Henry Shoeman

My paternal 2nd great grandfather, Henry Shoeman, was born on March 14, 1827, in the woods north of Curryville, Pennsylvania to John and Sarah Tressler/Dressler Shoeman, both Pennsylvania natives.  The Shoeman family were early arrivals in America, how early I do not know yet due to a "brick wall", but most likely sometime during the 1700's.   Henry is first found by name on the 1850 U.S. Census.  He and his sister Catherine were living in the home of Daniel and Nancy Bowers in Blair County Pennsylvania and 24 year-old Henry was listed as a laborer.  By the next census of 1860, he had been married for eight years to my 2nd great grandmother, Louisa Smaltz, who was German born.  He and my grandmother purchased a home on Henrietta Road east of Curryville just prior to the civil war.  The home sat on the rise of a hill, known as "Shoeman Hill."   Henry and Louisa toiled to clear the land and raise a family of eleven children.  The Shoeman family home still stands today, looking much like it did back in the day when it was bustling with their large family.   Grandfather Henry earned a living as a shoemaker until factory made shoes made it difficult to earn a living.  He then turned to weaving with his son, Frank.

My 2nd great grandparents, Henry Shoeman and Louisa Smaltz, are photographed in an unknown year. This could have been their wedding photo from 1852 but they look older to me.  Henry would have been nearly 25 and Louisa 19 at the time of their marriage.

The items above are shoemaker tools used by my 2nd great grandfather, including the H Shoeman sign on the left.  The old rug was woven by Henry and is in the possession of one of my Pennsylvania cousins.  This photo is one of many shared with me by my Pennsylvania cousin, Karen.  Without her generous sharing of family history documents and photos I would not have these precious family treasures.

I located the obituary below during a trip to Pennsylvania in 2004.  It tells so much
about Grandfather Henry's life.  I sat at a microfilm machine at the Blair County Genealogical Society and scrolled through old newspapers from the turn of the century until I found both of my 2nd great grandparents' obituaries.


                                                 OLD RESIDENT OF COVE DEAD 

Henry Shuman, Old-time Shoemaker and Weaver, 

Dies One Week Before His 82nd Birthday 

The following obituary is from The Altoona, Pennsylvania Mirror

March 8, 1909

Henry Shuman (Shoeman), one of the oldest and most widely known residents of Morrison's Cove, died at his home near Curryville, yesterday morning, after an illness covering several months of ailment brought on by advanced age. Had he lived until next Sunday he would have been 82 years of age, having been born March 14, 1827, within a short distance of the place that has been his home for almost sixty years. **His parents were among the first settlers of the Cove, coming to this part of the state from a German settlement in Adams county. For almost half a century he conducted a shoemaker shop and weaving establishment near Curryville, and his shop during that time was the headquarters for all political and other current discussions of that section of the Cove for years. Previous to the years when the farmers purchased their footwear and carpets at the stores, he and his son, who later associated with him in the industry, realized a profitable trade.

On January 18, 1852, Mr. Shuman was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Smaltz, who survives. The fifty-seventh wedding anniversary was celebrated by the aged couple on January 18, last, with the presence of a number of the children and grandchildren, which event was noted in the Altoona Mirror at the time. Eleven children were born to the union. Nine survive, as follows: Mrs. Mary Kauffman, of Martinsburg, and Mrs. Sarah Buterbaugh, of Iowa, twin sisters; John Shuman and Mrs. Katharine Diehl, both of Iowa; Mrs. Elizabeth Ake, of Martinsburg, Mrs. Lydia Latshaw, of Woodbury, Bedford county; Albert, of Everett, and Ephriam and Frank, near Curryville. Some twenty grandchildren and a number of great grandchildren also survive. 

He was an attendant of the German Brethren church and was a follower of the principles of the Republican party ever since it was organized. No one in the community was held in higher esteem, or whose worth, as a neighbor and a citizen, was more fully appreciated. The funeral will be held tomorrow morning from his late home at 10 o'clock, with interment in the Cross Road's cemetery nearby. 

**There is conflicting information as to whether the Shoeman/Shuman family moved to Blair County from Adams County or Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.  

