Family History Notes and Photos by Bob Mesenbrink

Growing up in Iowa, I was surprised to learn that I had g.g. grandparents who had lived in Colorado. So after moving to Colorado myself, I wanted to find out more about their lives in Colorado. Cyrus and Hannah (Dippery) Vangunda homesteaded near Ramah, Colorado in 1906. I found the paperwork, located the land, and I went to see what was there. Even when you can identify a plot of land on a map, it isn't always easy to find it from the road. And this was rural eastern Colorado which doesn't have many people. No doubt the homesteaders filled up the land well in that day, but this wasn't prime farm land and families couldn't make it on 160 acre farms. People moved away, as did Cyrus Vangunda. I wasn't even sure the roads were still passable. But they were. By carefully watching the map and monitoring the car's odometer I came to the place I thought would have belonged to Cyrus Vangunda, and the land further back, to his daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Norma

Einer was my stepfather, really more than that. He had a huge impact on my life. From left to right: Hans, Ingvert, Einer, Henry, Paul - taken about 1936. Einer, taken around 1940.Here are the five brothers, Back: Hans, Henry, Einer; Front: Ingvert, Paul; taken about 1946. Confirmation Class: Taken around 1945. Einer 2nd row, farthest right. Virginia Bisgard to his left. Einer, Graettinger High School Class of 1949. Einer with his parents, Otto and Bothilde Appel, taken around 1955. Appels at dinner table:Henry, Paul, Einer, Ingvert, Hans, Gwenna, Bothilda, and Otto - around 1950. Einer with niece, Kathy Appel, 1958. Einer married my mother, Dorothy Mesenbrink, in 1970. Einer had been a bachelor for quite some time. Here we are, a new family. Milking cows was an important part of farm life. When we got the pipeline in we didn't have to haul the milk to the cooler, and we could sell Grade A milk. This w

On November 26, 1857, Robert Squibb left his home south of Elvira, Iowa to go get married. He had been into Clinton the week before with his bride-to-be, Salucia Sophronia Clark, to get the license, and now he had the necessary paperwork. The crops were generally harvested by then, so he had some time off. November 26th was a Thursday, the fourth one of November in fact, but Thanksgiving hadn't yet been established as a national holiday. Robert Squibb just had to take his bride to the Justice-of-the-Peace for the ceremony. The JP was William W. Beatty, who lived just a few miles north. This 1865 map of a portion of Clinton county, Iowa shows where Robert's father's farm was, in the lower left, and the Justice-of-the-Peace in the upper right, just four or five miles away. You will also see, not far from the Squibbs, an A. Clark. Could it be that Salucia lived on the road to the JP? Is it possible that A. Clark was father or, at least, a relative of Salucia Cl