Life in Early Dallas County of the Adams Family

ADAMS, MCKIBBEN, STANLEY

Posted By: Carol Spitz (email)
Date: 2/16/2003 at 13:31:17

The Adams Family
By Dora B. Stanley

This is supposed to be a short sketch of the Adams family, my mothers people who came to Iowa from Ohio about 1856. I, Dora Bell (McKibben) Stanley am the oldest grandchild and the only one now living in Iowa.

Stephen Adams & his wife Matilda (Walker) Adams & several children came to Iowa with an ox team. The children were 1) Ann Eliza, 2) Arabelle, 3) Elizabeth, 4) John Quincy, 5) James Allison, & 6) Florence Susanna, 7) Mary Luella, 8) Dott R (his real name was Joshua Rufus) and 9) Stephen Mostyn, were born in Iowa. Ann, born about 1848 married John R Wilson. They had one child Samuel Oliver born in 1870 & died in Rathdrum, Idaho about 1894. Azuba Arabelle was born Nov 12, 1849. She was married to Harvey Stuart McKibben, who was a near neighbor of the Adams family in Brown Co. Ohio. The McKibben family had moved to Iowa a year or two before the Adams family. (They are my parents). Elizabeth married Dan Lantz and moved to Kansas. After about 3 years they separated & she came back to her parents who still lived at the old home. When grandfather Stephen Adams was elected sheriff (1880) and moved with his family to Adel the county seat of Dallas Co, Iowa she learned dressmaking and Florence the younger sister learned Millinery trade. The two boys Dott & Mostyn, the youngest of the family were still in school. Dott in high school & Mostyn in second grade. The oldest son, John, next to Elizabeth was in Redfield where he owned a furniture store. In his early manhood he had learned the carpenter trade and worked with his father several years. They built several frame houses and a number of school houses. Later he learned cabinet making & started a furniture store of his own. He married Diana Warden a school teacher. They had one child Byrl Warden Adams born in 1882 or 83 at Redfield. He was the first son of the oldest son of Stephen Adams and the only one of the eight grandchildren bearing the Adams name. They moved to Colorado in 1883 and never came back to their old home in Iowa. James the second son of Stephen Adams was the only one who took to farming. As far back as I can remember he made his home with his grandfather (John Adams) and run the farm and raised lots of stock trotting horses, hogs and cattle. He staid [sic] on until his grandfather died and his second wife Elsie Girton Adams went back to her old home in Ohio. Then James (Uncle Jim) married and a few month later went to Spokane, Washington. His wife was Miss Etta Hasty a teacher. They had five children & one adopted girl the daughter of a friend who lost his wife. A little later Dott went to Spokane and the next year the summer of 1886 or 7 Lizzie & Florence went out to Jim’s, then Ann & her son & husband left Colorado where they had been for five or six years & went to Spokane and they all kept waiting for their father & mother to come. Finally in 1889 the mother (my grandmother) & Mostyn, then about 13 yrs old went out to Spokane. Grandfather staid [sic] on for about two years at the farm alone, then he sold the place & went west. This left only my mother Arabelle (Adams) McKibben in Iowa. The father, mother and eight of the nine children were in or near Spokane. Lizzie, Florence, Dott & Mostyn all married and made their homes in the west near Spokane & Rathdrum, Idaho.
Uncle Jim came back on business in 1890 and grandfather made two visits back, once in 1902 and again in 1910. He (Stephen Adams) was quite a letter writer and kept us in touch with all the folks as long as he lived. I was the one to do the writing in our family and we wrote many letters.
Iowa in 1856
The Adams family (of 7 I believe) lived in a small one room log house for a few years. They had two beds & a ‘trundle’ bed which was pushed under the other bed in day time. They cooked in iron kettles in the fireplace. They had no stove of any kind the first year. Grandfather made a table and I think they had two or three chairs but the children all stood around the table to eat until they got too tall. They felt honored when they were old enough to “sit at the table”. The one room home had no window but grandfather sawed out a section of a log making an opening about a foot square and covered it over with a piece of greased paper. This let in a little light and here grandmother sat all day and sewed, spun thread and wove cloth, for their clothing, bedding etc. In this small home they had a loom for weaving cloth “linsey” for womens dresses & “jeans” for mens coats & pants. The three girls the oldest of the family soon learned to help with this work and when quite small learned to knit their own stocking. So they kept the loom, spinning wheel and the knitting needle busy all day and far into the night with only the light from the fireplace and sometimes a “grease lamp” made from a turnip for they did not yet have kerosene lamps.
