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| Katherine |
Born December 17, 1859 Delaware County, Iowa Death 1945 Meade, Kansas |
Married Bernard Sebastian McMeel (b. March 31, 1856-1920) Children:
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| NOTES: Katherine McElmeel taught school in her home neighborhood (Delhi, Delaware County, Iowa) prior to her marriage to Bernard McMeel. Bernard was the son of Patrick mcMeel. both Bernard and his father were blacksmiths. Katheirne and Bernard lived in Manchester, Iowa foar a year or two until "they packed their possessions into a wagon, bundled up their infant son and left Iowa." They traveled to southwestern Kansas and settled in Meade, Kansas. Here Bernard plyed his blacksmith trade for many years. he later became a merchant selling clothing, gent's furnishings and shoes. According to Katherine and Bernard's granddaughter, Genevieve McMeel Schwarz, "Katherine McElmeel McMeel was a true Irish matriarch. She ruled her seven children until her death. Every summer (of Genevieve's childhood) we had to drive to Meade, Kansas--because she demanded that all her children come to see her. it was a long hot trip." Genevieve continued, "She was a truly beutiful woman -- with long white hair (prematurely) and the round Irish face and a smile that was unbelieveable. She did her hair in a bun. My grandfather McMeel died very young and she (Katherine) raised seven beautiful people." Actually according to the records we can uncover, Bernard died in 1920 at the age of 64; and that would have meant that their children were actaully grown by the time Bernard died. Their oldest living child, Leo Patrick, was born in 1884 and would have been 36 at the time of his father's death and their youngest child, Nora who was born in 1899, would have been 21 at the time of her father's death. Perhaps Genevieve meant to say that Bernard and Katherine raised seven beautiful children and her grandfather died very young (at age 64). |
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Sharron L. McElmeel
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