Narrative of Henry Bishop's life by his daughter, Carrie Bishop Culbert:
Henry Bishop was reared in a small village, Castle Creek, in New York State. His people were Baptist and he was brought up in the doctrines of that church. When he was four years old he remembers attending a temperance meeting and his mother guiding his hand while he signed the pledge. Singing schools were very popular in those days. Father said the young people of Castle Creek would go in loads sometimes driven by oxen to the City of Binghamton to School. Wm. Bradbury whose songs are in the church Hymnals [sic] would come out from New York City to teach singing by note. Henry Bishop, my father, had an unusually good voice. He and mother both sang in the choir when young. In those days, families in the country places did most everything for themselves. They raised sheep, carded and spun the wool from which they made their blankets, carpets, and clothing. They died [sic] the yarn, sent the cloth to fullers to make coats and fine broadcloth for mens [sic] suits. Then they raised flax from which they made fine linen. This was all hand work [sic] in the early eighties. The cellars were filled with winter vegetables and fruits especially apples for which New York State was famous. Henry Bishop worked on the farm, did carpenter work and made pieces of furniture. His older brother worked in a mill part of the time. Henry Bishop was married in 1861 to Ann M. Stevens of New York State. A son was born to them in New York State who later met an accidental death in Minneapolis. They moved to New Jersey where Carrie Bishop was born in 1865 at the end of the Civil War and Lewis D Bishop was born in 1870-Aug 12th. Three sisters (Margaret White, Martha Livermore and Abigail Bishop) and their families were close neighbors. Vineland was the name of the town. The place had been laid out into lots of about 5 acres each. Some families owned more. Father had more as he kept some cows. The soil was sandy and fruit raising was the principal industry. There was a brick kiln near. Our school house [sic] was made of brick and so was a fine Baptist church which father [Henry Bishop] helped to build. There were a number of negroes [sic] near the neighborhood so help was reasonable. We enjoyed going to the camp meetings. Every street was named after some fruit as people contracted to set out a certain kind along the road when they bought the land. There was a Pear St, Peach St. Our home was on Wheat Road. People made good improvements but the war made profits uncertain. People shipped their grapes to New York City in chests. Some times there was were no returns and even the chests were not returned. Strawberries often brought no returns. Everything in the business world was so independable[sic]. Grandma Bishop, Henry Bishop's mother, lived with us a part of the time and saw me into the world and died while sitting in her chair when I was but a few weeks old. Mother's brother, Urban, lost an arm in the Civil War. He suffered much as it was taken off first below the elbow, then above and last about as close to the shoulder as possible. This time the wound held. Of course medical aid was scarce in the war. He was very brave and conquered difficulties. He learned to write a free and easy hand with his left hand. He had a livery stable in Binghamton, could drive fast horses by putting the lines around his shoulder. He came to the West and bought horses for his stables. He had a wooden arm and wore kid gloves, was always well dressed and cheerful. That is why we named our second boy Urban and I think Ray's middle name is Urban. Urban received a pension which he invested in his business so he had some help. In later years he received $75.00 per month which we thought a great sum.
In 1873 Henry Bishop moved his family to Iowa. He traded his fruit farm for land in Chickasaw County four miles south of New Hampton. As he had a married sister in Anamasa [Catherine Bishop French], he moved there until a year and one half later he moved to his farm in Chickasaw County. There he rented an apartment until he with the help of his older son, George, put up a house with two rooms on the ground floor and two sleeping rooms above. The house was ready by Christmas time and the Bishop family with a neighbor's [sic] in whose home they had rooms had Christmas dinner together. Lewis Bishop, the younger son, was five years old the preceding August.
