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First Generation
1. Elvis Van KIRKPATRICK was born on 23 Aug 1910
in Davis Co., Iowa. In 1985 he was in Carpenter. He died
Cardiac Arrest, Respiratory Failure, Cardiomyopathy on 5 Aug 1996 in New Virginia,
Warren Co., Iowa.1 [NEED
TO DEFINE SENTENCE: Service] He was buried on 8 Aug 1996 in New Virginia,
Iowa. He was also known as Kirk. [NEED TO DEFINE SENTENCE:
Bapm] He is reference number 2532004. Medical: at 11:46
PM
The Life and Times
of
Elvis Van Kirkpatrick
by Dale Dean Kirkpatrick
Elvis Van Kirkpatrick slipped out of the hands of his loving family on Monday,
August 5, 1996, and passed into the spirit world of the Lord. Elvis had been
fighting congestive heart failure for the past seven years. A stroke on June
30,1996, took a big toll on Elvis health. Elvis requested his family to take
him home for his last few days.
Elvis was born on August 23, 1910, at the home of his parents, Eddie and
Molly (Vannote) Kirkpatrick in Davis County, Iowa. Elvis' father, Eddie Kirkpatrick,
was a man of many professions, and worked many jobs. He wandered the states of
Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri searching for his place in life. This type of lifestyle
makes life difficult for a family trying to follow. It was the months away from
home that led to the separation of Eddie and Molly, with Elvis in the middle.
Elvis related the following story: The last straw that broke the marriage
was when Molly and Elvis were left for weeks while his father followed the wheat
thrashing crews. The food supply dwindled to nothing. Molly took Elvis to a
kind neighbor who gave them food and shelter. When Eddie returned from the wheat
fields, he found the two missing from their home. Elvis did not remember but,
obviously, Molly did not want to return to that lifestyle she was living with
Eddie. One day, Eddie returned. The neighbor went for his rifle leaning against
a pile of wood, but Eddie pulled a gun and told the neighbor he would shoot him.
Eddie took Elvis at gun point Elvis was four or five years old when he saw his
mother for the last time. She was standing next to the porch screen door crying.
Molly did not live long after Elvis was taken from her. She died of pneumonia
when a flu epidemic hit Kansas in 1917.
After Molly passed away, Eddie met and married Agnes Brasfield but this
did not make a happy three-some. Elvis new step-mother had a quick temper and
attacked violently over almost everything. Elvis was badly beaten several times
and Elvis' dad was afraid Agnes was going to kill Elvis if he was not around
to pull Agnes away. So...Elvis was sent to live with his grandmother, Sarah,
in Queen City, Missouri. Dad said, "Sarah was a saint" and gave him
the love and attention a young boy needs; but there was a fly in the ointment
in this home and it was Elvis uncle, Jesse. Jesse was overbearing and resented
Elvis staying with them. It was common for young boys to work in fields. Elvis
worked for room and board, plus a few extra dollars for a farmer. Working away
from home gave Elvis the opportunity to earn some money to help his
grandmother and escape his overbearing Uncle Jesse.
Elvis was in fifth grade when he started working for his room and board.
He said his first job was working for Mr. Stogdill, one of the kindest gentlemen
on the earth. Elvis drove the horses in the fields and did a full day's work.
He feed the animals and milked cows. The day started at sunrise and ended at
sunset.
When school opened, Elvis helped with the chores in the morning and evening,
plus he was expected to work a full day on Saturday. Sunday was a day off after
the morning chores were done. It was during this free time Elvis would visit
and help his grandmother.
In the meantime, Elvis' dad and his step-mother had started a family. The
visits between Elvis and his new family were few and farther between. One free
Sunday, Elvis ventured back into the beautiful Missouri hills to visit his dad's
new family. Elvis said they lived so far back into the hills there wasn't a road.
The road disappeared, then you traveled a small path to the family's home deep
in the woods. He found the family living on water gravy and little else. It
just happened that Elvis had bought a goat for his grandmother with some of the
money he had earned. Elvis returned home and told his grandmother of the new
family's plight She agreed with Elvis, since they had plenty of milk from a fresh
cow, they would give the goat to his dad's new family. Elvis delivered the goat
to the starving family and told his father how well he was doing, working for
Mr. Stogdill.
