Farm Moving Time Again

John Kilmer had finally come home from overseas, from the army, to see again his wife — the former Hazel Price — and to see for the first time his one-year-old daughter, Juanita. By early January, the little family was together again on a farm in Iowa.

F.B. and Carrie Price, John's in-laws in Ainsworth, were making arrangements for him to earn his living much nearer their home. They rented "the George Hayward farm, on the Lincoln Highway," which, if it retained in 1920 its 1908 dimensions, was quite a spread. The plan was for John and Hazel Kilmer to begin farming that land in the spring.


(Click on image to enlarge)
The Hayward farm in 1908; just a stone's throw to the northeast, the land the Prices bought in 1918.

And so it was time for Charles Shults, the Hayward farm's current tenant, to move on. Which he did, eastward to what was still known as the "Springman farm," though by 1920 it may have been already owned by William Springman's son-in-law William Mankey.


The 113-acre Mankey farm as it appeared in 1926; outlined in red, the original Springman 40 acres (per the 1908 map).

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In other moving news, "Mrs. Gib Bullock" (the widowed Alice Estelle Markham Bullock was offering for sale her "frame barn on Center street." She didn't mention the land it stood on, so perhaps she expected the seller to pick it up and move it.


Sources:
♦ 1908 Plat Map.
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1926 Plat Book.
♦ "Additional Local News." Hobart Gazette 2 Jan. 1920.
♦ "All kinds of Wants." Hobart Gazette 9 Jan. 1920.

A Much-Needed Bundle of Joy

Into the home of the Price family, who were grieving the loss of their son and brother, James, came solace in the form of a baby girl.

The mother was Hazel Price Kilmer, Fremont and Carrie's eldest daughter. Hazel had married John Kilmer, probably sometime in the latter half of 1917 or early 1918. She was 20 years old, he 25. Apparently they were living in Montana — that was where he entered the army in the summer of 1918. Hazel went at first to stay with her in-laws in Iowa, and later came home to her own family. On December 30 she gave birth to this little girl who would be known as Juanita.

John was not there to celebrate the happy event, being still in France, but he would survive to see his daughter, and to father more children.


Sources:
♦ 1920 Census.
♦ 1930 Census.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 3 Jan. 1919.
♦ WWI Draft Cards.