The country was new. We were wakened in the morning by the calling of the prairie chickens and often heard the call of the wolf. Henry Bishop and George went into the woods and grubed [sic] out stumps which was [sic] theirs for the labor of getting them our of the way. The house was not plastered until the following spring so a good fire was necessary. In the spring a summer kitchen was built on one side of the house. That spring several houses went up the same size and style of ours. The next summer there was school a mile and one quarter from our place to which George and Carrie attended. They went through fields that had tracks through the grass called cow pathes [sic] as the droves of animals had gone single file through the grass to water making a hard path. On each side the prairie flowers grew in such an abundance that one could not step outside without crushing then. They came in their season. First the wind flowers in early March, then spring beauties, dutchmans [sic] breeches, lady slippers, sweet williams, and a nameless variety. We went to school with arms laden, taking flowers to our teacher. There were some things we had to watch out for and that was [sic] snakes. There were a few rattlers and sometimes we would gather around them with long pole and strike at them until they were crushed their whole length. If any of the girls were alone they watched for them to get out of their way so they could go on their way. Their rattle usually warned us of their whereabouts. The woods were full of nuts. We usually gathered a quantity of hazelnuts and hickory nuts. There were raspberries, blackberries, cherries and plums so every one could put in a winter's supply.
When George became twenty, his father gave him his time so that he could go for himself. He farmed for awhile [sic] and later went to Minneapolis where he married. In 1898 a messenger brought him word that his wife was dying. He was hurrying through an open switch yard and was killed. He had no children. His body lies in the Nora Springs cemetery.
Lewis was nine years old when George left to work for himself as he said there wasn't land enough for two. there was just an eighty. Lewis did not like books or school and begged to help in the field so his father let him stay out a good deal summers. Unfortunately the teacher employed said she couldn't get along with black eyed children so father arranged to send him to an adjoining district. He was considered very nice looking and was popular with the young people. One fall and winter he went to school in Osage The next year he attended a seminary in Nora Springs, Iowa. It was called Prof. Colegroves [sic] Academy. In 1892 Henry Bishop sold his farm in Chickasaw County and moved to Nora Springs. Their daughter, Carrie, was teaching Cresco. Lewis was in Nora Springs and some old neighbors had moved there. There was a Baptist church there so they bought a home there and made new friends. (Father) Henry Bishop took his team and a cow and did work that he could get, worked his garden and helped his wife Ann who took boarders during the school year. Lewis staid [sic] at home and worked first in a furniture store and later in a lumber yard [sic]. Lewis married one of the young ladies, Myrtie Clark [sic], that [sic] had boarded there when she attended Colegroves [sic] school. Grandpa Bishop again did carpenter work and built the house that Lewis and Myrtie first lived in. Here Verna and Baby Henry were born. Grandpa and grandma helped care for the children and Myrtie who was not well after Baby Henry was born. Partly because their regular physician was out of town and the attending physician was indifferent to her needs. Lewis and his family moved to Terril Iowa. There Baby Henry sickened and died. The heart broken grandparents, Henry and his wife Ann, went to console the parents and assist at the last hour in laying Baby Henry in his last resting place. Carrie Culbert was Married [sic] in Jan. 1897 and soon there were grandchildren in the Culbert home in Kendallville. Grandma Bishop had already welcomed a grandchild, Lucile, into the world. Later there was Malcolm. The grandparents spent two months of the hard winter of 1901 with them in Kendallville helping care for the children10.
Grandma Bishop (Ann) was alway [sic] active. She arose early in the morning and in berry time picked the fruit before the birds. She had large quantities of fruit canned and kept her house in order doing the work herself with the help of her husband and when he was able and doing it alone when at one time he had a partial stroke. One day in October 1906 after a specially busy season and apparently in good health the thing that she thought would come and had prepared for came without warning, a stroke. (Mother's only sister, Ellen, dropped while out in the garden, a brother while driving had warning enough to call to a doctor on the street before he fell, unconscious.) Kind friends ministered to her. Lewis came from Terril. The daughter and two children – two being left with their grandmother – came to her bedside. She did not gain consciousness and lingered only a week. And then the home was broken up and Henry Bishop with a heavy heart went to live with his daughter and family in Kendallville. Here the children respected and loved him and he was always patient, loving and helpful, respected by the people of the church and community. He passed away peacefully in Aug 1914 and was buried in the cemetery beside his wife and son in Nora Springs.
