Strombotne / Specht

When her father died from wounds suffered during the Civil War, and then her mother from disease -- Josephine became an orphan at the age of 9. She was adopted by people named French who ran a boarding house.

Josephine separated from Grandfather Wesley and with their three youngest children - Orra Lee, John, and Charles - returned to Conrad, Iowa. Their oldest child, Walter, stayed with his father. Grandfather Wesley journeyed to Conrad in an effort to persuade Grandmother to return with him to their farm in Oregon, but she refused. It was on a Sunday and my mother, John, and Charles were in Sunday School. Grandmother would not tell Grandfather where they were. They divorced later.

I always considered Grandmother Ames an independent spirit. She divorced her husband which was a no-no in those days. She moved from Iowa to Pasadena, California, where she lived until she was persuaded she shouldn't be living alone away from family. She would never tell anyone how old she was and was reluctant even to tell her physician. When she was in her nineties, her picture was in the Oskaloosa newspaper saying she still walked up and down the 24 stairs several times a day in the nursing home where she was living. - Esther Strombotne