       

Charles Campbell Cook

My great grandfather, Charles Campbell Cook, was born on January 8, 1865 in Dallas County Iowa to William Cook and Elizabeth Catherine Thomason.   Both were originally Virginia natives.  (Charles was the father of my paternal grandmother, Mamie Greta (Cook) Shoeman.)  In the summer of 1864, the Cook family headed westward by covered wagon from their Montgomery County, Indiana home, their destination Dallas County, Iowa.  Charles was born the following January after they arrived.  He was the eighth born of ten children.

  Well Known Farmer Dies

Charles C. Cook Passed Away At Home Near Dallas Center Last Thursday Morning

Funeral services for Charles C. Cook, who spent the greater part of his life in Dallas county, were held Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Christian Church in Waukee, conducted by Rev. Chas. A. Burkhart.  Burial was made in the Waukee cemetery.

Mr. Cook passed away last Thursday morning following a stroke suffered the preceding evening.  The following obituary was read at the services:

Charles C. Cook, son of John and Elizabeth Thomason Cook, was born January 8, 1865.  Departed this life at his home north of Dallas Center, Sept. 25, 1931.  Age 86 years, 9 months, and 17 days.  When a day old he united with the Christian Church at DeSoto, Iowa.

On February 24, 1883 he was united in marriage to Ivy Elizabeth Mullins, who departed this life Jan. 29, 1895.  To this union two daughters were born, Vera Stump, deceased, and Greta Shoeman of Waukee, Iowa.

On October 20, 1897 he was married to Mary Ada Longmire, who survives him.  Ten children were given to them to bless their home, eight of whom are present today.  They are:  Lucille Cowger of Kansas City, Missouri., George of Newton, Iowa, Opal Snyder of Dallas Center, Iowa, Howard of Adel, Iowa, Mildred Cofield of Miamisburg, Ohio, Lois, deceased, Martel Ingram of Dallas Center, Iowa, Chester of Honolulu, Hawaii, John and Barbara Lee at home.  Also, eighteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren.  He also leaves four brothers and two sisters.  John Cook of Billings, Montana, Fone (Alphonso) Cook of St. Louis, Missouri., Ralph Cook of Stuart, Iowa, and Sam Cook of Waukee, Harriet Crow of Billings, Montana, and Lissie (Melissa Jane) Snyder of Canby, Oregon, together with many other relatives and friends to mourn their loss.

My great grandfather, Charles Campbell Cook and his second wife, Mary "Ada" Longmire

Mr. Cook was honest and upright in all his dealings, a true friend and neighbor.  He was never so happy as when surrounded with his family.

We have lost one from our circle,

a link from our chain;

We should not sorrow, for we

know we'll meet again. 

 

Ivy Elizabeth (Mullins) Cook

I wrote the following memoriam as a tribute to my great grandmother, Ivy, that was to be included in a cookbook my Cook cousins and I were planning to put together:

Ivy Elizabeth Mullins was my great grandmother, mother of my grandmother Greta Cook Shoeman.  She was born on July 23, 1862, in Red Rock Township, Marion County, Iowa, the daughter of Gordon Lambert Mullins and Nancy Jane Courson.  She was the third born in a family of thirteen children, two of her siblings having died early in life. Her father, Gordon, was one of the "speculators" of his day, a prosperous Iowan who engaged in considerable buying and selling of land. The family moved from Marion County to Polk County sometime after 1883. Gordon purchased the Locke Farm, which later became Camp Dodge. A fine brick home occupied by the Mullins family later became the officers quarters for the camp. Those lovely brick homes are still standing today. Ivy's sister, Araminta, relates in her memoirs that Ivy had more than she could do to help care for an extended family of seventeen members when their mother, Nancy, fell ill while living at this location. Father, Gordon, had brought the eldest daughter, Lora, and her children home for safety because of Indian scares in Nebraska, thus adding to the already large Mullins family. The family would soon move again a few miles from Des Moines, and then lastly to Dallas County where Gordon bought a 400-acre farm south of Adel in Van Meter Township.