Henry Bishop was reared in a small village, Castle Creek, in New York State. His people were Baptist and he was brought up in the doctrines of that church. When he was four years old he remembers attending a temperance meeting and his mother guiding his hand while he signed the pledge. Singing schools were very popular in those days. Father said the young people of Castle Creek would go in loads sometimes driven by oxen to the City of Binghamton to School. Wm. Bradbury whose songs are in the church Hymnals [sic] would come out from New York City to teach singing by note. Henry Bishop, my father, had an unusually good voice. He and mother both sang in the choir when young. In those days, families in the country places did most everything for themselves. They raised sheep, carded and spun the wool from which they made their blankets, carpets, and clothing. They died [sic] the yarn, sent the cloth to fullers to make coats and fine broadcloth for mens [sic] suits. Then they raised flax from which they made fine linen. This was all hand work [sic] in the early eighties. The cellars were filled with winter vegetables and fruits especially apples for which New York State was famous. Henry Bishop worked on the farm, did carpenter work and made pieces of furniture. His older brother worked in a mill part of the time. Henry Bishop was married in 1861 to Ann M. Stevens of New York State. A son was born to them in New York State who later met an accidental death in Minneapolis. They moved to New Jersey where Carrie Bishop was born in 1865 at the end of the Civil War and Lewis D Bishop was born in 1870-Aug 12th. Three sisters (Margaret White, Martha Livermore and Abigail Bishop) and their families were close neighbors. Vineland was the name of the town. The place had been laid out into lots of about 5 acres each. Some families owned more. Father had more as he kept some cows. The soil was sandy and fruit raising was the principal industry. There was a brick kiln near. Our school house [sic] was made of brick and so was a fine Baptist church which father [Henry Bishop] helped to build. There were a number of negroes [sic] near the neighborhood so help was reasonable. We enjoyed going to the camp meetings. Every street was named after some fruit as people contracted to set out a certain kind along the road when they bought the land. There was a Pear St, Peach St. Our home was on Wheat Road. People made good improvements but the war made profits uncertain. People shipped their grapes to New York City in chests. Some times there was were no returns and even the chests were not returned. Strawberries often brought no returns. Everything in the business world was so independable[sic]. Grandma Bishop, Henry Bishop's mother, lived with us a part of the time and saw me into the world and died while sitting in her chair when I was but a few weeks old. Mother's brother, Urban, lost an arm in the Civil War. He suffered much as it was taken off first below the elbow, then above and last about as close to the shoulder as possible. This time the wound held. Of course medical aid was scarce in the war. He was very brave and conquered difficulties. He learned to write a free and easy hand with his left hand. He had a livery stable in Binghamton, could drive fast horses by putting the lines around his shoulder. He came to the West and bought horses for his stables. He had a wooden arm and wore kid gloves, was always well dressed and cheerful. That is why we named our second boy Urban and I think Ray's middle name is Urban. Urban received a pension which he invested in his business so he had some help. In later years he received $75.00 per month which we thought a great sum.
In 1873 Henry Bishop moved his family to Iowa. He traded his fruit farm for land in Chickasaw County four miles south of New Hampton. As he had a married sister in Anamasa [Catherine Bishop French], he moved there until a year and one half later he moved to his farm in Chickasaw County. There he rented an apartment until he with the help of his older son, George, put up a house with two rooms on the ground floor and two sleeping rooms above. The house was ready by Christmas time and the Bishop family with a neighbor's [sic] in whose home they had rooms had Christmas dinner together. Lewis Bishop, the younger son, was five years old the preceding August.
