Love Lingers Longer

Chapter XXXV

  

      The name Shounkwiler is German and is composed of two words, “shoen and villa” meaning “beautiful village.”  In the family genealogy it is spelled “Shonkwiler”.

Killed the Kings Wild Boar

      There is a legend that says one of this family became so vexed because the King’s wild boars were destroying his crops that he killed one of them and stuffed the carcass in the hole in the fence.  Killing one of the King’s game animals was a crime punishable by death or imprisonment, so the story goes that the family fled the country that very night.  Whether or not this is true, the Pennsylvania archives show that a Shonkwiler arrived in Philadelphia and took the oath of allegiance to King George III Nov. 5, 1764.

Fought In All Wars

      Other Shonkwilers followed and some of their descendants took part in the Fries Rebellion in western Pennsylvania in 1798.  Others were in the Ohio regiment in 1813 sent to relieve Ft. Meigs (now Toledo), which was besieged by Indians and British troops in the War of 1812.

      Members of that family have fought in every one of our wars, including Vietnam.

      Keith Shounkwiler has just been honorable discharged from the Army Air Force, but is reenlisting for his second round of duty.  His brother Galen has recently enlisted in the Army Air Force.  Both boys are the sons of the late George Shounkwiler and are nephews of Mrs. John Stierwalt.

      Reading through this genealogy, one finds that members of this family have engaged in nearly every trade and profession, including teachers, ministers, attorneys, doctors of medicine, politicians, musicians and many others.  One was a Methodist minister and was director of the Wesley Foundation at Purdue University.

Priceless Reward

      One of the invaluable rewards of the cemetery researcher is the discovery of ancient and honorable names given to children a few generations ago in contrast to the flippant and meaningless names often given to children of our present day.

      Here lies Lycurgus Victor; (Lycurgus was the name of a famous lawgiver in the city-state of Sparta about 900 B.C.)  Mr. Victor was the grandfather of Amy Norris, and was born and grew up in Indiana

      In 1862 he enlisted as a volunteer in company F, 70^th Infantry.  During a forced march his eyes were injured by getting too hot and this caused blindness several years after the war.  He became totally blind for the last 26 years of his life.

      After his marriage in Indiana, they came to Lightning Station near Oskaloosa, where Amy’s mother was born.  They settled in Newbern, where Mr. Victor owned and operated a general store.  A sale bill loaned by Granddaughter Amy announces the “auction of all goods contained in a first class country store.”

Troubadours

      Mr. Victor was an entertainer, and both he and his son were violinists.  Being now totally blind, these two traveled about the country putting on shows and selling merchandise.

      Near Newbern is the grave of Thomas D. Norris, Amy’s grandfather.  He was the village blacksmith, a very important occupation in that early day.  He lived to be one of Newbern’s oldest citizens.

The Graves Family

      John Graves was the Patriarch of this family in Lucas County.  He and his wife came from Indiana in 1853 with all their family except two sons, who had already married.  As they drove along the old Newbern road with their ox team and covered wagon, the day was nearly spent and they were looking for a place to spend the night.

      They came to a house where the husband and wife were sitting in the front yard reading the Bible.  One said to the other: “This looks like the place to stop.”

      They were warmly received and the next morning went on their way in search of a location where they could acquire land for all their children.

      One of their sons was Alex T. Graves, who became the grandfather of Mary White, who has supplied much of the genealogical information of this family and some of the photographs of the Newbern cemetery.

      Another son was Willis.  When they were preparing to come to Iowa, the mother noticed that he was silent on the subject.  Finally, she asked: “Willis, doesn’t thee intend to go to Iowa with us?”

      He replied: “Mother, I would like to go, but as Miss Margaret White and I are going to be married later, I do not want to go off and leave her here alone.”

      To which his mother said: “Then I think thee had better get married now and take her along.”

      They were married and came later that same year.

      When war between the states broke out.  Willis enlisted in Co. E. 34^th Ia. Reg. Volunteers.  He died in Baton Rouge.  His last letter to his wife closed with these words: “Yours till Death separates us.”

      His body was brought back and is buried by the side of his wife here in Newbern Cemetery.