The children had no shoes the first winter & wore the home knit woolen stocking & staid [sic] in the house in winter. The women folks went barefooted in summer only when they went to the old log school house to “meeting” where once in a month or six weeks a circuit rider would come to preach. Then they’d manage to find clothes enough so that two or three of the family could go. The oldest girl got shoes first & if she was good natured she would loan them to the younger ones so they could go once or twice during the summer. The women & children did not go away from home in winter. Iowa winters were very severe in those days & the snow was a foot to four or five feet deep & no road and no fence anywhere and they didn’t dare go far from the house lest they could not find their way back. I have heard them tell that when there was a bad snowstorm grandfather would stretch a rope from the house to the stable when he went to milk so he could find his way back. Iowa winters were terrible back in 1850 & 1860. After these awful snowstorms the small houses that the people lived in were sometimes completely buried in snow. I never could understand how they lived through those long cold winters but they did. There were nine children in the family and all lived to grow up. They had very plain food sometimes not much but corn bread & meat. They used to store pumpkins, turnips and potatoes under one of the curtained beds but that small amount could not last long for a big family. Later they dug large pits & buried the vegetables for winter. These pits were dug quite large & deep, lined with straw or slough grass (wild hay) and several bushels of vegetables put into them. A small opening was left on the south side where a child could crawl in & get a pail full. The opening was then stuffed full of straw and covered over with dirt. Sometimes the weather was so cold & snow so deep they could not open it for a long time but toward spring it was opened up and they feasted on fresh crisp vegetables which kept perfectly in these pits. The baking was not done with gas or electricity in those day but they had what they called an oven. It was what we would call a very thick heavy flat-bottomed iron kettle. It had legs about three or four inches long and a heavy iron cover. They let the fire in the fireplace burn down to a huge bed of coals. Then put corn bread or ’johny cake’ into this “oven” and buried it hot ashes then heaped hot coal in front it and my mother has told me it baked perfectly. I presume there was a ‘knack’ in such work but grandmother had plenty of practice cooking for a family of seven or eight children. How she ever found time to spin, weave cloth and make clothing I do not know. I’ve been told that they only had one outfit of clothing each and grandmother always planned to get them made before real cold weather set in. She washed their clothes at night & sat up most of the night and kept a big fire in the fireplace to get them dry. Her three oldest children were girls and they were taught to work in those days. The washing was done by hand the water being heated in a large iron kettle like what we call a soap kettle or butcher kettle. It was hung on a large iron hook called a ‘crane’ over the fireplace. This hook was fastened at one side just inside the chimney and the kettle could be hung on, filled with water and then turned to bring the kettle over the fire. They boiled their white clothes in those days and they tell me that they were very white when they were hung out. These same huge iron kettles were used for butchering work and for making ‘lye hominy’ in winter. They also made soap in summer by hanging the kettle on a pole out of doors using the grease and meat rind from winter butchering and lye leached from wood ashes which accumulated through the winter. This was ‘soft soap’ and was kept in barrels, enough being made each spring to last a year. The first year was the hardest. Grandfather was a young man, very tall & strong and a good carpenter and wagon maker. As new settlers kept coming there was work in his line in summer and he taught the school in winter for he & my grandfather McKibben soon built a rude school house, grandfather McKibben giving the land and logs for the building & grandfather Adams putting up the building. The seats were made of slabs. They put large auger holes in the ends of the slabs and drove in pins of hickory saplings for legs. The schoolhouse was made of logs and the cracks filled with clay or plaster the same as the few dwelling houses. A little later they added another room to the Adams house and grandfather put in a few shelves and pigeon holes and kept the post office carrying the mail on horseback from a small town later known as Adel, the county seat of Dallas Co. At this time the homes of the Adams and McKibben families were about one fourth mile apart; 9 miles S.W. from Adel and about four miles from where later the town of Earlham was built near the Dallas and Madison county line. This was 30 miles west of a little place called a ‘trading post’ a sort of grain and hog market which later became the city of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa.