The country was new. We were wakened in the morning by the calling of the prairie chickens and often heard the call of the wolf. Henry Bishop and George went into the woods and grubed [sic] out stumps which was [sic] theirs for the labor of getting them our of the way. The house was not plastered until the following spring so a good fire was necessary. In the spring a summer kitchen was built on one side of the house. That spring several houses went up the same size and style of ours. The next summer there was school a mile and one quarter from our place to which George and Carrie attended. They went through fields that had tracks through the grass called cow pathes [sic] as the droves of animals had gone single file through the grass to water making a hard path. On each side the prairie flowers grew in such an abundance that one could not step outside without crushing then. They came in their season. First the wind flowers in early March, then spring beauties, dutchmans [sic] breeches, lady slippers, sweet williams, and a nameless variety. We went to school with arms laden, taking flowers to our teacher. There were some things we had to watch out for and that was [sic] snakes. There were a few rattlers and sometimes we would gather around them with long pole and strike at them until they were crushed their whole length. If any of the girls were alone they watched for them to get out of their way so they could go on their way. Their rattle usually warned us of their whereabouts. The woods were full of nuts. We usually gathered a quantity of hazelnuts and hickory nuts. There were raspberries, blackberries, cherries and plums so every one could put in a winter's supply.
When George became twenty, his father gave him his time so that he could go for himself. He farmed for awhile [sic] and later went to Minneapolis where he married. In 1898 a messenger brought him word that his wife was dying. He was hurrying through an open switch yard and was killed. He had no children. His body lies in the Nora Springs cemetery.
Lewis was nine years old when George left to work for himself as he said there wasn't land enough for two. there was just an eighty. Lewis did not like books or school and begged to help in the field so his father let him stay out a good deal summers. Unfortunately the teacher employed said she couldn't get along with black eyed children so father arranged to send him to an adjoining district. He was considered very nice looking and was popular with the young people. One fall and winter he went to school in Osage The next year he attended a seminary in Nora Springs, Iowa. It was called Prof. Colegroves [sic] Academy. In 1892 Henry Bishop sold his farm in Chickasaw County and moved to Nora Springs. Their daughter, Carrie, was teaching Cresco. Lewis was in Nora Springs and some old neighbors had moved there. There was a Baptist church there so they bought a home there and made new friends. (Father) Henry Bishop took his team and a cow and did work that he could get, worked his garden and helped his wife Ann who took boarders during the school year. Lewis staid [sic] at home and worked first in a furniture store and later in a lumber yard [sic]. Lewis married one of the young ladies, Myrtie Clark [sic], that [sic] had boarded there when she attended Colegroves [sic] school. Grandpa Bishop again did carpenter work and built the house that Lewis and Myrtie first lived in. Here Verna and Baby Henry were born. Grandpa and grandma helped care for the children and Myrtie who was not well after Baby Henry was born. Partly because their regular physician was out of town and the attending physician was indifferent to her needs. Lewis and his family moved to Terril Iowa. There Baby Henry sickened and died. The heart broken grandparents, Henry and his wife Ann, went to console the parents and assist at the last hour in laying Baby Henry in his last resting place. Carrie Culbert was Married [sic] in Jan. 1897 and soon there were grandchildren in the Culbert home in Kendallville. Grandma Bishop had already welcomed a grandchild, Lucile, into the world. Later there was Malcolm. The grandparents spent two months of the hard winter of 1901 with them in Kendallville helping care for the children10.
Grandma Bishop (Ann) was alway [sic] active. She arose early in the morning and in berry time picked the fruit before the birds. She had large quantities of fruit canned and kept her house in order doing the work herself with the help of her husband and when he was able and doing it alone when at one time he had a partial stroke. One day in October 1906 after a specially busy season and apparently in good health the thing that she thought would come and had prepared for came without warning, a stroke. (Mother's only sister, Ellen, dropped while out in the garden, a brother while driving had warning enough to call to a doctor on the street before he fell, unconscious.) Kind friends ministered to her. Lewis came from Terril. The daughter and two children – two being left with their grandmother – came to her bedside. She did not gain consciousness and lingered only a week. And then the home was broken up and Henry Bishop with a heavy heart went to live with his daughter and family in Kendallville. Here the children respected and loved him and he was always patient, loving and helpful, respected by the people of the church and community. He passed away peacefully in Aug 1914 and was buried in the cemetery beside his wife and son in Nora Springs.
