| Notes |
- The following is a letter that was written by John Storm's daughter on the occasion of John's 91st birthday. It was sent to members of my branch of the Storm Family, but I am unsure who else received it. That is why I feel it is important to have it published on John's Find A Grave page--so this information is not lost. I hope you enjoy reading it.--The best,--William Dodd Brown.
The letter begins:
John Storm, resident Lone Tree, Iowa on July 4th [1933] rounded out four score ten and one years. He was the son of Jake and Hannah (Keane) Storm, of Dutch [i.e. German] ancestry..
[Remembering his old home] Father often related how proud his own mother was of their first stove. Leading up to the loft on the outside was a ladder. As boys, when going to bed, they had to go outside in the snow and climb up the ladder to their beds. They always slept between feather beds to keep warm.
There [in Ross County, Ohio] father attended school, the school house was built of logs with dirt floors. The benches were hewn of timber, the window was covered with paper. Often in the cold weather they would freeze out and would have to go home. The school session was only for three months in the winter. The teacher was paid in produce by the patrons, his mother paying hers with dried apples.
When Father was 8 years old, he used to ride on one horse and lead another around and around over the grain to thrash it. Some of the amusements of their time were spinning parties, quilting bees, husking bees, wood chopping and log rolling bees.
One of the favorite stories of the [Civil] war we used to like for Father to tell, was when the Morgan raiders came near the Ohio border and how he, being too young to go to war, went with the volunteers, to guard against the raiders.
I might go on thus with snatches of the sturdy pioneer life of Father's ninety-one years. His has been a life of peace and patience. His motto: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
My sister, Mrs. Nettie Storm Nichols and myself are only the second generation since our grandmother's birth in [1810]. We both would be happy if no greater favor would be granted from our God than to be privileged to attain Father's 91 years and to retain the mental, moral and physical precepts of life which he has. Thus, I am very happy to have contributed these few memories of my Father.
-From a letter written by Mrs. J. A. (Gertrude "Georgia" Dale Storm) Gunderson, July 4, 1933.
In another part of her letter, Mrs. Gunderson added the following: "Father, John Storm, married in the year 1881 [on March 8]. He brought his bride to [Johnson] County. He bought a one hundred and sixty acre farm located in the extreme southeast corner adjacent to Muscatine and Louisa Counties. He remained there until the year 1910 when he moved to present home at Lone Tree, Iowa. After the tragic death of my brother Frank in 1916 [he was struck by lightning on July 14], he sold the farm."
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1842 - 1944 (102 years)
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