The old log schoolhouse was built half way between the Adams & McKibben homes which were a quarter of a mile apart. Here in the old log schoolhouse my parents and a number of Uncles and Aunts of both the Adams & McKibben families received their education. A few of the older children had been to school in Ohio before coming to Iowa. Grandfather’s brother George Adams taught the school in Brown Co. Ohio. Several years later the old log schoolhouse was replaced with neat frame building with three windows on each side and ‘boughten seats with desks’. In this building I with my brothers, sisters and cousins got our first schooling. The first teacher was a man by the name of Isaac Hacket from Ohio. Others were Z. W. Kelly, R. D. Dodge & Mr Walker, Maggie Sholtz & Ella Smith. My first teacher was Maggie Sholtz.
This schoolhouse was heated by a large long ‘box stove’ & the big boys cut the wood at the noon hour or Saturdays. They were beginning then to allow ladies to teach in summer but hired a man in winter. This was in 1876.
More Relatives from Ohio
In 1859 my grandfather with a family of several children came from Ohio. Stephen the oldest son & my grandfather had been here three years & I think he was the only one married at that time. Great grandfather was John Adams & I’ve been told he was a relative of president Adams. His other sons beside Stephen were George, James, Dott (Joshua Rufus – died in Andersonville Prison) & Timothy. The daughters were Susan, Huldah & Sarah. Dott died on his way home from the war in 1865. George was a teacher & later took up farming. James was a teacher & went to California, married there & never returned. Timothy was a teacher and although a cripple from childhood worked his way thru school & college and when quite a young man was ordained to preach in the M.E. church. His own struggle for an education fired him with determination to help other young people in their chosen line of education & work. Several nieces & nephew were taken into his home & given a year of two of schooling in Toledo where for many years he preached & gave all his spare time to building up the Western College and at the time of his death he was general manager & treasurer of the college. He was an influential member of the General Conference of 1889 and of 1898. He was for a time editor of the “Christian Expositor”. Rev. T. D. Adams was a very prominent and a very able man in all school and church work. His father, John Adams was born in West Moreland Co. Maryland Apr 1, 1806 of English parents. His wife, the mother of his twelve children was a Miss Davis of Ohio and they lived many years in Ohio coming to Dallas Co Iowa in 1859. He was a well educated man for his time and a very religious man and it was said that he could step into the pulpit on a moments notice and give a wonderful talk when storm or bad roads kept the regular speaker away. He died at his farm home in Dallas Co in March 1884 lacking less than a month of 79 years of age. His first wife died in 1863 and he was later married to Miss Elsie Girton who survived him.
After living in their first Iowa home a few years the Stephen Adams family bot [sic] a larger place about one & a half miles north and a few rods east. It was timber land, half or more of it covered with huge walnut, oak & hickory trees. The south half of this place was fairly level and there they cleared a spot and started building their second western home. I do not know how much land they bot [sic] but at that time land sold here at $1.25 to $2.00 per acre. The Adams family made a real home of this place. They first built a log house later enlarging it, then they built what was at that time called quite a fine home. In the family were three carpenters, Grandfather, his son John Quincy & his son-in-law. I’ve no idea where they got building material, but get it they did and put up a five room house. A large living room & bedroom under the main roof with two sleeping rooms above and a “lean-to” or “shed” kitchen the full length of the other two rooms. The house was weather-boarded on the outside & lathed & plastered inside upstairs and down. From accounts I use to hear, I think they were two or three years building & finishing this house for they built other homes, schoolhouses etc. when opportunity offered presumably to earn the cast to finish their own home. When finished it was painted yellow. John Adams was a painter by trade and did all painting inside and out. Inside work doors, casing etc were “grained” and it was beautiful. Each downstairs room had two windows and that was thot [sic] to be rather classy. Later they wove carpet for the front room and made muslin curtains for the windows. Curtains for the other rooms were of newspaper, cut in fancy designs & tacked up with carpet tacks.
