Alcenas Ward / Ann Eliza Dillon

INDEX

[167] Alcenas Ward once owned land in the S 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of Sec 8 Twp 8 No
Range 27 West in Wesley township. It may have joined the land owned by
by Arthur Ward. At any rate, that tract of land eventually became part of
the tract consisting of the entire W 1/2 of Section 8, Twp 96 N R 27 W all
owned by Arthur Ward, perhpas his original homestead.

[168] Click here for photo of Alcenas Ward.

[169] In 1869, Alcenas took up homestead land in Kossuth County,near Wesley, Ia,in
conjunction with his sons, William and Chandler and his sons-in-law, James H
Ford, William Pearson Giddings and Abner Joseph Flack. Alcenas and his wife
are buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Wesley, Iowa.

[170] Maria Scott Ward had a club hand, ie; no fingers, but only
stubs or buttons. Yet, she became an accomplished
seamstress and mother. She could manipulate the hand and
buttons to knit and sew and was a renowned seamstress. She
must have been a dynamic person from the descriptions others
gave of her years later. Maria visited her daughter
Charlotte Ford Simianer in the spring of 1913, at which time
she became ill, had an apparent cerebral hemhorrage, suffered
paralysis and passed away a few weeks later
The record shows that the Ford Brothers and William
Simianer purchased a burial plot in Grandview Cemetery where
she was buried. A hand carved granite stone marks her
grave. It was hauled out of the Rocky Mountains and hand
carved by William Simianer. Later the child of Roscoe and
Etta Welshans, Charlotte and William were all buried beside
her. (information provided by Carl Simianer grandson of
Maria Scott Ward).

[171] William Ward once owned 40 acres in the SE 1/4 of the NE 1/4 of Section 6
Township 96 North, Range 27 west - land that adjoined the 80 acres owned by
Wm P Giddings in the N 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of the same section . This may bave
been the land on which both Wm Ward & Giddings originally settled when they
came to Kossuth County, Iowa in 1869

[52] Click here for early Ward photo
Pictured left to right:
Minnie and Bertha Klamm, Charlotte Ward, Louise
Klamm(Mrs John Ward), Lizzie Ward, Elizabeth Ward, Chandler Ward. John Ward,
George Ward, and William Ward. Taken previous to death of Lizzie Ward in 1913
probably in 1910

[53] Click here for later Ward picture.
Pictured left to right:
Chandler Ward, Elizabeth Ward, Clarence
Ward, Josie Ward w/ Erma and Earl in front, next 3 unknown, Charlotte Ward, last person unknown.

[54] Click here for solo photo of Chandler Ward taken circa 1926
Click here for photo of Chandler and Arthur Ward(standing) and Wm Giddings

[55] Chandler Ward enlisted in the GAR at Wards Grove, Illinois in Company A,
145 Division of the Infantry in May 1864. He was Honorably Discharged in the
same year after having contracted typhoid fever.
Elizabeth Rachel (Clair) Ward was born in Kent Twp, Stephenson County,
Illinois, into a family of 3 girls and 2 boys. Her father died when she was
only a young girl.
About a year and a half after their marriage, in June 1969, Chandler
and Elizabeth Ward moved to Wesley, in Kossuth County, Iowa by ox cart. They
were accompanied by Chandler's father and mother and three sisters and their
husbands. This journey to Wesley, Iowa must have been completed by early
July of 1869 because on July 14, 1869, Charlotte Sophia Ward, the wife of
Abner Flack, gave birth to a daughter Hattie Henrietta Flack at Wesley, Iowa.
Charlotte Sophia (Ward) Flack was one of the sisters of Chandler Ward who
accompanied him and his wife to Wesley, Iowa.
According to their own verbal accounts they often had to cross streams or
other bodies of water on the way. On one occasion the water was deep enough
that their sack of potatoes floated out of the oxcart and had to be retrieved.
Chandler received grants of land both as a homesteader and as a US Army
veteran of the Civil War. The couple lived on that farm until their deaths.
Chandler Ward once related to his grandson (Clare E Wolf) that he once
had a team of oxen named Tom and Jerry. It is not unfair to speculate that
this was the ox team that brought Chandler and Elizabeth Ward to Iowa !
For more information on Chandler Ward, see Bernard Ward, the brother of
Alcenas Ward and Chandler Ward's uncle.

[172] Click here for photo of Chandler and Arthur Ward and Wm Giddings

[173] From the Obituary of Arthur Ward by Marie (Harris) Giddings:
The death of Arthur Ward Wesley township pioneer occurred
at his home in Algona on Tuesday morning at 2:30, following a
week's illness from complications developing from intestinal
flu. Deceased was 74 years of age. He was born at Ward's
Grove Illinois, in 1857, and came with his parents to Wesley
township at the age of 12. The family settled on the farm
now owned by L A Bolenus, in 1869. Before he had passed
his teens he purchased the 120 acre farm, which he yet
owned, now occupied by his son Walter, located just south of
Doan church. In 1877 he married to Miss Caroline Joslyn and
to this union four children were born. In 1893 he was
married to Miss Lizzie Falk who preceded him in deatdh 2
years ago. To this union six children were born. Ten
children survive him.
Arthur Ward was truly one of the builders of Wesley
township, and through the hardships of the early settlers he
struggled successfully, and was always considered an
honorable and upright man, proving this through his
everyday life as a man among men. In the year of 1917 he
gave up the hard work of the farm and moved the family to
Algona, where they have since made their home.
Funeral services will be held from the Wesley Methodist
church on Friday at 2:30 p.m. The funeral sermon will be
preached by the Rev H H White, a former pastor. Internment
will be made in Evergreen Cemetery in the family lot.
The following is quoted from B F Reed's "History of
Kossuth County" Vol II, p 534-5
Arthur Ward owns and cultivates an excellent farm of three
hundred and ten acres located in Wesley and Buffalo
Townships, and is numbered among the representative
agriculturists of his community. He was born in Jo Daviess
county, IL, on May 22, 1857, and is the son of Alsinus and Liza
(Dillon) Ward. The father was born in Vermont, but he
subsequently went to PA, and there he met and married the
mother, who was a native of Ireland, whence she emigrated to
the United States in girlhood. They resided in the Keystone
state until 1850, when they removed to Jo Daviess county,
IL., which was there home for nineteen years. In 1869 they
continued their journey westward to Kossuth county, making
the trip with a wagon and six yoke of oxen. They arrived
here on June 1, 1869, and the father filed on the north half
of the southwest quarter of Section 8, Wesley township, and
there resumed his agricultural pursuits. He built a slab
house with sod outside to insure warmth and a sod stable, on
which he subsequently placed a slough hay roof. Mr Ward cut
the hay for this purpose from his place with
a hand scythe, during the first year of his residence. As
his circumstances warranted he erected more comfortable and
modern buildings, continuing to devote his energies to the
further improvement and cultivation of his land until his
death in 1882. He was one of the enterprising and progressive
men of the pioneer period in Kossuth county, and took an
active and helpful interest in all things pertaining to the
development and welfare of his township. He was survived by
the mother who passed away in 1894, and was laid to rest in
the cemetery at Wesley, where the father is also buried.
Eleven children were born to Mr and Mrs Ward, our subject being
the youngest. In order of birth, the others are as follows:
William, deceased, Maria Ward, the wife of J H Ford, a
resident of Ottumwa, IA, Byron, deceased; two who died in
infancy, Liza, deceased, Chandler who resides in Wesley
township, Charlotte who is a resident of Idaho, Samuel,
deceased, and John, who is living in MN.

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