Biblical Names

      Twenty-nine of the Graves family are buried here.  Eleven of these have been graced with

names from the sacred volume, including Joseph, John, Nathan, Benjamin, Thomas, Rebecca, Isaac, Orpha, Ruth, James and Sarah.  Present day descendants are Thayer, Ellis and Clint, all of Chariton and Avery the actor, who lives in California.

Lone Grave

      The lone grave of Arthur Jashka is pointed out. He was a tramp who came trudging up the road, stopping at the home of Al Gardner, uncle of Glenn Gardner of Russell.

      The story goes that he and two brothers came from Germany to New York to build a church.  The project failed and Arthur came west.  He tramped all the way to Newbern and was befriended by Mr. Gardner, a kindly man who might be likened to the “good bishop” in Victor Hugo’s story of Jean Valjean.

      Jashka was a good carpenter, willing to work, and he built barns and other farm buildings and some houses.  When asked to do something, his stock answer was always, “I fixes it.”

      He built himself a little house and lived his allotted time.  He built the Herron family home where Glenn Herron still lives.

A Sack of Four, A Nickel For a Child

      Here is the grave of David Newman, great-grandfather of Mrs. Alvin Riggs of Chariton and grandfather of the late Everett Newman and of Jesse Newman, formerly of Chariton and now of Indianola.

      Mr. Newman was the last of the Lacona Veterans of the Civil War.  His life was marked by a charitable spirit, and deeds of kindness were his pleasure.

      Many a widow in need received a sack of flour, many a child a toy, never knowing who was the benefactor.  Many little children were made happy by the gift of a nickel.

      One of his precepts was: “Unless we get back to the faith and spirit of our fathers and return to the old landmark which Christ, Himself established when he said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’, conditions in this country will not improve.”

      Here is the grave of Zilpha Newman, a nurse in the Civil War.  Her name draws attention.  It is probably a variant spelling of the Biblical name “Zilpah”, meaning “dignity” and was the name given by Laban to Leah upon her marriage to Jacob.

Prayer For a New Angel

      Near the south gate, a tiny stone marks the grave of Emma, daughter of J. S. and M. S. Newman, who died in 1874 after only one year of life.

      As far as can be ascertained, this family is not related to the other Newmans.  A figure of a babe reclines atop the stone and it is said that the mother sold her only cow for $35 to buy the little monument.

      Standing beside this little grave, one thinks of Violet Alleyn Storey’s lines:

      “God, God, be lenient her first night there.

      The crib she slept in was so near my bed;

      Her blue-and-white wool blanket was so soft,

      Her pillow hollowed so to fit her head.

      Teach me that she’ll not want small rooms or me

      When she has You and Heaven’s eternity!

      I always left a light out in the hall,

      I hoped to make her fearless of the dark;

      And yet, she was so small - one little light

      Not in the room, it scarcely mattered.  Hark!

      No, no, she seldom cried!  God, not too far

      For her to see, this first night, light a star!

      And in the morning when she first woke up,

      I always kissed her on her left cheek where

      The dimple was.  And Oh, I wet the brush.

      It makes it easier to curl her hair.

      Just, just tomorrow morning, God, I pray

      When she wakes up, do things for her my way!”

German Conscription

      Beneath this sod lie the remains of Valentine Poush, born in Coblenz, Germany in 1808 at Coblenz-on-the-Rhine, with its magnificent churches and its splendid equestrian statue of Emperor William I.

      But these splendors held no attraction for the 15-year-old boy who would soon be facing conscription.  The new world was beckoning.  He worked his way to America on a Dutch sailing vessel, landing at what was then New Amsterdam, now New York City.

      He was made of the stuff of which heroes are made, working through the years at any job he could get and saving his money until he had enough to finance the trip for his two older brothers and their families.

      In due time, the brothers with their eight children followed and together they all came to Iowa in a covered wagon, crossing the river at Keokuk at low water.

      They arrived in the 1840’s and bought land at $1.25 an acre.  This information was supplied by Elmer Poush, grandson of Valentine and Elizabeth (Bonebrake) Poush.