Narrative of Henry Bishop's life by his daughter, Carrie Bishop Culbert:
Henry Bishop was reared in a small village, Castle Creek, in New York State. His people were Baptist and he was brought up in the doctrines of that church. When he was four years old he remembers attending a temperance meeting and his mother guiding his hand while he signed the pledge. Singing schools were very popular in those days. Father said the young people of Castle Creek would go in loads sometimes driven by oxen to the City of Binghamton to School. Wm. Bradbury whose songs are in the church Hymnals [sic] would come out from New York City to teach singing by note. Henry Bishop, my father, had an unusually good voice. He and mother both sang in the choir when young. In those days, families in the country places did most everything for themselves. They raised sheep, carded and spun the wool from which they made their blankets, carpets, and clothing. They died [sic] the yarn, sent the cloth to fullers to make coats and fine broadcloth for mens [sic] suits. Then they raised flax from which they made fine linen. This was all hand work [sic] in the early eighties. The cellars were filled with winter vegetables and fruits especially apples for which New York State was famous. Henry Bishop worked on the farm, did carpenter work and made pieces of furniture. His older brother worked in a mill part of the time. Henry Bishop was married in 1861 to Ann M. Stevens of New York State. A son was born to them in New York State who later met an accidental death in Minneapolis. They moved to New Jersey where Carrie Bishop was born in 1865 at the end of the Civil War and Lewis D Bishop was born in 1870-Aug 12th. Three sisters (Margaret White, Martha Livermore and Abigail Bishop) and their families were close neighbors. Vineland was the name of the town. The place had been laid out into lots of about 5 acres each. Some families owned more. Father had more as he kept some cows. The soil was sandy and fruit raising was the principal industry. There was a brick kiln near. Our school house [sic] was made of brick and so was a fine Baptist church which father [Henry Bishop] helped to build. There were a number of negroes [sic] near the neighborhood so help was reasonable. We enjoyed going to the camp meetings. Every street was named after some fruit as people contracted to set out a certain kind along the road when they bought the land. There was a Pear St, Peach St. Our home was on Wheat Road. People made good improvements but the war made profits uncertain. People shipped their grapes to New York City in chests. Some times there was were no returns and even the chests were not returned. Strawberries often brought no returns. Everything in the business world was so independable[sic]. Grandma Bishop, Henry Bishop's mother, lived with us a part of the time and saw me into the world and died while sitting in her chair when I was but a few weeks old. Mother's brother, Urban, lost an arm in the Civil War. He suffered much as it was taken off first below the elbow, then above and last about as close to the shoulder as possible. This time the wound held. Of course medical aid was scarce in the war. He was very brave and conquered difficulties. He learned to write a free and easy hand with his left hand. He had a livery stable in Binghamton, could drive fast horses by putting the lines around his shoulder. He came to the West and bought horses for his stables. He had a wooden arm and wore kid gloves, was always well dressed and cheerful. That is why we named our second boy Urban and I think Ray's middle name is Urban. Urban received a pension which he invested in his business so he had some help. In later years he received $75.00 per month which we thought a great sum.
In 1873 Henry Bishop moved his family to Iowa. He traded his fruit farm for land in Chickasaw County four miles south of New Hampton. As he had a married sister in Anamasa [Catherine Bishop French], he moved there until a year and one half later he moved to his farm in Chickasaw County. There he rented an apartment until he with the help of his older son, George, put up a house with two rooms on the ground floor and two sleeping rooms above. The house was ready by Christmas time and the Bishop family with a neighbor's [sic] in whose home they had rooms had Christmas dinner together. Lewis Bishop, the younger son, was five years old the preceding August.
