Strong Women

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Women's stories were often ignored in historical research. One of the great things about genealogy is we can learn more about the women -- especially if letters and diaries are available. If those items are not available, often all we know about women is from their relationships to their fathers, husbands, and children.  That can tell us quite a lot, though. 

Caroline Roberts Vroman. We don't know when Caroline was born. She married Adam Vroman (b. 1792) in 1821. They lived in Delaware Co., OH, where Adam was a carpenter and Caroline gave birth to ten children! She died in 1845.

Mindwell Moore Finch (b. 1761) married Stephen Finch in 1779. She and Stephen had nine or ten children and moved to several different locations in NY State. She died sometime after 1844. 

Sarah Sears Finch (b. 1784), Mindwell's daughter-in-law, married Stephen Finch sometime before 1804. They had seven children. After Stephen died in NY in 1853, Sarah moved DuPage Co., IL, where three of her sons lived. She died there in 1856. 

Margaret Simpson Finch (b. 1826). Sarah's daughter-in-law was born in England; when she was seven, her family sailed to Vermont. She married William Finch in 1845. She gave birth to eleven children. The family moved from NY to Naperville IL in 1850. Margaret died in 1875, when her youngest son was just three years old. 

Sarah Jane Vroman Finch (b. 1858). Caroline Roberts Vroman's granddaughter, Sarah Jane, married Margaret Simpson Finch's son Orrin in 1875 in Naperville, IL. They had thirteen children. They moved from IL to Nance Co., NE in 1887. Their youngest daughter, Irene (my grandmother) was born in 1898. Orrin died in 1905; in 1908, Sarah and Irene moved to Fullerton, NE.

Elizabeth Collier Smith (b. 1800). Married Acquilla Smith (b. 1788) in 1815 (She was fifteen!). Seven of their eleven children were born in KY; in 1829 they moved to IN where the rest of the children were born. In 1848, they moved to Madison Co. IA. Families often lived for weeks on flapjacks made from corn pounded by hand with an iron wedge fastened to a tree trunk as a pestle and a hollowed-out space in a tree as a mortar. Settlers had to go to Oskaloosa and Ottumwa IA to the mill and to St. Joseph MO to buy groceries. Transportation was by ox team. Elizabeth died in 1862; Acquilla outlived her by three years. 

Mabel (Mae) Grace Fitzgerald Smith (b. 1877) was born in IL, daughter of Michael Fitzgerald and Clara Mitchell. When she was thirteen, the family moved to NE along with nine other families. She married William Elmer T. Smith in 1892 (she was fifteen!). Will failed as a farmer several times; he became a traveling medicine man and peddler. Mae and Will had three sons, the youngest, Forrest (my grandfather) was born in 1898. While he was still a baby, Will left on a peddling trip and never returned. Her two older sons -- Cecil and Fay -- went to live with her parents. She kept Forrest with her and did housework to support them. in 1907 she married Robert L. Workman. Robert died in 1950; Mae died in 1976 just short of her 100th birthday. (Will died in 1937.)

Irene Finch Smith (b. 1898) married Mae's youngest son Forrest Smith in 1919. They worked very hard on a rented farm for many years; in 1936 -- in the midst of the Great Depression -- they bought a Gamble-Skogmo store in Albion, NE. They worked side-by-side in the store while raising their two children, Donald (b. 1919) and Marjorie (b. 1921) (my mother). Forrest died in 1976 and Irene in 1981.

Annica Jansen Southard (b. 1633) married Thomas Southard (b. 1615). Thomas was apparently a hot head, as was Annica's father, Anthony Jansen (more on him in "Rogues and Characters" section!). Thomas fought with his neighbors on Long Island, and with his father-in-law. After one of these quarrels Annica (Anglicized to "Eunice") and Thomas moved to a new farm, in Hempstead, Long Island. During all this, Annica had nine children. She died in 1698. 

Keziah Reece Southard (b. 1819) married Levi Southard (Thomas and Annica's g-g-g grandson) in 1838. They lived in North Carolina until 1851 when they moved (in a party of 44 people, including Keziah's parents) to Iowa - total of 1200 miles. They didn't want to raise their family in a slave state. Keziah was pregnant with her ninth child during the journey; they had a total of thirteen children. Keziah's parents (Levi and Sarah Shugart Reece) also had thirteen children. Levi and Keziah farmed in Hardin Co.; the nearest town to buy provisions was Iowa City, 100 miles away.  Levi and Keziah both died in 1901.

Laura Almeda Griffin Southard (my grandmother) (b. 1884) was six years old when her mother died; two years later, her older sister married, and Laura was made to quit school and keep house for her father and two brothers, even though her father remarried about the same time. In St. Paul, NE she met Edmond Southard; he became a fireman for the railroad. Laura was pregnant when the two married in Ogden, UT in 1902. I picture her chasing him out there to make him marry her, but I have no real evidence of that, except why did they get married in Utah? They had two daughters and Edmond died in an accident in 1907. Laura returned to St. Paul and married Edmond's brother, Alvin Southard (my grandfather) in 1909. It was, obviously, a marriage of necessity and obligation. They had four children; one died at age three of scarlet fever. Their youngest child was Jimmy (my father) born 1920. Alvin died in 1946; Laura in 1971.