      They built their log cabins, planted their crops and dug their wells as did the Tribes of Israel under the leadership of Joshua.

      Elmer’s mother was Victoria Caroline Bonebrake, one of 12 children, seven of whom died in childhood.  Her name being Victoria, she was nicknamed “Queen”.

      Grandmother Poush made soft soap commercially.  People would bring her their wood ashes, she would leach out the alkali in the big wooden hopper in the back yard, then they would bring their grease and she would make the soap for a fee.  She also quilted for one dollar a spool.

      Said Elmer: “Grandfather Bonebrake was a cabinet maker.  He made coffins and some furniture.  Let me show you a set of quilt frames he made.  Here is the original cloth for fastening the quilt in the frames.  Notice these ratchet ends with sawn teeth for rolling and tightening the quilt”.

      Present day descendants are Elmer’s daughters, one of whom is Mrs. Lowell (Mary) Dachenbach of English Township.  Other descendants in the Poush family are Emmet, son of John Poush, and Ruby Callison, daughter of Al Poush.

- - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Let me live in a house

By the side of the road

And be a friend…”

Sam Walter Foss

      At the turn of the road between Newbern and the cemetery, there stands a sad old house, dilapidated and falling down.

      Here lived Dave Breckinridge through all his 91 years.  He had one of the first “morning glory type” gramophones, which he loved to play for the children.  The neighborhood mothers would send their children to the store with butter and eggs to trade for sugar and coffee and if there were a few cents difference they were instructed to take it in nutmegs at one cent each.

      On the way home they would stop at Dave’s to listen and watch as the music rolled out from the cylindrical records.  Mrs. Grace (Herron) Hickman of Riggs Nursing Home and Mrs. John Stierwalt were among the small fry patrons of Dave and they remember it vividly.

Wrote Her Own Obituary

      Here is the Dinwiddie lot and this is the grave of James Dinwiddie, a surveyor who came into Newbern in 1851, the year of the heavy floods.

      This part of Iowa suffered 75 inches of rainfall that year.  Here also is the grave of Oliver E. Dinwiddie, a Spanish-American War veteran.  His parents were Jesse and Margaret Dinwiddie.

      His sister, Martha D. Sargent, wrote her own obituary from which the following is taken.  “I would like no flowers unless it is what my friends have.  Let them be given to the living in kindly words and deeds.”

Timothy C. Terrell

      Here lie Timothy C. Terrell and his wife Sara Jane, parents of Lawrence and Lester Smith of Chariton.  They came from Ohio where Mr. Terrell had enlisted and served in the war.

      After coming to Newbern he worked on the construction of the little church that stood outside the south gate of the cemetery.  It was built in 1909 and stood many years serving the community for funerals and church services.  When the new road went through, it fell before the 

demolition squad.

First Fatality

      Here lies Olin Mullins, Lacona’s first soldier to give his life in the first world war.

      Here lies Andrew Offenburger, grandfather of Glen Offenburger, on whose farm is the old grist mill building which was originally in the town of Newbern.  The roof is rusty but there is the line shaft and belt of grain buckets, which emptied the grain into the hopper.

      This was before the invention of the grain auger.  The line shaft is mortised and pinned with the original pins.  This was hand work.  One looks at this and thinks of what the poet called “the non-stop train of time.”

“I have fought the good fight”

      The Howard family of Newbern was established by a Civil War veteran and was one of the earliest in the community.

      Here among the 14 Howard graves, lies the pioneer, the Rev. Joseph Benjamin Howard, who organized the first church and Sunday school after he had conducted worship services in his own log cabin for some time.

      His epitaph: “I have fought the good fight; I have kept the faith.”

      His great-grandson was Guy Howard, the famous “'Walkin’ Preacher of the Ozarks.” whose first wife, Madge Herron, cousin of Glen Herron, is buried here.

      Here lies Polly Baker, grandmother of Guy Howard, with whom he stayed during the great depression and studied law in the office of W. W. Bulman, widely known Chariton attorney.

Riggs

      Twenty members of the large Riggs family are buried here.

      Luther Riggs was probably the first of the family to come to Iowa, and he arrived when there were still Indians around here.

