WHY A BLOG ABOUT KOSSUTH COUNTY HISTORY?

Introduction

Perhaps you are wondering why I have chosen to blog about Kossuth County, Iowa.  I must admit that until a few months ago, I had never given this idea a single thought. But as I look back, I think fate has been preparing me for this moment for a long time. 

My Story

For about 16 years now I have been researching the records of Kossuth County.  Well, truthfully, it has been longer than that because I worked for lawyers for most of my adult life and often found myself plowing through real estate records or titles and looking up old probates, often in the courthouse basement.  However, my personal research journey began on Memorial Day weekend in May of 1999.  I remember it so clearly. . .

Decorating the ancestors’ graves had been a long standing custom of my mother and after my father’s passing in 1995, it became my job to accompany her on the annual trek.  I truly enjoyed this tradition as my mother was an inveterate story teller and walking among the

My mother, Evelyn Prothman

gravestones of the people she had known and loved always got the memories flowing.  Although I was familiar with most of her stories, I never seemed to tire of hearing them.

For some reason, however, this day in 1999 was different.  Perhaps it was because my dad had been gone a few years and I realized my time with mom was limited or possibly it was because my own children were almost out of the nest, but I found myself asking questions I had never thought of before.  As we walked around Calvary Cemetery in Algona where I thought all of my local relatives were buried, mom inquired if I knew that I had a great-great grandfather buried in Riverview Cemetery (the oldest cemetery in the county).  I was taken aback!  Who was this relative that I had never heard of?  

I had grown up right across the railroad tracks on the north side of Riverview Cemetery and had spent many enjoyable hours walking and biking through it as well as doing pencil etchings of some of the more interesting tombstones.  Mom and I had often walked it together.  Why had I not heard this story before—or, more likely, had I just not been listening?

She assured me that she could take me right to the grave and so as soon as the flowers had been officially placed at Calvary, off we drove to Riverview and moments later I was standing at the burial site of the grandfather I had never known existed.  How many times had I unknowingly walked past this site?  I was later to discover that his wife, my great-great grandmother, was also buried there beneath an unreadable stone as well as his daughter who had

My Great-great grandparents' graves

died so young, leaving a husband and two small sons to mourn her passing.


I started firing questions at my poor mother who did her best to answer.  Returning to her house she instructed me where to find albums and boxes of photographs which I immediately hauled out and stacked around her living room.  We spent the next several hours poring over unmarked photos.  I insisted that we immediately begin identifying the people and places pictured in the photographs and by the time I left for home late that afternoon, I had a draft of a family tree. 

From that day forward my life has never been quite the same. The people in the photographs became so real to me as my mother shared the stories of their lives.  They were farmers and carpenters, soldiers and seamstresses, husbands and wives and children.  I researched their births and deaths and their lives in between.

I am sorry to say that I only had my dear mother for another 17 months, but I have always looked back on that Memorial Day weekend and thanked the dear Lord above that we had that time together.  By the time she passed away, we had made much progress in identifying the people in the many old photos she had collected over the years and had put together a family tree going back several generations.  Sadly, not a day goes by that I still don’t think of a question that I would like to ask her or my dad.

After Mom’s passing, I found myself setting the family history aside for a while.  It was so different not having her around to share my latest discovery or just to hear her voice.  It was hard to think of going forward without her to consult. 

One day while looking for something else on the Internet, I came across the Iowa GenWeb site.  This program of sharing genealogical information such as biographies, obituaries and cemetery information was fascinating to me.  I found the Kossuth County GenWeb page and took a look around.  The site already had a lot of good information.  To do my part, I decided that I would post the biographies that had been published in the two Kossuth County History books, one published in 1884 and the other in 1913.  Over the next several years, I did just that. 

I became a member of the newly formed Kossuth County Genealogical Society helping to expand the genealogical library at the Algona Public Library.  Later when the Kossuth County Historical Society was revitalized, I helped to reorganize the archival collection among many other projects. 

A Blog Is Born

As much as I enjoy my association with these two societies (I am still a member of each), I found that my true love was telling the stories of the people, places and events of Kossuth County and the surrounding area.  I have found that researching a particular era takes me back in time to imagine what life was like for those whose stories are yearning to be told.  I have often felt guided by unknown forces as time and again information thought to no longer be available pops up out of nowhere while sleuthing around.  It is as if the spirit world is watching and listening, waiting for the right moment in time.

I hope you will travel along with me as I tell the stories of the people, places and events of Kossuth County’s unique history.  If you have photos or

Kossuth County Courthouse 2015

information about any of the topics which will make up this blog, I hope that you will share them with me.  I will try to incorporate those materials into future blogs or share it with my readers if appropriate.  If you enjoy what you find here and feel so inclined, I hope you will share my blog posts with others who might find the stories interesting and entertaining.

Until next time,
Jean Kramer, a/k/a Kossuth County History Buff

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