Elvis returned to work the next Monday. Mr. Stogdill told Elvis that his
dad had collected his wages of $60 that he had been saving for him. It was not
unusual in those days for a father to collect the wages of his children. After
his dad had taken his money, John and Elvis agreed they would tell everyone he
was working for room and board only. They would keep Dad's money a secret.
Elvis journeyed back to the family in the hills after a couple of weeks
to see how things were going. He arrived to find the goat gone. His dad sold
the goat for tobacco, coffee and such things and the family was still living
on water gravy.
Elvis finished the seventh grade and started the eighth grade when conflict
between school and work clashed. Elvis finished chores before he could go to
school and this would sometimes make Elvis late for school. The school teacher
was always giving Elvis a rough time for being late. So, Elvis dropped out of
school.
Elvis was on his own at 12 years of age. At this point in his life, he
was buying his own clothes, food, and deciding where he would live and work.
The mold was cast and a young boy moved into the adult world of hard work.
The young man grew as he moved from job to job. Elvis turned 17 when he
met and married Cleta Scott on September 15, 1927. A year later, Cleta gave
birth to a baby boy who was given the name Elvis J. They nicknamed him Junior.
The young couple lived with Cleta's parents and it was not long before this
relationship would create a split in the marriage. Cleta had become accustomed
to the lifestyle of her parents and did not want to live the hard life of a hired
hand's wife. The split happened and the young Elvis agreed to forfeit his visitation
rights for no child support. Elvis was hurt but given no choices he continued
to move from one farm job to the next.
For four years, Elvis wandered through life until he met a young woman,
Fern Tracy, in Iowa. The couple wanted to get married but Elvis did not want
to make the same mistake he made with Cleta Scott. The couple agreed to take
two years of their life and save money to start farming on their own. They competed
their task and were married on March 11, 1934, in Madison Co., Winterset, Iowa
. They put together Fern's housekeeping money and Elvis' money from working on
farm and rented an 80-acre farm of their own near Madison Co., Winterset, Iowa
.
For ten years, the couple battled drought, floods, hard winters and the
Depression. They had four children when they quit farming.
Elvis and family moved to Bloomfield, Iowa, where he worked in feed store
and started his apprenticeship in the carpentry trade.
For the next 10 years, Elvis would switch back and forth from carpentry
trade to farmhand.
The family had grown to eight children when Elvis moved to New Virginia,
Iowa in 1955. Elvis started working for Solar Aircraft Plant in Des Moines, Iowa.
He said this was the best job he ever had. In five years the plant closed and
Elvis was looking for another opportunity. The opportunity came when a camper
factory opened in St. Charles, Iowa, and they hired Elvis to make frames for
the campers.
They moved from their home in New Virginia to a farm between St. Marys,
Iowa, and New Virginia, Iowa in 1974. They were semi-retired on this small farm,
raising sheep, chickens, rabbits and continued to do many carpentry jobs for
other people:
PICKING UP THE PIECES
Dad's semi-retirement to the small farm between New Virginia and St. Marys,
Iowa, at the age of 65 gave him the opportunity to bring pieces of his life together.
Dad's mother, Molly, died of pneumonia in 1917 and was buried in Eldorado, Kansas.
Dad traveled to Eldorado to find his mother's final resting place. He discovered
she was remembered by a small copper plate marking her grave. So...the son who
remembered the kind and gentle woman who brought him into the world, replaced
the copper plate with a headstone. His grandmother, Sarah, died in 1932 at her
home near Queen City, Missouri.
Dad visited his uncle Jesse and they became friends. Jesse had retired
from farming with plenty of money to take care of himself and his family. Jesse
suffered from diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease before he passed away.
Dad's stepmother, Agnes, visited our house several times and she was one of the
nicest, kindest persons you would want to meet. Dad said he realized later in
life Agnes beat him because that was the way she was corrected by her drunken
father. She broke her hip on a trip to see Dad and died of pneumonia in 1973
in Kirksville, Missouri. Eddie Kirkpatrick, Dad's father, patched up some differences
between Dad and himself. Dad said he had a better understanding of the events
of his childhood. I knew my grandfather but we were never very close. I remember
two fascinating stories told by my grandfather, Eddie Kirkpatrick.
Grandfather knew public enemy #1, John Dillinger. In fact John Dillinger
was his first cousin. John Dillinger's mother was a Kirkpatrick before her marriage.
