FONDA, A.A. & Barbara (nee Decker)

FONDA, DECKER

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 8/25/2011 at 19:48:02

OLD SETTLERS OF MITCHELL COUNTY

Those Who Came in the Fifities -- No. 16

Mrs. Barbara Fonda

Mrs. Barbara Fonda was born in Germany, Wallertheim, November 17, 1848. She was only two and one-half years old when she crossed the ocean and so can not give a vivid description of the glorious sunrise nor a brilliant sunset on the deep. Illinois was the first state to which she went where she remained until she was five years old. In 1856 she came with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Decker, to Pennyville, in Liberty township, about two and one-half miles from Little Cedar. She remembers well the old farm days. The red man of the forest would frequently come along and the children were not a little worried at his steps. The Indians would pitch their tents near the village and stay some little time. On the farm and in the village of Stacyville, Miss Decker passed her girlhood days, though she took a trip to Illinois when she was sixteen to attend school, but an attack of diptheria spoiled her plans and sent her back to Iowa. Another trip in her early years took her to Missouri, but she did not enjoy the land of the pukes, altho she found good people there.

WEDDED.

In 1873, she gave her hand in marriage to Mr. A. A. Fonda, who had come to Iowa from New York and settled in Clayton county in 1855. For seven years they lived near the thriving city of Boone, on a farm. They liked that part of the state well. Boone has now become a city of nearly 10,000 inhabitants. In 1880, they came to Mitchell County, and settled for some years on a farm. For a time Mr. Fonda was a hardware merchant in Stacyville. In 1893 they moved to Osage and have had their home here since. Busines trips have called Mr. Fonda to Kansas and Nebraska.

Mr. and Mrs. Fonda are active members of the Congregational church. They take interest in Sunday School and all lines of Christian work that tend to make men better. For years Mrs. Fonda was a teacher in the townships of Union and Liberty. There are many living in Mitchell county and elsewhere who remember her kindly as their first teacher, and a good teacher, too. She was a student in the Cedar Valley Seminary back in the days of 1871. She remembers that Prof. Bush was county superintendent for six years. In those days there were not as many schools as there are now in Mitchell county, so a man could care for them without giving all his time to that work.

For years Mrs. Fonda has been a great sufferer from rheumatism. She is now much more comfortable. Naturally, her life, because of this affliction, has been quiet. She has a retentive memory and has been deeply interested in books. Keeping a family record has occupied many of her spare moments.

Mr. Fonda met with a severe accident in 1890. While out at work, one day, he bent over and ran the jagged end of a piece of wire into his eye, causing severe pain, with the final loss of that eye.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Fonda have seen much of frontier life in Iowa. When Mrs. Fonda came to Galena in a wagon, the ice was just breaking up. Many were crossing the Mississippi at great risk; some were going under the ice to be seen no more alive. Her father would take no risk, but waited a week or ten days until the river could be crossed in safety. In connection with these early days, she remembers well how some medicine from an Indian doctor saved her life. Altogether, Mr. and Mrs. Fonda review these early experiences with deep interest. They have ever been in sympathy with the best in society and have been active supporters of every good work.

[From a clipping in the Osage Public Library]