On February 24, 1888, Ivy was united in marriage to Charles Campbell Cook in Adel, Iowa. To this union were born two daughters, Vera L. on August 18, 1888, and Mamie "Greta" on November 29, 1890. Tragedy would soon befall the young family when Ivy contracted influenza during the winter of l895. She died on January 29, 1895 at the young age of only thirty-two. Left to mourn her passing were her husband, Charles, and their two young daughters, ages 7 and 5. Vera and Greta were sent by their father to live with their grandparents, Gordon and Nancy Mullins, following their mother's death. They received piano lessons from their grandmother during this time. Their father, Charles, was remarried on October 27, 1897 to Mary Ada Longmire and the girls then joined their father and his new wife in their home. 

Ivy was laid to rest at Otterman Cemetery south of Adel, Iowa with other members of the Mullins family. May God bless the memory of my beautiful, and forever-young great grandmother, Ivy Elizabeth Mullins Cook.

---

Charlotte Amanda (Hawbaker) Shoeman

My great grandmother, Charlotte Amanda Hawbaker, was born August 30, 1860, the daughter of Daniel Hawbaker and Charlotte Niswander, in Mercersburg, Franklin County Pennsylvania.  She was the mother of my paternal grandfather, Robert Martin Shoeman.  Amanda, as she was known, was the fourth born in a family of twelve children.   Little is known about her earliest years in Pennsylvania.  The first we know about her is from the spring of 1879 when she accompanied her family of fourteen from their home in Franklin County, Pennsylvania by covered wagon across the lone prairie all the way to Dallas County, Iowa.   One can only imagine the hardships the family endured along the way for nearly 1,000 miles between Pennsylvania and Iowa.

Amanda married my great grandfather John Smaltz Shoeman, on October 7, 1880 at the Nisley farm in rural Dallas Center, Iowa.  They were the parents of six children, Henry I., Walter H., Mary, Robert M., Eva, and John D. She was preceded in death by her husband, John, on May 14, 1931. Amanda moved to Atlantic, Iowa, live with her youngest son and family, John D. Shoeman, following the death of her husband. She died on May 21, 1943 in Atlantic and is at rest beside her husband at the Waukee Cemetery in Waukee, Iowa.

This photo of Amanda may be from around the turn of the century based on her age in comparison to the wedding photo.

Six of the seven Hawbaker sisters are shown in this photo from an unknown year.  This was a photo my cousin, Miriam Kuehl Arneson shared with me.  Back Row: Lydia Catherine (Kate), Carrie Ida, Minnie V., Lillie M.; Front Row: "A Friend," Charlotte Amanda, Ann M. Mary Elizabeth died in 1889.

Remembrances of Amanda from my cousin, Miriam Kuehl Arneson, include:  She fell on the ice sometime in the 1920's and broke both her hip and wrist.  She was put to bed at home to rest, never having the broken hip diagnosed correctly.  She apparantly never walked again without an aid and can be seen in numerous family photos from the late 1920's through the 1930's using crutches.   When I was growing up my grandparents, Robert and Greta Shoeman, lived in the Waukee "in-town" home where John and Amanda had resided.  There was a downstairs bedroom just off the kitchen and dining room on the northeast corner of the house.  It included a tiny bathroom with only a toilet.  The bedroom may or may not have been there initially but it was always my assumption that great grandpa most likely had it turned it into a bedroom and bath for Amanda due to her mobility issues.    Another remembrance is that Amanda would make herself a homemade hair tonic of bay rum and sage tea.  It was related to me that her hair never turned gray and cousin Miriam always wondered if it was the special concoction that her grandmother used.

This family photo of the John and Amanda Shoeman family was taken in 1928 during a special occasion when they were all gathered together.   My father, Gordon, is in the back row to the left and is wearing a bow tie.  I acquired this photo from my Pennsylvania Shoeman cousin some years ago and it is a wonderful photo from the past.  Cousin Miriam helped me identify everyone and I have a numbered copy with an ID chart.  Everyone pictured here is now deceased.

John Smaltz Shoeman

John Smaltz Shoeman, my paternal great grandfather, was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania on August 22, 1857, the son of Henry and Louisa (Smaltz) Shoeman.  Both parents were of German origin.  Great Grandpa Shoeman was the third born in a family of eleven children.  The  Shoeman family lived outside of the small town of Curryville, Pennsylvania on Henrietta Road known as "Shoeman Hill."  The U.S. Census of 1870 shows 12 year-old John and his 16 year-old sister, Elizabeth, working as indentured servants in the Issac Burget home in Curryville.  His sister was listed as a housekeeper and John most likely worked on the farm.  It was common practice back in those days to "farm" children out to work in order to help with finances.  Grandpa John had the dream to move west to the fertile farmland of Iowa and did just so in 1876.  My cousin, Miriam Kuehl Arneson, related to me in 2008 that our grandfather got on a train with $20.00 in his pocket and headed west.

