Squire Madison Edwards was married Nov. 3 in 1872 in Richmond, KY. They went to the Christian Church while there and Lizzie, Jennie and Dora were born in Kentucky. The my grandfather decided to come west so with what furniture they had they came by train to Missouri where they settled at Pleasanthill where May was born on Jan. 27, 1882. The 2 years later I arrived on a lovely spring day, May 4, 1884 when lilacs were in bloom. [Father] hadn't found the garden spot of the world so he met a Mr. Ford that was moving to somewhere in Nebraska.

So they chartered a freight car each taking half of the space and he loaded the same furniture and farm tools, 2 cows, 12 chickens, 2 hogs and 2 horses old Brown and Charley, aboard the train. The 2 families rode in the caboose and left Missouri in such a snowstorm hoping it would be better weather in Nebraska. But the day we arrived it was still snowing and no place to live so they put the families in the waiting room at the depot at Reynolds, Nebraska and pa started looking for a house. As he walked he heard a blacksmiths' anvil ringing out and a mans' voice singing throughout the life line and he followed the voice and came to the shop. Mr. Marks, the man, the wonderful man, a Baptist minister greeted him and went on shaping a ploy share and pa walked over to his bench and saw the open bible. Then pa asked if he knew of a house to rent and he had a very small house we could have til we found a place.

In a few days he stopped in to see if we needed anything. Jennie was 7 or 8 and she climbed upon his knee in later years she was married to this man's son Matthew. I remember so well even tho only 2 years small, of him coming and the furniture where it was in the house.

Then in a few weeks Pa bought an 80 acre farm west of Reynolds where we lived until 1893. We moved to between Nark and Mahaska. Al we girls were married in the same house, the same room and the same corner of the room.

They lived there until Dora the last one was married to Roy then the farm was sold and moved to 1/2 mile south of Mahaska where Pa spent his remaining years when he left us Sept. 20, 1935 then Grandma gave the little place to your Grandma Dora Baker and Jennie Marks. She moved to the house east of the old Methodist Church in Mahaska. It took her to my house in Fairbury as she was sick then she got well and went to her own house and lived until Nov. 29, 1939. There ended their generation and their grandchildren entered. Such wonderful people your great grandparents and your parents' parents were such wonderful people not like the folks of today but were so willing to help everyone regardless what it was. Here I want to add your Grandpa & Grandma Baker was just as wonderful, Lucielle and Keith, as mine were. Mr. baker was such a wonderful singer - I remember the mixed quartet of your great grandpa Ada Myres, Syrus Ward and John Hudson Bass. And I just wanted to add this for I was only a small child but somehow those 12 I have always remembered them singing  I can hear my SAvior calling.  I know your Grampa will remember it. And when I hear Roy laugh I always thought of his mother as they laughed alike.

I was four years old the winter of the most terrible blizzard of all time in 1888. The parents went for their children as soon as they could but it had just swooped down all at once so some close neighbors took baskets of food and told the teacher to keep them there. The teacher took the boys sled rope, tied them together and one end around one of the boys' waist and one stood by the door and guided him to the school house. The sticks were not like you have seen, they were about 30 in. long as the stove was a long body low to the floor. They got enough wood to keep warm so they put their coats on the floor not worrying about the snow. Lots of children were found later frozen in the snow, also the teachers that tried so hard to save them. Most all schools were not fenced and no fences to guide them so they lost their way.

Lucille, I just could not stop writing as I believe your children will enjoy about our lives. You write what you think would do but I believe Roy will enjoy those good old days. I remember all I have wrote some things Grandma said, you was too little to remember but when I told her things that had never been mentioned she believed. I wrote some for Nellmetta's niece but not much. Then Marie and Dorothy, Minnie's girls wanted me to write about our 2 families and with Minnie, bless her dear heart, there was plenty. Then in Feb. after Will's bro Johnnie died, his 2 girls were here and they asked me to write about the love - Deegan families as they didn't know anything about their relations. If I was younger I'd write a book. But let all read it but don't put only what you want but I only just thought the younger ones would enjoy it.

This is interesting, Grandfather Gentry, my father's brother had a nephew who was Robert Edwards. He was never married and he spent most of his life in England when the US was hardly started. He came to America when the Indians owned so much land and he became friends of the Indians and bought several acres where the Woolworth buildings are also a tract of land where the old Trinity Church still stands, from the Indians paying in tobacco and whisky as the Indians could not buy it. In later years before he died, he leased this land to the people of Woolworth for 99 years after which was to go to his living relatives. Pa being an heir had to prove his relationship. He said we girls could have what we made but none of them had any faith so I took it up him telling me what I got was mine. I traced his birth right after several years old writing all over the U.S. and then Mr. Webb, a lawyer in the meantime took interest in it and he wrote very encouraging letters to me but the Woolworth people started to fight it and Mr. Webb was sent to prison for life and there matters were dropped. Me being my looser of around $100 as there was some money involved. So we did have the honor if you can call it that of being an heir to the Edwards estate valued at over several million dollars. And so the matter stands them not having a legal deed, but one the crooked lawyers invented. They got paid for fighting and we didn't have money to fight it. But I did get fun out of saying that I am an heir to the Edwards estate in New York State. Ha. Ha.

Courtesy of Donald Deegan, Corvallis, Oregon

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