The second son took to farming & plowed & grubbed the level part of the land and managed to raise some corn and potatoes. Soon after the new house was built they started putting out an orchard setting out a few trees each year until the whole south side of the farm was filled with trees of different kind and many rows of raspberries, strawberries etc. Grandma raised chickens, geese, and turkeys and they kept one or two cows & two or three horses. They later built a barn & a good sized work shop. The place was fenced with a rail fence or any way the farm land orchard etc was. The buildings were fenced with what they called a plank fence. At that time people fenced the farm, land for miles was free pasture for every one turned out horses, hogs & cattle & let them shift for themselves thru the summer. Grandfather was no farmer & never cleared much of the land he owned. He had just a few acres of farm land where he raised potatoes, sweet corn, melons, pumpkins etc. for their own use. He usually kept only one cow & two or 3 hogs which he fattened for their meat. When they were fat they butchered and he bought a couple more & put them in the ‘fattening pen’. In this way he kept the family supplied with meat. He was quite a politician & knew more law than half the lawyers did. He belonged to the Odd Fellows joining Hamer Lodge No 154 at Fayetteville, Brown Co. Ohio Oct 8th 1850 & from that day he very seldom missed a Lodge meeting no matter what the weather was. He always held two or three offices in the Lodge & attended all state and National Lodge meetings until he was 88 years old. He was 24 yrs old when he was initiated at Fayetteville. He transferred his membership from there to Adel, Iowa in 1861 after living in Iowa about five years. He kept his membership at Adel about thirty years. In 1891 he moved to Rathdrum Idaho & joined Rathdrum Lodge No 73 in January 1905. He was a charter member of Mt Moriah Encampment No 43 and attended the Grand Lodge and encampment at Couer d’Alene, Idaho in 1903. He was a delegate to the Grand Centennial at Atlanta, Georgia and made the trip alone from his home in Rathdrum, Idaho in 1910 at the age of 84. He visited Iowa relatives on the trip and was in good health and as spry as a man half his age. Stephen Adams died at his home in Idaho in 1914 at the age of 88 years. As was his wish he was laid to rest by his Brothers of the I.O.O.F. with the honors due a faithful member of 64 years. He was the father of nine children, four boys and five girls. His oldest son was John Quincy Adams. There were 22 grandchildren. The writer of this sketch being the oldest of the grandchildren. I was born on a farm near Earlham Iowa Aug 30th 1879. I am now 71 years old. I always felt I was fortunate in having so many grandparents. My great-grandfather John Adams lived less that half a mile east of my home. Grandfather Stephen Adams 1 ¼ mile north and Grandfather Samuel McKibben ½ mile west. I was 13 years old when great-grandfather passed away. My grandparents were at my wedding in 1889 & I thought they were quite aged, but my oldest son was 24 when grandfather Stephen A. passed away at the age of 88. Grandma had passed away at her home in Rathdrum, Idaho seven years before, 1906 I think it was.
The Adams young folks were all musically inclined. There was an old fashioned singing school in the neighborhood every winter and the Adams young folks (my mothers brothers and sisters) were always there. There was no church building in the neighborhood but we had Sunday school every Sunday in the schoolhouse & preaching twice a month on Sunday P.M. and it was always understood that the Adams young folks would lead the singing. Uncle J. Q. would get up with his tuning fork or pitch pipe & start these off. Later he went into the furniture business, bot [sic] a store in Redfield Iowa and he bought a cottage organ and Florence soon learned to play. Neighbors used to come quite a distance to see the organ and hear them sing & play for that organ was the only one for miles around. All of the seven children then at home learned to sing & play. Florence was always considered the best player. She was never strong enough to do any hard work and therefore had more time for her music. Dott learned to play several instruments. He arranged a frame to hold a large French harp and played the organ & harp together. He also played horns, & other instruments and was leader of three bands at the same time. The DeSoto, Adel and Redfield bands. Dott was about three years older that I, and Mostyn, mothers baby brother was two years younger than me. After going to Spokane, Dott was leader of the Washington State Band. There were three grandchildren older than grandma’s youngest child and the two oldest daughters were married when he was born. There were nine children in the family. They always had lots of company. They had a lot of relatives and neighbors used to say that when anyone was out of a place to stay they always went to Steve Adams and he always took them in. At one time when I was a child about 8 a cousin of grandfathers, Sylvester Hathaway, his wife & children and an old maid sister (Aunt Hulda) “burned out” down in Kansas and they loaded up what they had in two old wagons and drove up and spent the summer at grandfathers. The two big boys soon got work but the family staid [sic] all summer before they earned enough to establish a home for themselves.
