Charlotte, known to friends as 'Lottie,' was the third of 12 children born to Anna Clara Moel and James Frank Stochl. She was very close to her father who was a wealthy landowner, stock raiser and farmer in Johnson County and she performed bookkeeping work for him before she left home to be married.

She married Orville Norton Messenger (s/o Norton Henry Messenger and Clara Belle Allen) on January 10, 1917 in Wellman. Initially they lived in the Iowa towns of Wellman and Downey, but eventually moved to Newton in about 1920 when her husband found steady work there.

Charlotte bore four children in six years: Helen Janet [Mrs. G.K. Van Dyke], Marian Charlotte [Mrs. T. R. Smith], Maurice Orville [Geraldine Martha Keith], and Cyril James [Laura Louise Boyer]. This was in the years just before The Great Depression and they were very poor. Socially, times were difficult raising four children and the household was not a happy one, however Lottie was resilient, a wonderful mother and resourceful cook who cared for her children well. She always planted a garden and her children spoke of her cooking, and what it meant to them, for the rest of their lives.

Homelife was hard and her marriage very difficult. Eventually, when her youngest children were nearly grown, going against her family, her Catholic upbringing and social mores, she stood strong and divorced her abusive husband around 1936. Her eldest daughter was employed by a lawyer at that time and his office was the one who handled the situation for Lottie.

Lottie lived the rest of her life in Newton, delighting in the successes and achievements of her children and the satisfaction of the family growing to 11 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren in her lifetime. She was always especially proud of both of her sons who served with distinction and valor in World War II, saving their war-time letters and displaying their military books in her apartment.

She was an elegant and stylish woman who once had a 16-inch waist, a badge of honor in her day (see photo). She was also a warm and kind woman. In order to support herself after her divorce, she worked as a waitress at the Hotel Maytag Coffee Shop where she was on her feet all day. She never owned a car and did not drive but walked the few blocks to that job for many, many years.

Lottie saw her daughters quite often because they all lived in the same town but she was also able to travel to visit both of her sons, one in Toronto, one in Connecticut several times. Her daughters would take her to see her siblings who still lived in the Iowa City area from time-to-time. Her eldest daughter took her to church every Sunday and afterwards they often went out to Sunday dinner together.

Charlotte was superstitious about some things. A playful grandchild once teased her by opening an umbrella inside which upset her abit. When eating out and a waitress would pour coffee in her cup, she would grab a spoon to catch the bubbles before they reached the edge of the cup. Doing that and then swallowing them, meant she was going to get more money, (so she believed). At this writing, we cannot disagree. She was quite frugal, and when she died, she left a sum behind that surprised everyone.

Lottie lived a long life full of good times as well as not so good. Thankfully, she was reasonably healthy for most of it. She had a third floor apartment that was only accessed by stairs and she lived there till her death. She died peacefully in October, 1973, with family by her side, only about three weeks short of her 82nd birthday.

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When Charlotte died, she was cremated and at that time the State of Iowa did not return ashes to the family. In 2015, at the death of her eldest child, who had expressed the desire that she have a headstone, some of her grandchildren who agreed that she should definitely be remembered, dedicated a memorial stone which sits next to her daughter's stone in Newton Union Cemetery.