The country was new. We were wakened in the morning by the calling of the prairie chickens and often heard the call of the wolf. Henry Bishop and George went into the woods and grubed [sic] out stumps which was [sic] theirs for the labor of getting them our of the way. The house was not plastered until the following spring so a good fire was necessary. In the spring a summer kitchen was built on one side of the house. That spring several houses went up the same size and style of ours. The next summer there was school a mile and one quarter from our place to which George and Carrie attended. They went through fields that had tracks through the grass called cow pathes [sic] as the droves of animals had gone single file through the grass to water making a hard path. On each side the prairie flowers grew in such an abundance that one could not step outside without crushing then. They came in their season. First the wind flowers in early March, then spring beauties, dutchmans [sic] breeches, lady slippers, sweet williams, and a nameless variety. We went to school with arms laden, taking flowers to our teacher. There were some things we had to watch out for and that was [sic] snakes. There were a few rattlers and sometimes we would gather around them with long pole and strike at them until they were crushed their whole length. If any of the girls were alone they watched for them to get out of their way so they could go on their way. Their rattle usually warned us of their whereabouts. The woods were full of nuts. We usually gathered a quantity of hazelnuts and hickory nuts. There were raspberries, blackberries, cherries and plums so every one could put in a winter's supply.
When George became twenty, his father gave him his time so that he could go for himself. He farmed for awhile [sic] and later went to Minneapolis where he married. In 1898 a messenger brought him word that his wife was dying. He was hurrying through an open switch yard and was killed. He had no children. His body lies in the Nora Springs cemetery.
Lewis was nine years old when George left to work for himself as he said there wasn't land enough for two. there was just an eighty. Lewis did not like books or school and begged to help in the field so his father let him stay out a good deal summers. Unfortunately the teacher employed said she couldn't get along with black eyed children so father arranged to send him to an adjoining district. He was considered very nice looking and was popular with the young people. One fall and winter he went to school in Osage The next year he attended a seminary in Nora Springs, Iowa. It was called Prof. Colegroves [sic] Academy. In 1892 Henry Bishop sold his farm in Chickasaw County and moved to Nora Springs. Their daughter, Carrie, was teaching Cresco. Lewis was in Nora Springs and some old neighbors had moved there. There was a Baptist church there so they bought a home there and made new friends. (Father) Henry Bishop took his team and a cow and did work that he could get, worked his garden and helped his wife Ann who took boarders during the school year. Lewis staid [sic] at home and worked first in a furniture store and later in a lumber yard [sic]. Lewis married one of the young ladies, Myrtie Clark [sic], that [sic] had boarded there when she attended Colegroves [sic] school. Grandpa Bishop again did carpenter work and built the house that Lewis and Myrtie first lived in. Here Verna and Baby Henry were born. Grandpa and grandma helped care for the children and Myrtie who was not well after Baby Henry was born. Partly because their regular physician was out of town and the attending physician was indifferent to her needs. Lewis and his family moved to Terril Iowa. There Baby Henry sickened and died. The heart broken grandparents, Henry and his wife Ann, went to console the parents and assist at the last hour in laying Baby Henry in his last resting place. Carrie Culbert was Married [sic] in Jan. 1897 and soon there were grandchildren in the Culbert home in Kendallville. Grandma Bishop had already welcomed a grandchild, Lucile, into the world. Later there was Malcolm. The grandparents spent two months of the hard winter of 1901 with them in Kendallville helping care for the children10.
Grandma Bishop (Ann) was alway [sic] active. She arose early in the morning and in berry time picked the fruit before the birds. She had large quantities of fruit canned and kept her house in order doing the work herself with the help of her husband and when he was able and doing it alone when at one time he had a partial stroke. One day in October 1906 after a specially busy season and apparently in good health the thing that she thought would come and had prepared for came without warning, a stroke. (Mother's only sister, Ellen, dropped while out in the garden, a brother while driving had warning enough to call to a doctor on the street before he fell, unconscious.) Kind friends ministered to her. Lewis came from Terril. The daughter and two children – two being left with their grandmother – came to her bedside. She did not gain consciousness and lingered only a week. And then the home was broken up and Henry Bishop with a heavy heart went to live with his daughter and family in Kendallville. Here the children respected and loved him and he was always patient, loving and helpful, respected by the people of the church and community. He passed away peacefully in Aug 1914 and was buried in the cemetery beside his wife and son in Nora Springs.
