James & Sharon Whitney
Homepage
Contents
Family History
Stories
Family History
Questions
Family Tree
Other Interests
Family History Stories
Andrew Clow
Whitney and Mary Gardner Todd
Andrew Melvin Whitney and Augusta Wilhelmine Vieth
Waldo Brooks Brainerd and Mary Emily
Murray
Back to top
Family History Questions/Problems
Back to top
Other Interests
Travel
Switzerland and Italy
(2004)
Christmas Markets
(2006)
Great Britain
(2010)
Ireland and Scotland
(2011)
Norway
(2014)
.Photo Gallery
View My Guestbook
Sign My Guestbook
Back to top
Last Revised: 2/21/2011
Andrew
Clow Whitney and Mary Gardner Todd
A. C. Whitney was born in Franklin County, Vt.,
August 11, 1833. He received a common school
education, and at the age of 16 began learning to be a carpenter. In 1852, aged 19, he moved to Lyons,
Wayne County, N. Y., where he worked as a
carpenter. In 1854 he was called home by the death of
his mother, and later that year turned his steps westward, with his younger
brother Irving. Traveling on foot the men felt the search endless until their
stop in Independence IA,
after having traveled over 1200 miles since leaving Highgate Springs, VT. Working at the only skill either knew -
carpentry - the two remained together at Independence
for almost two years.
In June of 1857, Irving, Andrew, and two of their
friends, Charlie White and Harry Hecker, purchased a
wagon with the intent of heading further west. Upon reaching Alden the four
decided that they had gone far enough. While boarding under the hospitable roof
of the local hotel operated by Mr. Cowles, the two Whitney brothers again began
work as carpenters, being hired to assist in the construction of the Peabody house.
Furthermore, when Martin Davis arrived in Alden six months later and purchased
the hotel from Cowles, Irving was one of the two
remaining boarders mentioned in the Davis
letter home. In contrast, Andrew had accepted the gracious invitation to move
in and board with the Rogers
family. He and Mary Gardner Todd, Jesse Rogers' stepdaughter, were married
December 31, 1858. Andrew built his own home at the corner of Maine
and Pearl
streets, and made most of the furniture in that home. He and Mary had nine
children -- Ida M., Edith, Lewis, Leona, Minnie, Andrew, Charles, Mabel and
Effie.
Andrew continued to work as a carpenter until 1868,
when he opened a furniture store in company with O. Willis, and continued in
that business for thirty years, until 1898 when the store was destroyed by
fire.
Mr. Whitney has held the offices of Township Clerk
and village Treasurer.
Mary Gardner Todd was born in 1836, in Killawog, New York. Her father, John Todd, died in
1844. She attended school in Killawog until aged 11
(1847), when she became a member of the Deacon Jesse Rogers family of Marathon, NY,
through the second marriage of her mother, Lucy B. Gardner. In 1856 the Deacon
Rogers family moved to Alden,
Iowa, where she met and married
Andrew Clow Whitney. Her grandfather, Jonathon Mills,
was a soldier in the Revolutionary War
Bibliography:
History of Hardin County, Iowa
Springfield,
Ill: Union Publishing Company,
1883.
Alden
Township
Transcribed by Brenda Wieland
Abbigail: Her
Story and Others by Jerry Johnson.
Whitney Genealogy, by Franklin Pierce
Back to top
Andrew
Melvin Whitney and Augusta Wilhelmine Vieth
Andrew was born in Alden,
Iowa, on January 14th,
1871, the sixth of nine children of Andrew Clow
Whitney and Mary Gardner Todd. Andrew grew up in Alden and when he finished
high school, probably about 1889,he taught school for some time. Then he
started work at the Alden Creamery. After attending school in Ames
he worked for the next 35 years in creameries of his own at Steamboat Rock,
Garden City, Whittemore, Owasa,
and various other Iowa
towns. He also worked in Callaway,
Minnesota. He married Augusta Vieth on March 22, 1906. Their son Harvey was born in Callaway, Minnesota.
