In honor of Veterans Day . . .

In honor of Veterans Day here is a transcription of a letter from private Ed Albright written at the end of World War I to his friend Art Lindsey (Brendan and Olivia's great grandfather).



Treveray France
Dec 25. 1918

Dear Friend Art

Well how is the old scout by this time I am feeling good only my right ear is going on the bum. I can only hear half the time. I had a bad cold about two weeks ago and I guess it settled in my head boy I couldn't sleep for several nights. I would sit up in bed and the rest of the boys would be sleeping like logs that would make me mad, well nothing bothers Ed if it comes out alright it will be so much the better if not you will half to holler real loud at me.

Ha, well Art the big worlds war is won. I sure seen all I wanted too you know I always told you I wanted to be in it before it ended and I got right in it too with both feet it was a great game men falling all around you the first front I was in was the Alsace Lorraine front boy I was laying out there one whole night with a Automatic rifle and about midnight we began shooting but the little boy done the work on No Mans Land. The first dugout I ever slept in was a German boy I sure was glad to crawl in it I was so tired I could of slept out in the open where it was pouring down rain. I walked for twenty miles that day with my pack on my back. The Germans sure used a lot of gas they would just keep shooting it over all the time but we beat them at their own game.

Well I can't tell you all of it so will talk of something else. Well how is marriage life by this time I guess you young bucks made all kinds of money this year. I always told you that you would be married soon. I'll be too old and stiff when I get back to get married.

Ha, we sure are having great weather it snowed last night on Xmas eve but I went to bed at seven o'clock so I didn't care no place to go or nothing to do but go in a wine or beer shop and I was tired so I crawled in my little nest.I am sleeping in a
farm boy it is great but it is not very cold over here yeh only it is awful damp keeps a fellow busy so he don't ketch a cold.

How is Ellen? I hope your folks are well will try and get back some day and make you a visit for I'll be a broke sardine when I get there Ha. Say how is the Lodge coming? I suppose they will drop me. Well I can't help it. Say how is Louie? I often thought of him, tell him Hello for me. Well I guess I must close we are going to have a big Xmas dinner at four o'clock. I don't know if I ever wrote you a letter or not. I bet it is cold back home now. Say, many thanks for that money. So Good Bye. I'll be home in time to help you harvest So be good. Hello to the family. Ha.

Priv E. W. Albright
Amer. Exped. Forces
A.P.C 795 write soon

Biography of James McDonald

James McDonald

[Rick's Great-Great Grandfather]

This well known and prosperous farmer of Little Sioux township was born on a farm in Lake county, Illinois, October 24, 1849, and is a worthy representative of an honored pioneer family of Woodbury county, where almost his entire life has passed, having been brought here by his parents, James and Jenette (Parlen) McDonald, both natives of Scotland. Our subject's Grandfather McDonald spent his entire life in that country, there dying at an advanced age before the emigration of his son to America. James McDonald, Sr., was the only one of the family to come to the new world. In his native land he received a good education and learned the stone-mason's trade. It was about 1845 that he crossed the Atlantic and became a resident of the United States. After spending some time in Lake county, Illinois, he removed to Woodbury county, Iowa, in 1854, being the third to locate in Little Sioux township, as Mr. Lee settled there in 1851 and Mr. Smith in 1853. The journey to this county was made by boat and train to St. Joseph and thence across the country by team. The family settled upon the farm now owned and occupied by our subject and here the parents spent their remaining days, the father dying in January, 1882, and the mother, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, passing away in March, 1883.

In the family of this worthy couple were seven children, namely: William W., now sixty-two years of age, who is engaged in the banking business in Rodney, Iowa; Margaret, who married F. L. Smith, a nephew of O. B. Smith, and died at the age of thirty-five years, leaving four children; Agnes, who died at the age of twelve years and was the second person buried in the Smithland cemetery; James, the next in the order of birth; Elizabeth, who died in infancy in Illinois; Laura, deceased wife of Berick Bennett; and Isabel, who died in 1871, at the age of fifteen years.

James McDonald, of this review, is indebted to the common schools of this county for the early educational advantages he enjoyed. During his boyhood he aided his father in the work of the home farm and since attaining man's estate has engaged in agricultural pursuits on his own. He is now the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of well improved and valuable land under a high state of cultivation. He has a fine, commodious residence, erected in 1873, and the place is complete in all of its appointments. In connection with general farming Mr McDonald is quite extensively engaged in stock raising and finds that branch of his business quite profitable. He has one hundred head of fine shorthorn cattle, twelve horses and seventy hogs of the Poland China breed. He is a progressive and painstaking farmer and has met with merited success in all his undertakings.

Mr. McDonald has been twice married, his first union being with Miss Ella M. Morgan, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of John Morgan. She came to Iowa in 1881 and died in 1895, leaving three children, as follows: Ida, born in 1882, is now the wife of L. W. Cleveland, of Rodney, and two children, Franz D., who is living, and James, deceased. William M., born in 1884, is at home with his father. He had a twin sister who died in infancy. Leonard, born in 1890, is attending school. In April, 1901, Mr. McDonald wedded Miss Betsy Landon, a native of Missouri. They attend the Congregational church of Rodney and are people of prominence in the community where they reside. Mr. McDonald's parents were Presbyterians in religious belief but during their residence in Iowa attended the Methodist Episcopal church. Socially our
subject is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is held in high esteem by all who know him.

