Ernest (1887-1979) was born January 5, 1887, in Cass County, Illinois, and died August 1, 1979, in Osceola, Iowa. He married Mary Frances "Fannie" Camp in Nevada, Iowa, on June 25, 1912. They later divorced. Ernie was a farmer. He also kept bees. He subscribed to a Chicago paper to keep up on the news. His daughter Mary used to go down the long drive to collect the mail. She remembers running all the way back to the house the day the newspaper headline read "Lindbergh Baby Kidnapped."

Ernie was either ahead of his time or eccentric as he had one of the earliest "campers." Back in the 1940's? he built a house-like structure on the back of his pickup truck and would drive it to California - leaving his family at home. It had a smokestack through the roof and a regular house door on the back. Ernie was a charter member of the Foursquare Church in Osceola.

Ernie's birth certificate from Cass County, Illinois

 

Mary Frances Camp was the second child of Willard Scott Camp and Delia Isabel "Bridget" Corbett. She was born January 3, 1891, near Redfield in Clinton County, Iowa. The family moved quite often as she was growing up. Fannie lost the lower part of one of her legs in a sickle mower accident in the mid-1920s. Her son Jr. ,who was a Boy Scout, fashioned a tourniquet so she wouldn't bleed to death. Her doctor had never amputated a leg before and left the stump too long. It caused her problems with her prosthesis the rest of her life. Her daughter Maxine remembers Fannie taking a dining room chair to the garden to use as support as she hoed. It had to be very difficult.

In later years she lived in Des Moines and was housekeeper for several families. I remember her as having a deep faith and often sending me religious tracts. She was also a strict teetotaler. One year the family Christmas party sported two punch bowls. One spiked and the other plain for the children. Of course, Fannie didn't know this. She drank several cups of the spiked punch and commented the next year that the punch (unspiked) wasn't as good as last year's punch! Fannie died January 25, 1977, in Des Moines, Iowa. At the time of her death she belonged to Grace Baptist Church in Des Moines.

Mary Frances Camp Price

Ernie & Fannie Price home in Ward twp, Clarke Co, Iowa

Fannie had a gold locket which now belongs to her daughter Mary. Instead of the usual round shape, though, it is an elongated oval with a script "F" on the front. Inside are a small picture of Fanie and a larger one of Ernie as a young man. Locket pictures

Fannie and Ernie are both buried at Maple Hill cemetery in Osceola, Iowa. They had six children.

1.13.1 Thelma Irene (1914-1983) was born October 18, 1914, in Clarke County, Iowa. She was a WAAC in World War II. She married first Harold Meadowcraft in 1944. She married second Ted Jozwiak. They had two children. She lastly married Lester Langlie. She retired from Boeing Aircraft shortly before her death.

1.13.2 Ernest Jr. (1916-1989) was born March 10, 1916, in Clarke County, Iowa and died July 15, 1989. Jr. served in World War II and later owned and operated a grain elevator in Osceola, Iowa. In December 1935 Jr. married Mildred McCarroll. Jr. and Mildred had one daughter. Jr. married second Daleth Chew. Jr. later married Mary Weston and they had a son.

1.13.3 Mary Evelyn (1918-) was born February 23, 1918, in Clarke County, Iowa. She married Irvin Erickson in October 1937. Mary taught school for many years. Mary and Irv Erickson lived in California for several years before moving to Des Moines. They had five children.

1.13.4 Maxine E. (1920-) was born January 1, 1920, in Clarke County, Iowa. She married Lyle Jr. Luce in 1940. She taught school for awhile and later worked in the meat department at Hy-Vee and Dahl's Food Stores. Jr. and Maxine Luce had three children.

1.13.5 Hubert Alden (1922-) was born October 9, 1922, in Clarke County, Iowa. He married Marian Stephenson in 1944. Hubert farmed and lives on his grandparents' (Adam and Ruth) farm in Ward township. Hubert and Marian Price had three daughters.

1.13.6 Robert Kenneth (1927-) was born July 21, 1927, in Clarke County, Iowa. Bob married Dolores Stark, and they had two children. Bob later married Gloria Vansice. Bob retired from Ace Trucking of Des Moines.

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