      J. J. Riggs was the father of Mrs. Rena Hunerdosse, who still lives in Newbern.  The Riggs family was active in establishing the Cumberland Presbyterian church in 1901.  J. E. and A. D. Riggs were both Elders.

      There were 12 children in the family, five of whom died in early childhood.

Lived Near Observatory

      Gerard Hunerdosse was born in Germany.  At age 15 he went to England, where he grew up and married an English woman.

      Seven of their children were born there.  A newspaper clipping of 1890, loaned to this writer by Mary White, states that the family, while in England, lived in a house nearest the celebrated Crown Observatory.  The family came to America in 1855, the same year that the Amana Colony began in Iowa.

      The Hunerdosses were headed for English Township, but stopped over in Nauvoo where their eight child, Emma, was born.  The Jesse Hunerdosse family of the Lacona community are the sole descendants of the name now living in this area.

      His wife is Evalee (Green) and their daughter is Etha, an artist.  She has done a large “charcoal and chalk” of the Newbern Cemetery.

      They, with grandmother Rena Hunerdosse, have been very helpful in the research for this story.

      Fred W. Hunerdosse was one of the seven children born in England.  In Newbern he became a merchant, associated with Lycurgus Victor and continued in the business for about 40 years.  He was Justice of the Peace, superintendent of the Cumberland Presbyterian Sunday School and for 20 years was clerk of the church.

      During that time the church record shows that he was never absent from a meeting of the Session.

      Anna Graves, who still lives in Newbern, is his daughter.  His wife, Mary (Baker) was a Charter member of the Federated Church.  She was telephone operator for more than 50 years.  The first switchboard was the crank type and had fifteen connections.

Stout

      Six of the Stout family are buried here, but the history of only one is available.  This was James Stout, who could and did split 200 rails a day for one dollar.  Hardy, stalwart men were these who pushed across new horizons and by physical labor and intelligence, did much to carve out the great land we enjoy today.

A Pleasant Meeting

      Here is the grave of Jincy J. Mason, whose husband Amos, a chaplain in the Civil War, died from illness at Jefferson Barracks while on the way home.  He is buried in National Cemetery in St. Louis.

      Strolling among the nine Mason graves on this pleasant Sunday afternoon is Mrs. Glenn (Celia Riggs) Mason of Des Moines, who comes frequently to visit her husband’s grave.  Their son Guy lives in Williamson and daughter Marjorie married a Mr. Clemons, second cousin of Mark Twain.

      Here lie Perry and Charles Mason, brothers.  Perry was the father of Mrs. Ed Bearden.  The Mason family had the longest homestead record in Dallas township in 1944.  Members of the family still at home are Laura, Walter and Etha, who loaned two very large and remarkable scrapbooks, which have been an excellent source for this article.

Klondike and Earthquake

      Here are the graves of Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Almack, parents of Mrs. Perry Barger of Chariton.

      Their son Rolland Almack prepared to join the Klondike gold rush and had his gear, including sleeping bag, made and stored in New Mexico where he was working as a civil engineer.  The building and its contents was burned to the ground.

      He then decided to join Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and stayed for the duration.  He then went west to work as a surveyor on the “Million-dollar-a-mile” highway through the Rockies.  Then came the earthquake of 1906 and Rolland was never heard from again.

      Mrs. Barger (Ida Almack) grew up with Laura Yocom in Newbern and they were close friends.  These two little girls used to fill quinine capsules for Dr. Yocom Sr.

Scotsman Offers His Life

      Samuel Porter was born in Glasgow, Scotland and came to Ohio with his parents when one-year-old.  He grew up, enlisted in the 80^th Ohio Regiment in 1861 and served through the duration, being honorable discharged as a corporal.  He was another of the many immigrants, who when the chips were down, offered their lives to save the Union which had given them sanctuary from regimes they could not approve.

“Leave No History”

      The Newbern Cemetery is old and large and many are they who are buried there.  A poet said “the happiest persons are they who leave no history.”

      These relatively few vignettes are “but a handful to the tribes that slumber in its Bosom.”

pages 154 - 164

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