Allbee, who is now his neighbor and worked on the grading of the Illinois Central through Storm Lake and Alta. Hearing of the possibilities in Clay County on homesteads both came on to Peterson and after looking over several places, located on the farms they still have northwest of Peterson.

Mr. Munger and Mr. Allbee married sisters when young men and both have their early sweethearts as companions in their declining years, living as neighbors in the east end of town. Mrs. Munger celebrates her Eightieth birthday this month and like her husband, enjoys good health and will no doubt pass many more birthdays with her life companion whom she married so many years ago in Wisconsin. We extend our best wishes to both Mr. and Mrs. Munger upon the birthdays they are passing, hope we may be able to record many more such anniversaries.

Contributed by: Colleen Boose. Source: Peterson newspaper, 1916.

Additional notes by Colleen Boose:
Warner Gayus Munger married Almira Sophia Washington Barry on January 1, 1853 in Reedsburg, Sauk County, Wisconsin.

Almira Barry's sister -- Helen Hannah Eliza BARRY married Anson Allbee (mentioned in above article) on January 2, 1867 in Wonewoc, Juneau County, Wisconsin.

Migration pattern -- by 1880 . . . Don Carlos Barry and his wife Eliza Spoor Barry . . . and their entire family (both married and unmarried -- John Carlos Barry & family, Almira Sophia Washington Barry Munger & family, Lucy Lovina Lucretia Barry Mack & family, Helen Hannah Eliza BARRY Allbee & family, Mary Agnes Estella Barry Miner & family, Abigail Alice Ella BARRY Diggins & family, Edgar Alfonzo Barry & Edwin Alonzo Barry) had transplanted themselves in O'Brien or Clay Counties in Iowa. In addition -- the sister of Don Carlos Barry -- Lucretia Cynthia Barry Shepard and her husband, Thompson Shepard and all of their children (except for one married son who stayed in Wisconsin) . . . were all living in O'Brien County, Iowa.

Deaths:
Warner Gayus Munger died January 2, 1920 in Peterson, Clay County, Iowa Almira Sophia Washington Barry Munger died January 8, 1924 in Peterson, Clay County, Iowa. Both are buried at Oakland Cemetery, Peterson, Clay County, Iowa.

Interment in Oakland cemetery
 

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