This early photo of Great Grandpa Shoeman was taken at a photography studio on Walnut Street in downtown Des Moines, Iowa in either 1876 or 1877 when he first came from Pennsylvania to Polk County, Iowa. He would have been 18 or 19 years old. John moved to Dallas County, Iowa in 1877.  On October 7, 1880, he married Charlotte Amanda Hawbaker of Dallas Center, daughter of Daniel and Charlotte (Niswander) Hawbaker.  The photo below is a tin type wedding photo that was with my extended Shoeman family in Pennsylvania.   It was generously given to me by a cousin as I am John and Amanda's great granddaughter.  No other wedding photo was ever found in Iowa so I am extremely grateful to have this photo.

John Smaltz Shoeman was a self made man, working to make a better life for himself and his family.  He owned a great deal of land and would probably be termed wealthy by 1931 standards at the time he passed away.  The following article was written about him in Past and Present of Dallas County, Iowa (from the S.J. Clark Publishing Company, 1907)

Iowa with its splendid agricultural possibilities offers excellent opportunity to him who wishes to earn his living in the tilling of the soil.  Devoting his time and energies in successful manner to the cultivation and improvement of a farm, John S. Shoeman has become well known as a prominent and progressive citizen of Walnut township, where he owns and operates three hundred and twenty acres of excellent land.  He also has fifty acres in addition to this.  He has been a resident of Iowa since 1876, and of Dallas County since 1877.  He was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania in 1857 and his father, Henry Shoeman, was also a native of that county, where he was reared.  He was a shoemaker by trade and thus provided for his family.  In the place of his nativity he married Louisa Smaltz, a native of Germany, who came with her parents to the new world, settling in Blair County, Pennsylvania.

John S. Shoeman is the third in order of birth in a family of eleven children.  His opportunities for attending school were very meager and he is largely a self-educated man.  When eighteen years of age he came westward to Iowa and worked by the month at farm labor in Polk County for one year and then came to Dallas County, where he worked by the month for three years.

In October, 1880, Mr. Shoeman was married to Miss Amanda Hawbaker, a native of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Daniel Hawbaker, who came to Iowa from Pennsylvanie in 1879.  After his marriage he continued to work by the month for six months and then began farming on his own account on rented land.  Sixteen years passed in this way and during that time he saved from his earning a sum of money sufficient to enable him to purchase land.  Since 1880 he has made his home upon the farm which is yet his place of residence and after renting it for seventeen years he made purchase in 1897 of the tract of three hundred and twenty acres which he had been cultivating.  In the previous year, however, he purchased fifty acres at Waukee, which was the first land that he ever owned.  He is now one of the substantial and prosperous citizens of the county with well developed business powers and keen discernment.  Everything about his place is neat and thrifty in appearance and in 1903 he built a good two story frame residence, while upon the farm there are also two good barns, cribs, and outbuildings.  He has been feeding and raising cattle and hogs for thirty years and markets from eight to ten carloads of cattle and two carloads of hogs annually.  He feeds all of his grain and his stock-raising interests are very remunerative, bringing him an excellent return as the years have gone by.  In all his business interests he is practical and enterprising, and his success is well merited.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Shoeman have been born six children:  Henry I., who is now operating the home farm; Walter H., who operates a farm adjoining his father's place, and who married Effie Campbell, by whom he has one daughter, Florence; Mary, the wife of Earl Burkett, a resident of Waukee; Robert M., Eva and John D., all at home.

Mr. Shoeman votes with the Republican Party where national issues are involved but casts an independent local ballot.  He has never sought or held office, preferring to give undivided attention to his business affairs, and he has justly earned the proud American title of a self-made man.  He started out in life empty-handed but he realized that labor is the basis of all success, and his close application and unfaltering diligence have given him rank with the leading farmers of his county.  He was among the first to tile the land and has thoroughly drained the place, which is now among the best improved farms of Walnut Township, and is the visible evidence of his life of thrift and industry.  His record should serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others, showing what may be accomplished when one has the will to dare and to do.