Henry Bishop was reared in a small village, Castle Creek, in New York State. His people were Baptist and he was brought up in the doctrines of that church. When he was four years old he remembers attending a temperance meeting and his mother guiding his hand while he signed the pledge. Singing schools were very popular in those days. Father said the young people of Castle Creek would go in loads sometimes driven by oxen to the City of Binghamton to School. Wm. Bradbury whose songs are in the church Hymnals [sic] would come out from New York City to teach singing by note. Henry Bishop, my father, had an unusually good voice. He and mother both sang in the choir when young. In those days, families in the country places did most everything for themselves. They raised sheep, carded and spun the wool from which they made their blankets, carpets, and clothing. They died [sic] the yarn, sent the cloth to fullers to make coats and fine broadcloth for mens [sic] suits. Then they raised flax from which they made fine linen. This was all hand work [sic] in the early eighties. The cellars were filled with winter vegetables and fruits especially apples for which New York State was famous. Henry Bishop worked on the farm, did carpenter work and made pieces of furniture. His older brother worked in a mill part of the time. Henry Bishop was married in 1861 to Ann M. Stevens of New York State. A son was born to them in New York State who later met an accidental death in Minneapolis. They moved to New Jersey where Carrie Bishop was born in 1865 at the end of the Civil War and Lewis D Bishop was born in 1870-Aug 12th. Three sisters (Margaret White, Martha Livermore and Abigail Bishop) and their families were close neighbors. Vineland was the name of the town. The place had been laid out into lots of about 5 acres each. Some families owned more. Father had more as he kept some cows. The soil was sandy and fruit raising was the principal industry. There was a brick kiln near. Our school house [sic] was made of brick and so was a fine Baptist church which father [Henry Bishop] helped to build. There were a number of negroes [sic] near the neighborhood so help was reasonable. We enjoyed going to the camp meetings. Every street was named after some fruit as people contracted to set out a certain kind along the road when they bought the land. There was a Pear St, Peach St. Our home was on Wheat Road. People made good improvements but the war made profits uncertain. People shipped their grapes to New York City in chests. Some times there was were no returns and even the chests were not returned. Strawberries often brought no returns. Everything in the business world was so independable[sic]. Grandma Bishop, Henry Bishop's mother, lived with us a part of the time and saw me into the world and died while sitting in her chair when I was but a few weeks old. Mother's brother, Urban, lost an arm in the Civil War. He suffered much as it was taken off first below the elbow, then above and last about as close to the shoulder as possible. This time the wound held. Of course medical aid was scarce in the war. He was very brave and conquered difficulties. He learned to write a free and easy hand with his left hand. He had a livery stable in Binghamton, could drive fast horses by putting the lines around his shoulder. He came to the West and bought horses for his stables. He had a wooden arm and wore kid gloves, was always well dressed and cheerful. That is why we named our second boy Urban and I think Ray's middle name is Urban. Urban received a pension which he invested in his business so he had some help. In later years he received $75.00 per month which we thought a great sum.
In 1873 Henry Bishop moved his family to Iowa. He traded his fruit farm for land in Chickasaw County four miles south of New Hampton. As he had a married sister in Anamasa [Catherine Bishop French], he moved there until a year and one half later he moved to his farm in Chickasaw County. There he rented an apartment until he with the help of his older son, George, put up a house with two rooms on the ground floor and two sleeping rooms above. The house was ready by Christmas time and the Bishop family with a neighbor's [sic] in whose home they had rooms had Christmas dinner together. Lewis Bishop, the younger son, was five years old the preceding August.
