Bessie Mae King

  General Notes:

per Sharon Dodrer on www.rootsweb.com message board April 2001: " Bessie was born 14 May 1888 as Bessie Mae King. She married Edward Anson Straw who would have been her stepfather's brother. They divorced and she later married August Eiler. She had 3 daughters according to my grandmother,her half-sister: Hattie Mae,Thelma, and Rosena."
She was the stepdaughter of Israel Samuel Straw. Bessie divorced Anson Edward STRAW 29 April 1909

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa)08 May 1909, SatPage 1
"Bessie Straw is no longer the loving and dutiful wife of Anson Straw, this broken match being on the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment and desertion."

Found Newspaper clipping dated 28 Aug 1923 that states " Mrs. August Eiler of Red Oak [Montgomery County, Iowa] thought daughter Thelma Straw was dead; reunited after 14 years on 28 Aug 1923"
OMAHA WORLD HERALD -Omaha, Nebraska - 25 August 1923
GIRL 16, REPORTED DEAD, FINDS MOTHER
Red Oak Woman Says Husband Stealing Child At Age Of 2, Sent False Report.
END OF A LONG SEARCH
Red Oak Iowa - August 25 - Thelma Straw,16, appeared at the home of her mother, Mrs August Eiler, this week, after a separation of fourteen years, and having been reported dead. Mrs Eiler was prostrated and none who knows the story of her search for Thelma will wonder.
The mother married at fifteen at Gravity, Iowa to Anson Straw, half brother of her mother's husband, was abandoned in Colorado,soon after Thelma was born, she said, and returned to Gravity.
When Thelma was two years old , her mother went to South Dakota to care for a sick aunt, She returned to find Thelma missing. Her husband she says had taken her, She traced him and a niece who was with him caring for the baby to points in Northern Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Missouri, but always he had just moved on. In June 1913 the mother received a letter from Hinckley, Minn. from the niece staing Thelma had died of pneumonia and was buried at Hinckley. A letter from Straw to another relative told of Thelma's death. and the mother gave up her search. She obtained a divorce and later married August Eiler.
Thelma said her father moved from place to place as far back as she can remember. She was mistreated, she said, when she brought up the subject of her mother.
When she was fourteen and living at Carleton, IA, she was determined to run away. A neighbor woman gave her some money and a letter to the YWCA in Des Moines. A kindly woman in whose home she became a maid, helped her look for her mother. They planned to find her father and through him the whereabouts of her mother. Straw had moved again, this time to Arlsple, IA and Thelma went there. Straw had been living there and had just moved away and nobody knew where.
At Creston, IA Thelma told of her disappointed mission and by accident the mystery of her mother unfolded. Someone recalled that a man named Ira Straw lived at Afton. Called by telephone he went to Creston and told the girl he was her mother's husband's half brother, where her mother was living and that the girl had been mourned as dead. The next day Thelma came to Red Oak.

O'Dell's Abstracted Newspaper Index of Page and Taylor Counties, Iowa
S360 Straw, Bessie 16 of Grav(ity) wed Anson Straw 29. BTR & BFP 21 Apr 1904; S360 Straw, Anson - Bessie, div. BTR & BFP 29 Apr 1909

1915 Red Oak, Montgomery county, IA
Bessie Eiler age 26; married
Also in HH are her husband August and dau Rosena

Iowa State Census Collection, 1836-1925
census Date: 1 Jan 1925; Red Oak,Montgomery county, Iowa
Bessie Erlon [Bessie King] Birth Year: abt 1889 Birth Place;Missouri ; female; white; married Belford, Iowa
Spouse; August Eiler
Mother: Emma Gartrell born Iowa
Father: Will King born Missouri
Members of household:
August Eiler age 32
Bessie Eiler age 36
Resena Mary Eiler age 10

photo courtesy of T. Walden

obit Red Oak highlights 2 Feb 1949
Mrs Besise M. Eiler, 61, died Sunday at a Burlington hospital....burial in Evergreen Cemetery..born 10 May 1888 in St, Joseph, MO..reared at New Market and Gravity..after her marriage to August Eiler in Aug 1911 she lived in Red oak....survived by husband; one daughter Mrs C. E. Croson of Burlington; five half brothers: Jesse, William, Ben, Ira and Vernon Straw; five half sisters: Olive Straw, Ida Roberts; Mrs George Lackey; Mrs Dale Salisbury; Mrs Hugh N. Polson and Mrs Albert England and one grandaughter Sally Croson of Burlington

  Events

• Alt. Birth: Alt. Birth, 14 May 1888, Gravity, Taylor County, Iowa.

• Alt. Death: Alt. Death, 30 Jan 1949.

Bessie married August Earnst Eiler, son of John Eiler and Rosena Hoffman, in Aug 1911 in Bedford, Taylor County, Iowa. (August Earnst Eiler was born on 20 Nov 1892 in Iowa, died in 1955 in Morning Sun, Louisa County, Iowa and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Morning Sun, Louisa County, Iowa.)

Bessie next married James Edward Anson Straw, son of Cyrus Griffin Straw and Sarah Mae Stearns, on 21 Apr 1904 in Gravity, Taylor County, Iowa. The marriage ended in divorce on 29 Apr 1909. (James Edward Anson Straw was born in Jan 1874 in Glensdale, Vermont, died on 8 Feb 1961 in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa and was buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Davenport, Iowa.)

  Marriage Notes:

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