Grandma Ruth was gone before I came along - my grandmother was her fourth of five daughters, as my mother was among her siblings - so I only know her through others’ accounts. But I have her diary from 1945-1950 that I recently digitized and plan to transcribe at some point. And her life was not easy.
Most of what I heard from my grandmother growing up was about her grandmother, with her mother a side character. Their relationship seems to have been strained, as her appearance at her mother’s deathbed surprised my grandmother’s sisters (according to her) and she made off with a ring she wasn’t supposed to have (ah, those lovely skeletons).
My great-grandmother was born in Perkins, Iowa, on May 25, 1893, and given the name Ruth Irene. Her parents were Emily Esther Lincoln and Frederick Ralph Hackett. I’ve listed her siblings in a post about her mother.
Ruth was apparently close to her brother Shirley, as he took her in during adulthood - but I get ahead of myself.
Ruth married an English immigrant, Thomas Rownes (~1886-1956), on March 2, 1914, in Onawa, Iowa. They ended up having five daughters and relocated to DeFuniak Springs, Florida, between the births of the third and fourth in late 1918. (I listed their children in a post about my great-grandfather).
However, the marriage broke down and Thomas left Ruth with the five girls before the oldest was even 10 years old. By 1925, Ruth and her daughters were living with her parents in her brother Shirley Hackett’s home in Ashton, Iowa. Thomas started a new life and family in Washington State.
Growing up, Grandma Ruth was referred to as Ruth Cornelius, not Ruth Hackett, and certainly not Ruth Rownes. She married (2nd) William “Bill” Cornelius (1885-1965) May 13, 1929, in Glenwood, Iowa.
My grandmother grew up in Whiting, Iowa, which is near Onawa. The vital records list Perkins and Ashton for certain events, an hour plus north. My grandmother used to talk about the Model T they used to get to Sioux City. From what I have worked out, the Hackett farm was in Ashton, whereas the Cornelius farm was in Whiting - both were Monona County. My grandmother apparently spent some of her formative years at her grandparents farm and then relocated with her mother and new stepfather when she was a young teen. I wish she was still around now that I know what questions to ask!
As I said above, Ruth’s life wasn’t easy. In addition to the less than ideal marriage to my great-grandfather, she had diabetes later in life and had to undergo major surgery for a very large uterine tumor at a time when that was not a regular occurrence. In her diary, she writes about the girls coming for a visit to say good-bye, just in case. Her husband (presumably that’s the “dad” she mentions) also had a cancer scare in 1946.
Her middle daughter ran off to Washington in 1932 at the age of 14 and lied about her age on a marriage license to get married. She raised a family near her father. Ruth’s other daughters all moved to New York, but her eldest returned to the Midwest by 1940 to eventually remarry and settle in Tennessee (she had been married to my grandfather, who then married my grandmother). The girls sometimes visited Ruth, but she was apparently closest to her eldest. With the exception of my grandmother, they also visited their father in Washington.
Ruth died from heart disease February 15, 1964, and was buried February 17 in Whiting Cemetery, Whiting, Iowa, as Ruth I. Cornelius. Bill was buried next to her the following year.
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Having a diary is a true window into the mind of an ancestor. What a treasure!