Biography and picture from: Past and present of Sioux City and Woodbury county, Iowa (1904) by Constant R. Marks

Have you ever heard of Coolville OH?

Coolville is a tiny little speck on the map of Ohio . . . with a population just over five hundred in 2000. The spelling is close to that of the fictional homebase of Mystery Inc (Coolsville OH) of Scooby Doo fame. It is also named after one of the branches of Rick's side of the family tree . . . the Cooleys.

The Cooleys came to America in the 1600s and settled in Massachusetts. In the 1700s Asahel Cooley responded to the alarm of April 19, 1775 . . . yep, the same alarm made famous by Paul Revere's Ride. Asahel lived in Springfield MA (a little less than a two-hour trip from Lexington today) so it took a bit longer to respond but Asahel marched with the other minutemen from Springfield on April 20th.

Captain Asahel Cooley headed west in 1798 to settle in Ohio where his eldest son founded the town of Coolville. Cool, huh?

Our line of Cooleys eventually moved on to settle in southern Iowa where Brendan and Olivia's great-great-great grandfather Charles Lincoln Cooley was born on April 17 1861 in Cantril IA. About four days after his 3rd birthday Charles lost his father, Benjamin, in the Civil War. Benjamin left behind his widow and seven children under the age of thirteen.


Reminiscences by Charles Lincoln Cooley:

About the first thing that I remember was all of us children being in the Soldiers' Home at Davenport, Iowa, where Mother was caring for us. We stayed there about six months. From there we moved to West Point, Iowa, where I was in school two or three years. When I was 12 years old, Mother emigrated to Kansas. My brother Henry drove the team, and Caleb and I walked from Cantril, Iowa, to Alton, Kansas, driving our 14 head of cattle. We crossed the River at Nebraska City. At that place Mother joined us, as she had stayed in Iowa to settle up affairs.

She had worked in a hospital while she was waiting for us to come along. Our trip with the cattle took us about four weeks. Mother and brother Henry both took a Homestead between the two Solomon Rivers in Osborn Co., Kansas. There was no settlement on the divide where they located. The same day we arrived I started out to hunt up work. I found a job gathering corn about 14 miles from home, getting fifty cents a day. From that time until I was twenty years old, I worked out, and brought the money home to Mother.

Brother Henry farmed the Homestead, and brother Caleb worked out what he could, but he was never very strong. The first pay that I got in Kansas was a quarter of beef. The farmer gave me a wagon and a pair of mules so that I could take the beef home. I started a little before sundown over the divide for the trip of 14 miles. There was no road or trail across the prairie until I got to the divide, where there was a ridge road. When I reached that, I was not sure which way to go, as it was now very dark. But I knew there was a stump down in the draw, and if I found that, I would be sure of my way. So I unhitched the inside tugs, and tied the lines to the wagon. On I went. But just as I put my hand on the stump I heard a lot of wolves begin to howl. I ran back to the wagon, unhitched the mules, and started back in the other direction. After going about four miles, I took another direction for home. Mother heard the wagon and thought someone was lost, so she put a lamp in the window. I had passed our Homestead. When I saw her light, I went quickly home to tell Mother she had lighted her own boy on the way.

After I was married I lived on brother Henry's homestead, and farmed that. By this time the country was beginning to settle up, and all our folks who came from Iowa would come to our place and stay until they got located. We lived in a dugout 16 feet square. Aunt Cal Tully, and Grandpa and Grandmother Vale stayed with us one winter while they built their dugout. Then Aunt Eva came back from Muscatine, Iowa with her boys, Elmer and Omer (Underwood). She left the boys with us and attended school at Hartland, Kansas, until she got her certificate for teaching.

About 1894 I traded a horse, a sow and pigs, and gave a note for $30, for a quarter section of land. Some years later we traded Mother's 80 acres for her homestead, which had a $300 mortgage on it. Shortly after that Aunt Lydia Cooley came from Kansas City to live with us. She had been aided by the Buckinghams, but they had failed in business and she had no means of support. Mother told us to take care of her, and that the way we treated her would be the way that our children treated us when we were old. She was 83 years old and lived with us for three years. Shortly after she came we had a very wet spring. The dugout leaked and a spring broke out under the floor. I went in debt and bought some land close by ours, where there was a small frame house with a good shingled roof, in order to have a good place for Aunt Lydia. This proved to be a good investment; the place had several acres of wheat on it, and we got a third share; in five months after I bought the place, I sold enough wheat to half pay for it. All through life I have found that it pays to help people in need, who are worthy of help.

Mother stayed with brother Henry most of the time, as he had a great deal of sickness. He was a good business man, but sickness and medical bills kept him from getting ahead. He carried $2,000 insurance in the Woodmen's Lodge, but because of sickness and hard luck was not able to keep up his payments. When the Judge told me they would have to suspend him, I kept him paid up for some five years. I never told him until one night when I sat with him when he was very sick. The great change that came over him paid me back many times for anything I had been able to do for him. He always cared for Mother in a wonderful way; her faith and her cheer never failed us; it shone on through all of the hard things which the years brought us.

Taken from The Cooley genealogy: the descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley, an early settler of Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts by Mortimer E. Cooley

[Note: I believe that that Soldiers' Home of Davenport mentioned in the story is the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. To view pictures and a history of the home just do a Google search for Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home . . . I tried to add a link to a wikipedia article with good pictures but my blog cuts off part of the link so it doesn't work]