At the time of Andrew Clow's death in 1909 the family
was living in Whittemore. They were living in
Steamboat Rock in 1918, according to a 'Cradle Roll' card sent to Harveyat that time. According to the 1920 census the family
was still in Steamboat Rock, owned their home, and Andrew was working as a buttermaker at the creamery. I remember that in the late
1940's he and Grandma Whitney were helping Dad add the extra bedroom to our
house in Minneapolis
The book, Abbigail: her story and others
by Jerry Johnson, provides some interesting comments on growing up in the late
1800's, small town Iowa
environment:
...many ballgames were played on a grassy area along the north side of the
Iowa River...all the Whitneys (Giles' and Andrew's
families) cheered for the 'Alden School Boys Nine', whose star second baseman
was none other than Abbie's cousin, Andrew, Jr.
It also provides and interesting base for speculation on what might have
been, had circumstances worked out differently:
... in early October, 1902, while she was but a junior in high school, Abbie had watched her brother Martin and cousin Andrew make
plans and then head west. Their plan was to each take up a homestead in South Dakota, ... which they did, each returning the
proud owner of 160 acres near Pierre.
however little time passed before word reached them that their land grants had
been nullified with no compensation given in return.
Andrew and Augusta lived at Radcliffe for the 25 years before his death.
After that, Augusta lived for some time in Eau Claire, where her son
Harvey and his family resided.
Augusta Vieth came to the US from Germany at age 16 (1893 or 1895).
She settled at Hubbard first, and then moved to Alden. She and Andrew were
married at Gowrie, Iowa. They had three children, one, a son
(Donald), died in infancy. Two of her sisters, Friederike
Wilhelmine (Mary Wood), and Wilhelmine
Louise Charlotte (Minnie Lehmeier) also emigrated to
the Unites States and lived in Iowa.
Augusta's date
of immigration is not available in the 1920 Census, although she is listed as
naturalized there (that may have been because she was married to Andrew, rather
than having gone through the naturalization process herself).
Bibliography:
Abbigail: Her
Story and Others by Jerry Johnson.
Back to
top
Waldo Brooks Brainerd and Mary Emily Murray
The
following is taken from Waldo's autobiographical notes, provided by his
daughter Hazel.
When
I lived at the Oak Grove stopping place (near Amacoy Lake,
on the bank of the Chippewa) there was a stage route from Cartwright (now New
Auburn) to Wallace Postoffice up at the foot of Belisle
Falls. The stage driver was Rufus Harding. He and I were great chums. When I was five years old he took me
along. I can remember stopping at the
Shamrock hotel in Bruce. At that time
Bruce was the end of the rails. They
were building the bridge over the
Chippewa at that time. The Shamrock was
a log building just north of where the IGA store is now. He also stopped at the Johnson Place, where the 4H camp is now. We stopped at the Grand Rapids house for dinner. D.W. Blackburn was running it at that
time. We then went on 14 more miles to
the Harmon House where we stayed overnight.
The Wallace postoffice was there. The next day we returned to Oak Grove, and
the next day Rufus went back to Cartwright, one round trip a week.
In
1884 they built the logging road from the Chippewa River to Potato Lake. The engine and rails were hauled from Bloomer
by teams.
When
I was six years old our teacher took us on an outing. We rode a train from the river to Potato Lake. On the return trip there were several Russell
cars loaded with logs. Us kids thought
it was quite an adventure. When I was 7 or 8 years old the river drive was
upriver. A man was drowned. They didn't take time to look for him. About a week later they found him a mile
north of our house. They floated him
down and tied him in an eddy. He was
tied there five days. I can remember
going in a boat with father, someone went morning and evening to see if he was
still there. Finally father got Gust Nater, a JP, and they held an inquest. Across the river from us was the Andrew Hill
family. When I was 6 or 7 years old all
the children became sick with diptheria. There were no doctors and the five children
all died.
In
1891 we moved to Murry and took over the Murry Stopping Place. Father had a store there, and the Murry postoffice. There were nine in our family. I was the seventh. They all spent their lives around Bruce except one brother went to Oregon and died out there.
I
have done about everything in my lifetime.
Logger, river driver, farmer, also scaled logs.
I was town clerk of Atlanta
for 25 years. That was the time I was
trying to make a living farming with milk at $2.00 a cwt, dressed pork at
$.05/lb, and potatoes $.25/bushel.
Bibliography:
Benjamin F. Brainerd (1835 -1920)
His Ancestors and Descendants (1641
– 2001) by Linda Ann Stark
Back to top
Photo
Gallery
Our Christmas Card Photo
Photo
Albums
Back to
top