This wonderful family photo share with my by my Pennsylvania cousin, Karen, is of the John and Amanda Shoeman family.  It was taken sometime in 1928 during some special family occasion.  My father, Gordon, is in the back row to the left and is wearing a bow tie.   My cousin Miriam helped me identify everyone and I have a numbered copy with an ID chart.  Everyone pictured here is now deceased.

My cousin, Miriam, once related to me that Great Grandfather Shoeman, never gave his two daughters, Eva and Mary, a middle name on purpose.  He wanted them to carry the name "Shoeman" as their middle name when they married.   He died on May 15, 1931 of stomach cancer at a hospital in Des Moines, Iowa and is buried next to his wife, Amanda, in the Waukee Cemetery south of Waukee, Iowa.

Mamie Greta( Cook) Shoeman

My paternal grandmother, Mamie Greta Cook, was born to Charles Campbell Cook and Ivy Elizabeth Mullins on November 29, 1890 near Adel, Iowa.   I know very little about my grandmother's early years. Her mother, Ivy, died from influenza during the winter of 1895 at the age of 32.   Grandma and her sister, Vera, were motherless at very young ages.  My grandmother wasn't even five yet.    I know her mother's death had a profound effect on her for the rest of her life based on comments she would make to me.  Grandma Greta and her sister were sent to live with their maternal grandparents, Gordon and Nancy Jane (Courson) Mullins, until their father remarried in 1897.  Grandpa Cook was married to Mary Ada Longmire and they had 10 children together.   

This is a photo I acquired in the last decade at a Cook Family Reunion.  It was in the possession of the Cook family and unmarked.  The photo is circa 1903.  My grandmother and her sister are pictured with their small three half-siblings.  I "think" the girl on the back right is my grandmother based on the fact the girl in the back middle looks older than her.  Grandma and her sister were a little over two years apart in age.
 
On February 28, 1909 at the age of 18, Grandma Greta married my grandfather, Robert Shoeman in the parlor of her father and stepmother's home in Adel.  The following is a Waukee newspaper account when my grandparents were about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 1959.  I remember attending the event with my parents when I was 12 years old.

A Golden Wedding is In The Air
THE ROBERT SHOEMAN'S MARRIED 50 YEARS

On Saturday, February 28, Robert and Greta (Cook) Shoeman will have been married 50 years to the day.  They exchanged vows in the parlor at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Cook, southwest of Waukee.  "That was back in the horse 'n buggy days," the bridegroom of fifty years reminded his missus with a teasing grin.  And the reason they got married on the 28th of February was because it was close to "moving day" so they moved right out to a 100-acre farm where the Jack Martins now live.

"It was a simple little home wedding" brown-eyed Mrs. Shoeman remembered, as she settled pleasantly into an easy chair.  "Robert came into town and got the Christian minister, Rev. Linebeck."  It was Sunday.

The Shoeman's have lived in and arund Waukee for the entire fifty years they have been married.  They are proud of their four children and eight grandchildren.  And they are especially grateful their grandchildren all live nearby where they can visit them often.  Their children are Burton of Scottsdale, Arizona, Gordon, Madrid, Iowa, Martha Gohring, El Cerrito, California, and Mary Schamerhorn, Des Moines.

Mrs. Shoeman, who has naturally curly red hair, enjoys going places, visiting friends and relatives.  Even in the early days of their married life, she laughingly recalls the time when Burton, their first born was fifteen-days old.  With the temperature 15 below zero, they hitched up the bob sleigh, piled high with hay and warm comforters between the sideboards and took off to visit at the home of Mrs. Shoeman's sister, Mrs. Vera Stump and a new niece, Helen Stump (Hunter).  Burton weas born December 7 and Helen December 11.

In their big, roomy two-story frame house are many windows.  The Shoeman's enjoy the changing views.  By looking across the street to the west Robert can see the little Walnut Grove School House (now Ostring's home) where he learned his ABC's.  And although not within sight, but not too far away is the "little red school" (it really wasn't red) where Greta Cook attended school and it is now the home of the Sam McWilliam's.