Grandfather was fond of all kinds of animals especially dogs & horses. He talked to his horses a lot and was always telling their smart tricks. He usually had at least two dogs. He taught them to ‘speak’ for their food, to sit up, roll over and to catch a piece of bread which he would throw into the air. He would count 1 – 2 – 3 or say ready, aim, fire, at the last word he would throw the bread several feet high & the dog would catch it. He had a horse that learned to open the gate when she wanted to come in from the pasture. He didn’t beat her for it as some men would but he would stand a little distance away & watch her do it, then tell us how she did it. If they went away from home he had to chain the gate or she would go into the field or anywhere she liked. At one time he had an antelope for a pet but it fell in a spring and was drowned.
My grandmother (Matilda) was a wonderful cook. She was part German & she had a “knack” for cooking. She was getting along in years when I was married but she baked a wonderful ‘brides cake’ for the wedding. While grandfather was sheriff she kept a dozen or more boarders & often fed the jury. Her maiden name was Walker & her mothers maiden name was Schnell. Her relatives lived in Ohio not far from the Adams. She was a Presbyterian but his people were mostly Methodist. They lived on the same farm about 30 yrs but never had a well. Down a hill a short distance from the house was a fine spring and all water for house use washing etc had to be carried from the spring no matter what the weather was. In summer they built a fire near the spring hung a big iron kettle over it and washed, done the washing using two tubs & two washboards. I don’t suppose they ever heard of a washing machine. Quilts were washed by putting them in a tub of suds & pounding them with a maul or mallet. Then two people would lift them out of the water and wring them by hand. Most of the washing was done by rubbing the clothes on the washboard in wooden tubs. Where there was a family of eight to twelve it was a full days job to do the washing.
Stephen Adams was thrown from a horse in 1914 sustained a broken hip and other injuries and lived only a few weeks.
Children of Stephen & Matilda Walker Adams (died June 1906)
1. Ann Eliza Adams Wilson
2. Azuba Arabelle Adams McKibben born 1849, married 1869, died 1908, wife of Harvey Stuart McKibben (their children – Dora Belle, James William, Mary Matilda, Georgianna, Millie, Ethel, Walter Jr.)
3. Florence Suzanna (Sis) Adams Grallapp wife of Ed Grallap (Rathdrum Idaho)
4. Elizabeth Adams Lantz (later Lou White)
5. Mary Luella (Mel) Adams Ganoe
6. Joshua Rufus (Dott) Adams
7. John Quincy - married Diana Warden 1 son Beryl Warden 1882 or 3
8. James Allison
9. Stephen Moysten daughter Merle

Sheriff Adams Almost Went to Prison
In the summer of 1880 soon after sheriff Adams took over the office he had the disagreeable task of taking a man to Ft Madison penitentiary. The man was a smooth polished criminal and a good talker butfinally got himself convicted of selling ‘bug juice’ for praying apple trees. He sold an unbelievable amount of the stuff and it was no good on earth so he was sent up for five years for ‘defrauding farmers’ and getting their notes under false pretenses and selling the notes to innocent parties. His name was Bumpus and he was about the swellest dressed man Adel had ever seen. Sheriff Adams was a good honest man some what unsophisticated rather careless in his personal appearance but a good officer. He had never been to Fort Madison until he and George Welch took Mr. Bumpus. Mr. B. was a model prisoner and begged to not be put in handcuffs so the sheriff humored him. When they reached the prison Mr. B. not being at all bashful spoke up quickly and told the warden he had ‘brought’ a prisoner from Dallas Co. When the sheriff caught his breath and was able to speak he says “I’m the sheriff” and showed the warden the papers and the handcuffs which he had dropped in his coat pocket and with George Welch as a witness they locked up Bumpus and let Sheriff Adams come home.
