Mary Anna Elmore

HARLAN DOW DEWEY and MARY ANNA ELMORE

by Twyla & Sam Harrison (descendant of Mary Anna Elmore)

Harlan Dow Dewey was born March 25, 1879, in Iowa. He was the first son of Cyrus Dewey and Rhoda Susanna Cleghorn. He was probably named for his father’s brother, Harlan, and his middle name, Dow, was frequently used in the Cleghorn family.

On September 10, 1899, when he was 20, Harlan married Mary Anna Elmore. Mary was born in Missouri September 26, 1881, to John Reuben Elmore and Columbia Anne Brown.

In 1900 (federal census) Harlan and Mary were living in Adair Township, Camden Co., Missouri. Harlan’s occupation was farmer and they lived on a rented farm next door to Mary’s parents. In 1910 (federal census), Harlan and Mary were at the same location living next to John and Columbia. Harlan was still listed as a farmer - now owning his farm. They had six children, five living. Iron Town (also referred to as the Osage Iron Works), the settlement where they lived, was eventually destroyed and was covered by the Lake of the Ozarks in the 1930s.

The following excerpts are taken from John’s Story, as told to his niece, Virginia Kilgore, in 1984. John Cyrus Dewey was Harlan and Mary’s first son.

“His family lived in Camden County in a little place called Iron Town. It wasn’t really a town, just a post office, a country store and a blacksmith shop. The family lived in a house built by his father on the top of a hill. The house set up off the ground two feet or so and air whistled through the floor boards and through the cracks in the walls. It was very cold and the only heat was the wood stove. His father was a hard worker who tried to farm the hill on which they lived. He was, however, not skilled at farming, and the crops were miserably poor. Water had to be portered up the hill, and rain washed the top soil down. He managed to grow some tomatoes and some cabbages. The family owned a cow that provided milk some part of the year. They had a horse and some pigs and chickens. Meals consisted of beans, salt pork, potatoes and cabbage. Dinner was usually flour and baking powder biscuits with gravy. During the winter there were no vegetables except cabbage which had been buried in the earth for storage.”

“Life was hard. Older children took care of younger children. The children ported water for the farm and tried to help with the work. Father worked as a blacksmith in town, but rarely brought home any money. They purchased only necessities such as flour, sugar, salt, and coffee. Occasionally they bought a small amount of cinnamon for something special. The family slept on mattresses made of straw and ticking. When they couldn’t get straw, they used corn husks. That made the mattresses lumpy but kept them warm. The mattresses were put on wooden beds. Father was a harsh disciplinarian using a stick to thrash a naughty child. Mother was a sweet woman overburdened by childbirth and keeping up the home.”

Mary Anna Elmore Dewey was 31 when she died from childbirth in November, 1911. Presumably, she is buried in Mose Clark Cemetery, Camden County, Missouri.

The time following Mary’s death was difficult. After awhile, the family moved to Osceola, Missouri, where Harlan’s parents lived. Harlan ran a blacksmith shop there for a couple of years. He then worked in the wheat harvest - he had the mechanical ability to keep the binder running.

Around late 1915, Harlan went to Sloan, Iowa and became a partner in a blacksmith shop. On April 12, 1916, he was married to Ollie Iris Veach, born May 23, 1888, in Missouri. Harlan’s and Mary’s children, who had been living with their Dewey grandparents in Osceola, joined him and Ollie in Sloan after their grandfather, Cyrus, drowned in the summer of 1916.

Harlan Dewey died in November, 1918, of Spanish Influenza. Reports of the date of his death range from November 4 to November 11; the cemetery record is November 8, 1918. He is buried in the Sloan Cemetery. Ollie Veach Dewey died January 30, 1941, in St. Clair Co., Missouri.

Harlan and (1) Mary Dewey had six children. In spite of their humble and difficult childhood, all the children graduated from high school, and two had advanced college degrees. They all became responsible and successful adults.

Anna Susan Dewey b. 1/26/1901 - d. 1/ 26/1954

John Cyrus Dewey b. 9/10/1902 - d. 1/ 26/1988

Alice Evelyn Dewey b. 8/7/1904 - d. 3/ 29/1984

Fredrick Adolphus Dewey b. 1/7/1906 - d. 2/4/1984

Erma Augusta Dewey b. 9/3/1907 - d. 5/ 29/1955

Inez Elizabeth Dewey b. 6/1/1910 - d. 7/4/1967

2 (perhaps 3) children died in infancy.

Harlan and (2) Ollie Dewey had one child:

Edith Irene Dewey b. 1/18/1918 - d. 5/1/1997

e-mail information to [email protected]

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