Still a farmer at heart - although retired, Robert Shoeman says "I sorta farm yet - on the corner."  He can't keep out of the field or resist helping pick corn.  He enjoys the view of farm land east of their home which belongs to the Shoeman's but is farmed by a tennant.  Mr. Shoeman worked in the Schuler mine from 1936 to 1949; has worked in the Co-op Farm Store and still works there extra.

As members of the Christian Church in Waukee, the Shoeman's are active in church affairs.  For hobbies Mr. Shoeman enjoys reading and likes to putter around the house painting and carpentering.  Mrs. Shoeman states she merely enjoys being a housewife for a hobby - "I enjoy housework and keeping my house up."  She also likes to paint a little around home.

However, the team of Robert and Greta has a hobby they especially enjoy together - being baseball fans, they never miss a chance attending a baseball game.  They were always on hand last season rooting for their favorite player; grandson, Michael Schamerhorn 14, who played on a Babe Ruth team.

Mr. and Mrs. Shoeman aren't planning any special observance on their Golden Wedding day since their family can't all be together at this time - "Maybe on our 60th," Robert Shoeman promised.  And we are sure with their wholesome philosophy of life they will be around to celebrate in another ten years....."we strive to keep happy - and do better each day."

This was the photo taken to observe the 50th wedding anniversary of my grandparents on February 28, 1959.

Grandma passed away on May 7, 1978 at the age of 87 and is buried beside my grandfather at Waukee Cemetery south of Waukee, Iowa.   

Robert Martin Shoeman

My paternal grandfather was Robert Martin Shoeman, born November 5, 1887 in Waukee, Iowa to my early Iowa pioneer great grandparents, John Smaltz Shoeman and Charlotte Amanda Hawbaker.  I know very little about my grandfather's early life.  I was 7 years old before I even knew him.   He was already nearly 66 years of age by then.  My family had lived out of Iowa for a number of years, returning to my parents' roots in 1953.

                                             

This is a young, dapper looking Robert Martin Shoeman in his dress and high button shoes at the age of about 2, so about the year 1889.  This treasured photo was shared with me by my Pennsylvania cousin, Karen.

My great grandfather Shoeman was a farmer, so I am sure Grandpa Shoeman spent many hours working for his father on the family farm while growing up.  He also had farm land he owned around his home in Waukee that someone farmed for him when I was a young girl.   He worked in the Schuler Coal Mine from 1936 until it closed in 1949.  https://theperrynews.com/iowa-underground-coal-mining-fueled-dallas-countys-growth/   I found a railroad pension index for my grandfather on ancestry.com, something else I never knew about until later years.  I fondly remember Sunday afternoon visits to my grandparents home.  Their large stucco home at 45 6th Street was built by my great grandfather early in the 20th century and had a large wraparound porch that was a child's delight to play on.  Grandpa was a kind and dear man, always so sweet to his grandchildren.  A candy dish was always available in the parlor off the living room where Grandpa seemed to enjoy spending his time watching the "goings on" out on Highway 6.  Grandpa passed away on August 28, 1975 at the age of 89 and is buried at the Waukee Cemetery south of town.

A Golden Wedding is In The Air
THE ROBERT SHOEMAN'S MARRIED 50 YEARS

On Saturday, February 28, Robert and Greta (Cook) Shoeman will have been married 50 years to the day.  They exchanged vows in the parlor at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Cook, southwest of Waukee.  "That was back in the horse 'n buggy days," the bridegroom of fifty years reminded his missus with a teasing grin.  And the reason they got married on the 28th of February was because it was close to "moving day" so they moved right out to a 100-acre farm where the Jack Martins now live.

"It was a simple little home wedding" brown-eyed Mrs. Shoeman remembered, as she settled pleasantly into an easy chair.  "Robert came into town and got the Christian minister, Rev. Linebeck."  It was Sunday.

The Shoeman's have lived in and arund Waukee for the entire fifty years they have been married.  They are proud of their four children and eight grandchildren.  And they are especially grateful their grandchildren all live nearby where they can visit them often.  Their children are Burton of Scottsdale, Arizona, Gordon, Madrid, Iowa, Martha Gohring, El Cerrito, California, and Mary Schamerhorn, Des Moines.

