s/o Andrew Everman, Sr. & Nancy Wasson.

========== Text version of Attached Newspaper Article ============

Express Daily Iowegian; Centerville, Iowa; Friday March 1, 1991, page 8

IOWA LANDS ARE SETTLED

The year was 1845. Iowa had been opened to settlement two years carlier, and would not become a state for another year.

In this year, several families of "Hoosiers" from Putnam County, Ind., started a land voyage westward that would land most of them in Iowa.

Among that group were Michael Everman and wife, Abigail Lookabill, who were married in Indiana, Nov. 21, 1844. The first son, William Franklin, was born in Indiana.

The small group of migrants came as far as Agency City (now Agency) near Ottumwa. As winter was fast approaching, it was decided to spend the winter in the old garrison there.

The Everman family made the trip to Iowa in a cart with a box 3 1/2 feet by six feet, covered with bowed canvas. The cart contained not only the family, but provisions, cooking equipment and bedding.

In the spring, Michael, Abigail and their one child went westward into Monroe County, and settled six miles north of Albia on 40 acres of raw prairie. They built a log cabin and raised a fair crop of corn, with, as one source says: "an average of four rattlesnakes and six blue racers to the acre."

The small family did not have enough provisions on hand for their second winter in Iowa, so in the fall of 1846, went back to Indiana. In 1847, they returned to Monroe County, and in 1850, sold the farm there and came to Appanoose County.

This new farm was located about three miles north of Centerville, which was at that time a small town of only one store and a blacksmith shop.

After moving to the new farm, Michael erected a log cabin about 12 feet square. In constructing the new home, he set four posts in the ground, and placed poles over and all around, and covered the top and sides with prairie hay. By this time, the family had increased in size to five, and they lived in this small cabin until Michael could cut and hew logs to build a one-room cabin 16 feet square.

The family did not live in this new house the first season, but rented the land to another pioneer resident. They went back to Indiana in the fall of 1851, where Michael rented land from his father, Andrew, and raised a crop the season of 1852.

But the call of his Iowa land remained in Michael's mind, and the family came back to Appanoose County in the fall of 1852. When they arrived here they found their cabin much as they had left it, except ragweed in the dooryard was higher than the eaves of the house.

Shortly after their arrival back here, one of Michael's two horses was stolen, which presented a hardship in trying to raise a crop.

The next spring. 1853, he sold the 80 acre farm, bought another horse and had a few dollars left over. He rented a farm two and a half miles southeast of where the family had lived, in the forks of the Chariton River and Cooper Creek, and moved there.

In the fall of 1853, Michael bought another 40 acres of raw prairie land, built a cabin, and that winter moved into it.

In the fall of 1853, the eldest son, William Franklin, who was 10, was left in charge of the homeplace, with one wagon and one yoke of oxen to do the work. The father took the other two yoke of oxen and the larger wagon and went to Keokuk, a distance of some 100 miles, to haul goods to pay for that 40 acres.

In the year that followed, Michael broke prairie sod for his own farm, and for neighboring farmers. That winter, he took logs to a sawmill in preparation for building a frame home. By that time, the log cabin was disappearing from the scene, and residents of the area were, building frame houses. The Everman home was built between the river and creek, on a ridge known as "Tick Ridge."

In the spring of 1857, a carpenter was hired to build the new home. The land was rented out that year," and Michael and his oldest son broke sod for their neighbors.

In 1866, the family moved from Center township and purchased a farm in Walnut township, where Michael lived for the remainder of his life. He died May 11, 1881, and his wife, Abigail, died Dec. 3, 1877. Both are buried in Dale Cemetery.

This interesting picture of life in early Appanoose County is. contained in a book," Record of, Michael Everman of Germany," compiled by Irene Everman Haraldson. The book was printed in 1967, and was the result of some 10 years of research on the part of Haraldson, her husband and their son, who is confined to wheelchair after an attack of polio.

The seventh child of Michael and Abigail was Barton Stone Everman, who was born in this county in 1888. He received most of his education at the Holloway School near his home.

One summer, a young woman from Danville, Ill., came to this area to visit a sister, and the two met. The woman. Phoebe Melissa Lynch, returned home, but the friendship grew into a romance and they were married in Danville, Ill.

He served for several years as a member of the Appanoose County Board of Supervisors.

The children of Barton Stone Everman and Phoebe Melissa Lynch, all born in Appanoose County, were Stella Mac Everman, born June 14, 1887, married to Howard McNeff; Earnest Grant Everman, born Dec. 16, 1890, married to Bessie May Veach.

After the death of Phoebe in 1897, Barton was married to Lulu B. Greene. Their children were: Thelma Irene Everman, born May 31, 1899, married to Otto B. Haraldson; Florence Everman, born Sept. 17, 1902, married to Lester H. Koenitzer; Ruth Greene Everman, born Jan. 13, 1904, married to John Barr Greenfields; Harold Randall Everman, born July 7, 1907, graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1932, and was married to Kathryn Wagner.

The book quoted in this article is the property of Virginia Koestner of Centerville. She is the daughter of Earnest Grant Everman and his wife, Bessie May Veach.

Virginia was married to John Koestner, and their children are Cynthia (Cindy) and Kris. Other members of the Earnest Grant Everman-Bessie May Veach family are: Barton Eugene Everman, who lives in Creston; Patricia Ann Everman, born June 11, 1929, and died Dec. 2, 1932; and Nancy Carol Everman, married to Edward Blazina and living in Ottumwa. Nancy and Edward have five children: John Edward, Janice Marie, James Allen, Jerry Mathew and Joseph Michael.

Also in the possession of Virginia Koestner is another book, "Uncle Frank's Diary." It was written by William Franklin (Frank) Everman, the eldest son of Michael and Abigail.

The diary tells of his experiences in the Civil War, and of his journeys through the west after the war.

He was with Sherman's Army during the Civil War, and was captured near Atlanta. He was sent first to the infamous prison at Andersonville, and was transferred to the prison at Charleston, S.C. later. After two weeks there, he was taken to Florence, S.C. On Feb. 18, 1865, Frank and other prisoners were put aboard a train and started to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina. Near Wilmington, N.C., Frank and other prisoners escaped. As it turned out, it didn't make much difference, as the Yankees moved into Wilmington that night, and the rebel soldiers fled, leaving the prisoners behind.

After the close of the war, Frank spent several years in Wyoming Territory and other Western areas. The diary which he kept, covering these years, gives a graphic account of life in the west during the closing years of the 1800s.