General Notes

[Joanne's Tree.1 GED.GED]

2  PLAC 270
2  SOUR S332582
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: 14 Jan 2004


[daveanthes.FTW]

From the book "Harvesting The Rice (Reiss) by Pat Wiff   page 381-382
Sketches-Memories of Emma Reiss Robinson and Sherman Robinson
By Ellizabeth Canfield and Sherman Klein

     Born on December 23, 1873, Emma was one of a set of twin girls who weighed in at about
2 1/2~ pounds apiece. Being that smaIl today is a real concern for pediatricians and demands incubators and intensive care in a modern hospital. On that winter day none of those technological advances existed. For cribs or cradles the twins had shoe boxes padded with cotton and their incubator was the oven door of a wood burning kitchen stove. They proved to be healthy and strong and fighters and were definitely not bottle fed.
    Anna and Emma and their 2 brothers and three other sisters lived at Ashton, Illinois until 1886 when Grandpa George (their father) loaded up Willi and the three oldest children and made the move to Benton County, Iowa, where some of the German cousins had emigrated a few years earlier.
Crop failure due to drought in Ashton was the reason for leaving. (George and Willi) Grandpa and Grandma knew Rinehardt Shellhouse who lived in Garrison because he was a cousin of Conrad Crook (Grandpa Reiss's brother-in-law).
    The Reiss's lived in Garrison and joined the Methodist Church; twas said they did this because the girls (Anna, Emma, Martha and Mary) were to be saved from the wild boys of the Evangelical Church that Grandpa had met. (What a joke--as ~b family had been E.U.B. in Illinois.)
The Tilford Academy was operating in Vinton so when the twins were out of 8th grade they were sent to this institution of higher learning. It took them to l0th grade. That's where they met Sherman Robinson and Will Klein who were also students. Will was studying violin because a piano was too hard to carry around.
    Will Klein helped do construction carpentry work at farms around the George Reiss farm and worked at Grandpa's place too. Next thing folks knew, (Anna and Will) Mom and Dad were married. Not much later, Emma and Sherm Robinson were also married.
    Anna, Emma  and Sherm were all school teachers. They taught terms of 3 months in the winter and three months in the summer because the boys usually had wood to cut or other seasonal farm work to do. Uncle Sherm was Superintendent of Schools in Boston County until about 1898.
    In 1898 he joined the The Spanish-American War. (Iowa Regiment of U S Volunteers and served in Cuba. Some of us have shells he brought back) After that service he and Emma lived in Van Horne for a while; Fred Klein lived with them for a time. About 1908, homesteading laws were passed to open Montana to farmers and Sherm and Emma went west to settle. Their land was located at Judith Gap or near there.
    Grandpa Reiss and Wm Klein went on a trip to California and on the return trip stopped at Uncle Sherm and Aunt Emma's farm. They built a little house for them before returning to Iowa.
Aunt Emma ran the Post Office at Judith Gap for many years. After about 15 years of marriage, George Elias was born at Great Falls, Montana, April 7, 1913. Aunt Emma was 37 years old at the time. The birth of that son was her greatest happiness.
     Life in Montana was never easy. On crop failure after another kept them very poor. Their nearest neighbors were quite far away. I remember her telling of walking 4 miles to visit her neighbors and of carrying food with her as the neighbors were just as poor as they were, as far as a ready fond supply is concerned. Still, she and Sherm loved Montana and always believed that the next year would bring a ~ crop and a successful season.
     Aunt Emma developed a goiter and in 1929-1930, came back to Minnesota to the Mayo Clinic to have it removed. Earlier, in 1928, they drove to Iowa and Will K., Harriet Gilbert, Merle Ingli, Lela Roher and I (Bess) went back as far as Yellowstone Park with them.
      At Judith Gap they had 10-12 cows and a flock of chickens. Sherm (Klein) said he was there when he was 22 years old. A blizzard came up and Uncle Sherm said, "Put on your coat. We must catch the chickens." So they went out in the storm. The chickens had been blown against and into the fence corners so they caught and carried then back to the rickety hen house. Sherm also said Uncle Sherm would carry his milk stool into the yard and milked the cows wherever they were. They separated the cream and shipped it into Great Falls via the Burlington which ran very close to the little house. A grain elevator was located near their home and the horses ate enough of the grain to stop the train.
     Sherm says that when they were threshing a wind would come up that was fierce enough so that everyone had to go home. It would blow the wheat right out of their wagons. A five bin granary stood near the house. It also served as the extra bedroom space for Sherm and the other hired help.
     When George was 15 years old, he was badly injured in a high school basketball game. It seams he either fell into or slid into a bench and received a severe head injury. He went home and suffered from a severe headache. The doctor came from 40 miles away. The pain was so intense that he was walking around on his bed. The doctor called a specialist from Helena but George was dead when he arrived. The boy's body was brought back to Vinton and buried there.
       Emma and Sherm came back to Vinton, scraped together some money and pooled it with Aunt Mae to purchase the house in Vinton where they lived until Emma died of a heart attack in 1936 at 66 years of age.
        Uncle Sherm stayed on in the house with Aunt Mae until his death due to cancer in 1939.
      All in all, they had no simple life nor an easy one, especially for those years in Montana.

     From the book "Harvesting The Rice (Reiss) by Pat Wiff   page 380

Mrs. S. Robinson Dies Suddenly at Vinton Home, 13 July 1936
Taken suddenly ill last night with a heart attack, Mrs. Sherman E. Robinson, 62, died today at 2:00 a.m. at her home here. Funeral services will be held Sunday afternoon at 3:00 in the Fry mortuary, conducted by the Rev. V. L. Currier of the Baptist church. Burial will be in the Evergreen Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson moved here in the fall of 1930 from Montana.
Emma L. Robinson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Reiss was born 23 December 1873, at Ashton,
Ill., and came to Benton County with her late parents. She was married 31 August 1893, in Big Grove
Township to Sherman E. Robinson, who survives her. They located in Montana in 1908. One son, George Robinson, preceded her in death in 1928.
Sisters and brothers surviving are Mrs. Anna C. Klein of Ellsworth, Wisc., a twin sister; John F. Reiss of Garrison, the Misses Martha and Mae Reiss, Ezra C. Reiss, and Mrs. Josephine Fisher, all of Vinton. Friends may call at the Fry funeral home.