Mrs. Shoeman, who has naturally curly red hair, enjoys going places, visiting friends and relatives.  Even in the early days of their married life, she laughingly recalls the time when Burton, their first born was fifteen-days old.  With the temperature 15 below zero, they hitched up the bob sleigh, piled high with hay and warm comforters between the sideboards and took off to visit at the home of Mrs. Shoeman's sister, Mrs. Vera Stump and a new niece, Helen Stump (Hunter).  Burton weas born December 7 and Helen December 11.

In their big, roomy two-story frame house are many windows.  The Shoeman's enjoy the changing views.  By looking across the street to the west Robert can see the little Walnut Grove School House (now Ostring's home) where he learned his ABC's.  And although not within sight, but not too far away, is the "little red school" (it really wasn't red) where Greta Cook attended school and it is now the home of the Sam McWilliam's.

Still a farmer at heart - although retired, Robert Shoeman says "I sorta farm yet - on the corner."  He can't keep out of the field or resist helping pick corn.  He enjoys the view of farm land east of their home which belongs to the Shoeman's but is farmed by a tennant.  Mr. Shoeman worked in the Schuler mine from 1936 to 1949; has worked in the Co-op Farm Store and still works there extra.

As members of the Christian Church in Waukee, the Shoeman's are active in church affairs.  For hobbies Mr. Shoeman enjoys reading and likes to putter around the house painting and carpentering.  Mrs. Shoeman states she merely enjoys being a housewife for a hobby - "I enjoy housework and keeping my house up."  She also likes to paint a little around home.

However, the team of Robert and Greta has a hobby they especially enjoy together - being baseball fans, they never miss a chance attending a baseball game.  They were always on hand last season rooting for their favorite player; grandson, Michael Schamerhorn 14, who played on a Babe Ruth team.

Mr. and Mrs. Shoeman aren't planning any special observance on their Golden Wedding day since their family can't all be together at this time - "Maybe on our 60th," Robert Shoeman promised.  And we are sure with their wholesome philosophy of life they will be around to celebrate in another ten years....."we strive to keep happy - and do better each day."

 My grandparents, Robert and Greta Shoeman at their 50th wedding celebration, February 28, 1959

                          My grandparents, Greta and Robert Shoeman, probably in the 1960's

My Father, Gordon Cook Shoeman

Gordon Cook Shoeman, was born in Waukee Iowa on May 24, 1911 to Robert Martin Shoeman and Mamie Greta Cook, life-long Dallas county residents.  Waukee is where my pioneering Pennsylvania Great Grandfather, John Smaltz Shoeman, settled in 1876.  This became the home of the extended Shoeman family over the years and is still home today for several of my cousins.  Dad had three siblings, an older brother, John Burton, and two younger sisters, Martha Madora, and Mary Kathryn.  Small town Waukee must have been a wonderful place to grow up, wide open rural country, and  just a short distance away from the capitol of Des Moines.   In those days it was a place where everyone would have known each other.  Dad never talked much about his early years of growing up in Waukee so I have had a lot of questions in my later years.  How I wish I had sat down with Dad and asked him questions years ago.  With my busy life of working and raising a family I never thought about how important it was and now deeply regret it.

This is my dad's family about 1920 - Greta, Gordon, Burton, Robert, and in front,  Martha.  Daughter, Mary, was not born until 1922.

Dad went into the U.S. Army on December 1, 1930 and served in different locations around the world, including Panama.  He met my mother, Mildred May Merriam of Ogden, Iowa on a blind date and they married the next year on December 27, 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa.  Mom and Dad moved a lot over the next thirteen years with Dad's busy Army life.  They lived at Ft. Benning, Georgia right after they were married, followed by Ft. Sill Oklahoma,  Frankfurt, Germany, and then Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  Dad was sent to Korea after his service in Maine and retired soon after that in 1954.  He retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class. 

I don't remember anything about living in Oklahoma, as I was too young.   I have somewhat fuzzy memories of Germany but do remember it.  Dad and I got matching German lederhosen, which I still have today.....both his and mine.  I also remember Dad taking us sledding in the winter.   I was between the ages of 2-1/2 and 5-1/2 when we lived in Germany.  In Maine, we lived high on a hill at Fort Williams overlooking the parade grounds and the many government buildings.  Dad's office was in one of those buildings down below and  he would take me to the office with him on Saturday mornings and let me plunk on the typewriter.  I also recall time spent with my dad at the officer's club for special holiday parties and sitting on the rocky coast of the Atlantic Ocean with Dad and my middle brother, Dick.