Grandfather said John was a good kid and they played all the games children
played. Grandfather said his own family was poor but John's family had nothing.
The Dillingers farmed an old clay knob that produced very little crops or hope.
They did not measure a corn crop by the number of bushels per acre but by the
number of corn stalks per acre. They were barefoot most of the year and wore
clothes no one else wanted. Grandfather said John just got tired of being dirt
poor. So...John tried to steal some money and was caught. John was told to
confess to the crime and they would go easier on him. John confessed and the
judge threw the book at him. A young John Dillinger was sent to prison and learned
about the darker side of life. When John was released, he tried to find a job
but jobs for ex-cons were not in great supply.
Grandfather said he did not see much of John until one day John knocked
on his door and asked him to hide a gun. Eddie hid the gun and was later told
there had been a shooting at one of John's hangouts. Years later John returned
and asked for his gun back and that was the last time grandfather saw John Dillinger
alive.
Grandfather Kirkpatrick told another curious story. When Eddie was very
young, he visited his aunt and uncle in another part of Missouri. His aunt and
uncle owned a boarding house along stagecoach road. He remembers his aunt cutting
a man's hair in the middle of a hay field. The man was sitting on a chair with
a rifle across his lap and pistols strapped to his sides. There were saddled
horses grazing under some trees and a number of armed men standing next to the
horses.
Later in life, Eddie returned to discover that the Jesse James gang had
a hideout that was a cave not too far from the boarding house. From one of the
entrances of the cave you could see the boarding house. But from the boarding
house, you could not see the cave. People told grandfather Eddie if strangers
were around, his aunt would take the washing to the clothes line and hang a pair
of red flannel underwear on the line for a signal to stay away.
Grandfather Eddie Kirkpatrick had cancer of the liver and die a slow death.
He was buried in Adair County, Missouri, in 1975.
My Dad's first born, Elvis J., visited in 1980. Junior had a defective
heart and passed away in 1982. The time spent together was good. The visits
helped ease the pain of the past and gave Dad a second chance to know his son.
After retirement, Dad was given the opportunity to visit his nine step-brothers
and sisters. The chance to visit and know his brother and sisters helped bridge
a large gap in Dad's world.
Dad left one treasure on this earth, his wife, Fern. They were married 62
years and raised eight children (in order of birth): Eddie E. Kirkpatrick of
Des Moines, Iowa, Delores Prather of Bellflower California, Aletha House of Martensdale,
Iowa, Dale Kirkpatrick Palmer, Nebraska, LaDonna Smith of Murray, Iowa, Vernon
Kirkpatrick, Ronnie Kirkpatrick, and Bonnie Smith, all of New Virginia Iowa.
Elvis had 27 grandchildren, 24 great grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson.
Dad was preceded in death by his son, Elvis J., and one granddaughter, Lisa
May House.
Funeral services were held at Kale Funeral Home in Osceola, Iowa on Thursday,
August 8, 1996, and Dad's body was laid to rest in the New Virginia Cemetery.
In the early years, Dad loved horses and took a great deal of pride in showing
and trading horses. He enjoyed working with wood, fishing reading, and singing
gospel music.
Reprinted from The Palmer Journal, Thursday, September 5, 1996
page #7 Elvis Van KIRKPATRICK and Cleta Lorene SCOTT were married on 15 Sep
1927 in Lancaster MO. Cleta Lorene SCOTT
(daughter of William Henry SCOTT and Mary Ellen CRAFTON) was born on 6 Apr 1910
in Missouri. She died on 7 Jun 1972 in Springfield, Missouri.
She was buried in Jun 1972 in Springfield, Missouri. She was also
known as Cleta Scott. She was born UNKNOWN. She is reference
number 205922004. Elvis Van KIRKPATRICK and Cleta Lorene SCOTT had
the following children:
Elvis Van KIRKPATRICK and Fern Marie
TRACY were married on 11 Mar 1934 in Madison Co., Winterset, Iowa.
Living2
(daughter of Oliver Ellsworth TRACY and Della May WRIGHT) was born on 21 May
1911.3,4 [NEED TO DEFINE SENTENCE: Bapm] She was
educated.5 [NEED TO DEFINE
SENTENCE: Church Affiliat] She is reference number 209722004.
Elvis Van KIRKPATRICK and Living had the following children:
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