(I was an eye witness to Mr Bumpus farewell party when he left for Fort Madison between two officers and saw him ask the sheriff if he would allow him a few minutes before they stepped outside to remove his gold cuff buttons and shirt studs and give them to his friend to “take home to mother’. His hands shook terribly but finally the task was finished and the party started for the depot. I (Dora Belle) am the oldest grand daughter of Stephen Adams and was 10 or 11 years old at this time.)

Jan. 26, 2001 - This is transcribed from Zerox copies of a ‘journal ‘ of 31 handwritten pages that were provided to me by Joyce Moore Hodges, Bonner Sprigs, KS a great granddaughter of Dora Belle McKibben Stanley.
Carol Spitz

This is a continuation of the Adams history written by Mabelle Stanley Anderson only daughter of Dora McKibben Stanley.
When Dora was about 13 years old she lived in Adel with her grandfather Stephen Adams who was Sheriff of Dallas County. She helped her grandmother mornings & evenings and went to school. Grandmother did the cooking and Dora carried the meals up to the prisoners. Her grandfather was very lenient with the prisoners, and treated them so well & grandmother was such a good cook & fed them so well that none of them wanted to stage a jail break, which they could easily have done.
Family of Harvey & Arabelle McKibben
I. Dora Belle McKibben Stanley (born Aug 30, 1870 – died Nov 11, 1951) married Edward Alpheus Stanley (Feb 12, 1889 May 13, 1958) had 4 children:
1. William Harvey born May 16, 1890 (died Feb 5, 1967) married Jessie A Vosseller (born Jan 6, 1891 died Sept 20, 1972) They had 3 children: James Edward (born July 29, 1915) Lois Lucille (born Aug 1, 1917), Lola Elizabeth (Aug 25, 1918 – Sept 25, 1925), James Edward (July 27, 1916) married Mary Anne Tracy. They had 4 children: Janice Kay (April 16, 1941), Delores May (Aug 28, 1943), William Edward (July 29, 1947) & Margaret Faye (born Nov, died in infancy)
2. Ernest Ray born Jan 2, 1892 married Sarah Evans Tarrentine. They had 2 daughters: Dorothy Jean (who married Edwin R Moore) Their children are Joyce Elaine, Stanley Edwin, Allen Richard, Glenn (sp?) Sandy, Mildred Ruth who married William Donald Ransom) Their children are: Kerry Lynn, Todd Spencer
3. Mabelle Mae born June 11, 1894 married Christian Lourence Anderson (1931 no children)
4. Lyle Dale born Aug 17, 1896 married Ariel McKean who died in childbirth the daughter Betty Ann who also died a few hours later and was buried with her mother at Wyoming, Iowa. In 1936 Dale married Esther Oster, she died in 1941. In 1944 he married Edna Warner, one daughter Kathleen
II. James William had 1 son Wayne
III. Mary Matilda married Will Kenworthy about 18__ had 3 children, Inez, Irene & Nyle
IV. Georgianna married Clem Hoover. Their children are Ethel, Edith, Dean, Ned, Harvey, Irene, Earl
V. Millie Ethel married Thomas B Miller their children are:
1. Winifred Merle who married William Kiss & had one son Richard (Stevie, Paula)
2. Kenneth who died when about 5
3. Lois who married Rolfe Stageberg & have 2 children, Carol & Sk______
4. Genevieve who married Robert Pye have 2 children Billy & Susan
5. Donald & Elaine Fairchild have 2 adopted children, (Elizabeth Anne & Teddy)
6. Patricia Arlene married Robert Straub their children are Robbie (deceased) Douglas , Laurel
VI. Walter J. (5.31.1883 – 3.27.1964) married Rachel Potter (9.9.1880 – 8.31.1958) married at Van Meter 4.19/1903 – three children Mildred Ethel May 14, 1904, Opal Rose Oct 21, 1906, Roy H. (6.9.1909 – 12.31.6__)

Adams Family
Stephen Adams (my great grandfather)
Timothy Adams (a Methodist Minister)
Joshua Adams (died in Andersonville Prison)
George Adams
Hulda Adams (Logan)
Susan Adams (Hodson)
Sade