This was our family in 1952 while we lived at Ft. Williams, Maine.  From left to right:  Jan (me), Reg, Mom is holding Joan, Dad with Jeannie in front, and Gordon R. aka "Dick."

In 1954, Dad went to work for Firestone Tire & Rubber Company in Des Moines, Iowa.  For the next 19 years he worked hard at raising his family of 6 children.   He was 62 when he retired from Firestone in l973.  For the next 30+ years he and my mom traveled all over the U.S. visiting their far-flung children, old Army friends, and many other beautiful places.  Dad also loved to bicycle, exercise, raise his Labrador Retrievers, tend to his roses, and spend time with his family in his retirement years.  My dad used to stop by to take my young daughter out bicycling with him.  He would jump off his bike and onto mine because it had a child carrier.  He did that until she outgrew the carrier.  How she loved to go out riding with her grandpa when she was a toddler.

Dad had this photo taken at a studio in Andover, England in 1944.  He was stationed in England for a period during WWII.

My dad had a strong sense of military regimen ingrained in him having served 25 years in the U.S. Army.    He was tough with us children while we were growing up, demanding a lot, but also demanding our very best.  In some ways, I have grown more like my father with my organization and attention to detail.  I even find myself performing some of my tasks in the precise manner that dad used to do.   My beloved father passed away at the age of 94 on December 29, 2005, two days following Mom and his 65th wedding anniversary.  He is buried at Hillsdale Cemetery east of Madrid, Iowa.

 

And So It Began

Back in the days before the explosion of the Internet, my initial baby step into the world of genealogy consisted of trying to write down a few generations on a paper family tree.  After my maternal grandmother, Bertha Lora (Field) Merriam, passed away in January 1996, my mother passed Grandma's handwritten genealogy papers on to me.  Grandma Merriam had a little information about her family, the Field's and Olmstead's, but it was mostly about my paternal grandfather's line, the Merriam's and Van Meter's.   I wrote out what I could on the family tree and then set it aside until the next decade.  During this time, I only knew a little about my father's side of the family.

One day I was reading a book written by my great aunt, Eva Shoeman Kuehl.  Her book titled, Around a Country Garden, was written about her life as a rural Waukee Iowa farm wife. I came across a page that changed everything for me and began my quest into my family roots.  Near the back of the book, Aunt Eva had written an account of her Pennsylvania grandparents, my 2nd great grandparents, Henry Shoeman and Louisa (Smaltz) Shoeman, of Curryville, Pennsylvania.  There were the names of another generation unknown to me, where they had lived and were buried, and all their children's names.  It was a goldmine of information for me and propelled me to dig further into my roots.  My husband and I made trips to Pennsylvania in both 2004 and 2006 to try to gather family history.   I also joined ancestry.com during this time and began setting up my family tree on both my mother and father's side.

My mother's family were the Field's, Olmstead's, Merriam's, and Van Meter's.  Her maternal side was mostly English and her father's side were English and Dutch.  The maternal side of her family were some of the earliest settlers of Colonial New England.  I would learn in later years just how early Mom's family did arrive in America.  My deep roots in America go back to the Mayflower in 1620 and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.  I am filled with pride at my heritage.  My father's side of the family were mostly German, Swiss, and Irish.   They were the Shoeman's, Hawbaker's, Cook's, and Mullins.  I had my DNA tested on ancestry.com several years ago and tested at 82% British, 13% German, and 5% Irish and Scottish.

Diehl's Crossroads Church of the Brethren Cemetery, Curryville, Pennsylvania

I am shown by the headstones of Henry and Louisa (Smaltz) Shoeman, my 2nd great grandparents on my father's side.   They are buried in the cemetery of a beautiful little church in the rolling hills of east central Pennsylvania.

I will begin my blog focusing on my father's family first and then move on to my mother's side later on.  I have a lot of family information 'stored upstairs' and am going to put my memories and the information I have learned down on paper.