The earliest mention we have of our grandfather John Fegley is in the 1870 census for Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Post Office Elimsport.   John appears as the 3-year-old first child of Benjamin and Anna.   There was a bit more diversity in their neighbors’ occupations than we have seen for our other ancestors of this period.   His father Benjamin is shown as a blacksmith, and the neighbors were a farmer, shoemaker, dry goods dealer, wagon maker, another farmer, etc.

By 1880, the family had moved about 10 miles away in Turbot Township in Northumberland County.   But with father Benjamin’s many real estate transactions, it wasn’t long before they were back in the Elimsport area.

  John’s mother Annie died at about age 40 in South Williamsport, and there is conflicting information about what exactly took place in those years.   According to family lore, John’s mother died when she was young and the children had a cruel stepmother.   One story goes that she baked pies and cakes for her own son but John and Will never got a bite.   He and his brother left Pennsylvania as soon as they were old enough.   They never went back, even when their father was sick and wanted to see them before he died.   The brother, Will, settled in Illinois and John arrived in Iowa in about 1885.

There are several things wrong with this story.   John was already 20 years old when Annie died in 1888 and would have been in Iowa.   So maybe it’s just a matter of the 1885 date being incorrect.   But then his father didn’t marry Mary Love until 1895.   And we know John was in Tipton, Iowa by then because that is what he stated in a Quitclaim Deed dated in 1891 that he and sister Ella signed for some property that Benjamin had sold.   Annie was definitely Benjamin’s first wife because a later affidavit by second wife Mary said so.   So perhaps the story overall is basically correct but the details aren’t. One possibility: Was there a housekeeper with a son who lived at Benjamin’s home during the interim? Another statement attributed to John is that his grandfather came from Holland, but as we know, the census clearly shows that Charles was born in Pennsylvania.

John didn’t stay in Tipton long because he met Fanny Holan in Cedar Rapids and they were married in November of 1900.   In the 1915 state census, the family is shown in Cedar Rapids with all four children and living at 1520 N 6 Street.   John was an engineer, and had been unemployed for two months the previous year.   He had only an 8^th grade education.   He owned his home which had a value of $1,000.   Although we know that later they were members of the Methodist Church, this entry shows their church affiliation as Congregational. He could read and write and had been in Iowa for 30 years, additional proof that he did arrive in 1885 when he was about 18 years old and before Annie died.   We know that he became hard of hearing and it was thought it might be because of all the noises around the railroads.

Five years later the 1920 federal census shows him at that same address with an occupation of “_____ man in a railroad shop” (the first part of the word is not readable).   He owned his home at that time free of any mortgage.   Shortly after that, they moved just two doors down the street, to a larger house on the corner of 6^th street and O Avenue where they (or Fanny, at least) lived for the next 45 years.   Their daughter, our Aunt Helen, remembered how they first lived in a little two-story house two doors down from the corner house.   It was red and she remembers "painting" it with water for hours.   The house was somewhat below street level so she had a frozen place to play in winter and a pond in spring.   She made mud pies at the back door and concord grape vines ran all the way down the back walk.

Over the years, in addition to the railroad John seemed to have several different jobs.   He worked on the sand barges that plied the Cedar River and in the winter he would cut blocks of ice out of the river to sell.   This was before the modern refrigerator;   ice blocks were placed in the “ice box” in the home.

He developed pernicious anemia around 1930 and one of the treatments was eating raw liver.   (Injections of iron came later). Partly because of this he decided to retire and sometime after that Fanny started taking in men to start a nursing home which she maintained almost until the day she died.

In the 1938 Cedar Rapids Polk's City Directory, an entry shows “Fegley John W (Fannie M) h1526 6th NW.”   This is the address of the house on the corner.   He had a workshop that looked to be an addition to the main part of the cellar.   And in that room or a small extension of it, he brewed beer and root beer.   The aroma as one would enter that little room was an indescribable (and not entirely unpleasant) mixture of snuff, wood shavings, dusty tools, beer, root beer, and whatever exotic ingredients he used to brew his concoctions.

In his retirement his main hobby was his garden.   In good weather he could be seen in his little, faded-blue coupe either going to or coming from his garden.   It was located in a secluded, out of the way spot about 6 or 7 blocks from their house just off what was called Valley Street.

In the last years of his life he suffered a stroke which kept him confined to a chair in their home until he finally died in 1954.   He and Fanny are buried at Cedar Memorial Cemetery in Cedar Rapids.

Family of John Wesley Fegley

John Wesley Fegley born 4 Oct 1867 in Elimsport, PA, died Apr 1954 in Cedar Rapids, IA, married abt 23 Nov 1900 in Cedar Rapids to Frances M. Holan born 19 Feb 1878 in Chelsea, IA, died 12 Jun 1965 in Cedar Rapids, IA

Children:

1. Amber Lucile Fegley born 8 Oct 1901 in Cedar Rapids, IA, died 17 Jan 1964 in Cedar Rapids, married 19 Jun 1924 in Cedar Rapids to John Fredrick Hickman born 15 Nov 1903 in Cedar Rapids, died 2 Jun 1968 in Phoenix, AZ.

2. Maude Fegley born 19 Sep 1903 in Cedar Rapids, died 19 Feb 1982 in Phoenix, AZ, married abt 1933 to Henry Shotner; married abt 1945 to Ray Hackbarth

3. John A. Fegley born 11 May 1907 in Cedar Rapids, died May 1984 in Lexington, KY, married ____ ______ before 1940, married abt 1940 to Marjorie Slater, married abt 1945 to Lillie Mae Guyn born 5 Feb 1911, died Oct 1976 in Lexington, KY.

4. Helen Francis Fegley born 20 May 1910 in Cedar Rapids, died 26 Feb 2000 in Monterey, CA, married Randall Chapman who died before 1965 in California.