The country was new. We were wakened in the morning by the calling of the prairie chickens and often heard the call of the wolf. Henry Bishop and George went into the woods and grubed [sic] out stumps which was [sic] theirs for the labor of getting them our of the way. The house was not plastered until the following spring so a good fire was necessary. In the spring a summer kitchen was built on one side of the house. That spring several houses went up the same size and style of ours. The next summer there was school a mile and one quarter from our place to which George and Carrie attended. They went through fields that had tracks through the grass called cow pathes [sic] as the droves of animals had gone single file through the grass to water making a hard path. On each side the prairie flowers grew in such an abundance that one could not step outside without crushing then. They came in their season. First the wind flowers in early March, then spring beauties, dutchmans [sic] breeches, lady slippers, sweet williams, and a nameless variety. We went to school with arms laden, taking flowers to our teacher. There were some things we had to watch out for and that was [sic] snakes. There were a few rattlers and sometimes we would gather around them with long pole and strike at them until they were crushed their whole length. If any of the girls were alone they watched for them to get out of their way so they could go on their way. Their rattle usually warned us of their whereabouts. The woods were full of nuts. We usually gathered a quantity of hazelnuts and hickory nuts. There were raspberries, blackberries, cherries and plums so every one could put in a winter's supply.
When George became twenty, his father gave him his time so that he could go for himself. He farmed for awhile [sic] and later went to Minneapolis where he married. In 1898 a messenger brought him word that his wife was dying. He was hurrying through an open switch yard and was killed. He had no children. His body lies in the Nora Springs cemetery.
Lewis was nine years old when George left to work for himself as he said there wasn't land enough for two. there was just an eighty. Lewis did not like books or school and begged to help in the field so his father let him stay out a good deal summers. Unfortunately the teacher employed said she couldn't get along with black eyed children so father arranged to send him to an adjoining district. He was considered very nice looking and was popular with the young people. One fall and winter he went to school in Osage The next year he attended a seminary in Nora Springs, Iowa. It was called Prof. Colegroves [sic] Academy. In 1892 Henry Bishop sold his farm in Chickasaw County and moved to Nora Springs. Their daughter, Carrie, was teaching Cresco. Lewis was in Nora Springs and some old neighbors had moved there. There was a Baptist church there so they bought a home there and made new friends. (Father) Henry Bishop took his team and a cow and did work that he could get, worked his garden and helped his wife Ann who took boarders during the school year. Lewis staid [sic] at home and worked first in a furniture store and later in a lumber yard [sic]. Lewis married one of the young ladies, Myrtie Clark [sic], that [sic] had boarded there when she attended Colegroves [sic] school. Grandpa Bishop again did carpenter work and built the house that Lewis and Myrtie first lived in. Here Verna and Baby Henry were born. Grandpa and grandma helped care for the children and Myrtie who was not well after Baby Henry was born. Partly because their regular physician was out of town and the attending physician was indifferent to her needs. Lewis and his family moved to Terril Iowa. There Baby Henry sickened and died. The heart broken grandparents, Henry and his wife Ann, went to console the parents and assist at the last hour in laying Baby Henry in his last resting place. Carrie Culbert was Married [sic] in Jan. 1897 and soon there were grandchildren in the Culbert home in Kendallville. Grandma Bishop had already welcomed a grandchild, Lucile, into the world. Later there was Malcolm. The grandparents spent two months of the hard winter of 1901 with them in Kendallville helping care for the children10.
Grandma Bishop (Ann) was alway [sic] active. She arose early in the morning and in berry time picked the fruit before the birds. She had large quantities of fruit canned and kept her house in order doing the work herself with the help of her husband and when he was able and doing it alone when at one time he had a partial stroke. One day in October 1906 after a specially busy season and apparently in good health the thing that she thought would come and had prepared for came without warning, a stroke. (Mother's only sister, Ellen, dropped while out in the garden, a brother while driving had warning enough to call to a doctor on the street before he fell, unconscious.) Kind friends ministered to her. Lewis came from Terril. The daughter and two children – two being left with their grandmother – came to her bedside. She did not gain consciousness and lingered only a week. And then the home was broken up and Henry Bishop with a heavy heart went to live with his daughter and family in Kendallville. Here the children respected and loved him and he was always patient, loving and helpful, respected by the people of the church and community. He passed away peacefully in Aug 1914 and was buried in the cemetery beside his wife and son in Nora Springs.
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