Frederick Warner

Frederick Warner, third of the five children of John Warner and Marancy Alexander, was born about 1849 in Winslow, Stephenson County, IL. No precise birthdate has thus far turned up in family notes, and so the estimate comes from censuses and by splitting the interval between the births of his brothers John and Clifford. His name possibly was spelled without the “k” on the end, in the manner of his grandson Frederic R. Warner, but this is uncertain. Likewise, any middle name he might have had is not available. It is known he tended to go by Fred Warner in his adult life.

Fred was raised entirely in Winslow. While small, both his grandmothers, Lois Warner and Olive Alexander, dwelled in the household. This abundance of parental and grandparental presence vanished over the course of the 1850s, as Olive passed away in 1853, followed by father John in early 1858, and at some point Lois moved to the nearby home of her daughter Cynthia White Mack. By 1860 at the latest, Marancy was the only adult left in the household, and twelve-year-old John was working to try to support the family. It must have been an insecure period for Fred and his siblings, but they weathered through, no doubt helped in part by the nearby presence of their father’s half-siblings, Cynthia Mack and George C. White.

Also living nearby in Winslow was the household headed by Henry Shreckengost and his wife, the former Mary Ann Miller. They were from Pennsylvania, having moved to Illinois in 1850 or early 1851, shortly after the birth of their eldest child, Penina Jane Shreckengost. Their family was still growing at that point, and would reach seven children by the mid-1860s. Fred and Penina may have first encountered one another at school, but they probably met even earlier than that. John Warner, Sr., before his untimely death, had been a Winslow miller. Henry also worked as a miller, and it is quite possible he and John worked side by side at the same mill in the mid-1850s. If not, they certainly would have known each other as colleagues. In their teens, Fred and Penina became romantically involved, and married one another 7 March 1869, probably in Winslow.

The following February, Fred and Penina became parents of their first child, Edward Charles Warner. It is not quite clear whether they were still in Winslow when the baby arrived. The 1870 census, effective in June of that year, places them on a farm in West Point Township, Stephenson County, IL -- this is a census district immediately to the south and west of Winslow, and probably means they were residing on acreage near Lena, a village to which Henry and Mary Shreckengost had moved. This was also close to the home of Penina’s uncle Daniel Shreckengost and his family.

The Lena-area farm was a temporary haven. Fred and Penina left for Butler County, NE in the early 1870s. The documented Nebraska birthplace of second child Mary Lillian Warner establishes that this event occurred no later than 1872, because Lillian was born in the early autumn of that year. The big move was done in tandem with Henry and Mary Shreckengost, but it may have been the younger couple spurring the migration, as they were the ones needing to find a way to become “set” in life. They had ample reason to want to take advantage of the new opportunities that had arisen as the U.S. Army cleared away the remaining Indian tribes and the federal government declared the eastern portion of the territory of Nebraska available for homesteading. Both Fred’s name and Henry’s name appear on a list of original homesteaders of Butler County. They laid claim to adjoining acreage. The parcels they chose were in an area that would come to be known as Rising City because a large number of the local pioneers had the surname Rising.

The entire Henry Shreckengost family committed to making new homes in Butler County. Penina therefore did not have to endure a sudden parting from her birth kin. Fred, on the other hand, had to cope with a near-complete and “forevermore” separation from his mother and siblings, aside from visits, which were no certain thing in those days before paved roads and automobiles. The one exception was that his brother Clifford either came with him as part of the original 1872 migration, or joined him in 1873 or 1874. Clifford married Penina’s sister Ella Andora Shreckengost in 1875. As far as can be determined, Clifford and Ella spent the first five years of their union somewhere in Butler County, and probably in close proximity to their relatives, but in early 1880 they left in order to farm near the juncture of Greeley, Nance, and Boone Counties. Two of Fred’s other siblings -- youngest brother Charles and older sister Minta -- did spend decades residing in Nebraska, but they chose to live first in Washington County and then in Knox County, neither of which is near Butler County.

It was probably some time in the initial few years on the homestead that Penina gave birth to a third child. She and Fred are known to have lost a child, and this seems the most likely point. The baby probably perished at birth or in infancy -- this perhaps influenced the desire to attempt to have more children, or even made it physically difficult for Penina to do so. The couple’s last child, Frances Mildred Warner, would not be born until 1888.

Fred and Penina remained in Butler County at least until the late 1880s, long enough to welcome their baby Frances into the world. However, at some point no later than the early 1890s they moved on -- even though Penina’s parents and siblings stayed put. This probably occurred because farming had proved to be a marginal means of livelihood in that area. In coming to the prairie, settlers had gone beyond the fertile lands of the East and the zone of regular rains. A great many of the people who tied their destinies to the Great Plains during the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s found that after the sod was broken and the topsoil exposed to the wind, it was difficult for their crops to thrive. In her old age, Penina gave an example of how tough it was to get by. Lacking a ready supply of firewood, she would go out into the corn fields after the harvest and tie up bundles of stalks with string she had saved, in order to have fuel for the cooking stove.

Like so many of their peers Fred and Penina decided to try another place. They retreated back toward the east, ending up in Jackson Township, Sac County, IA. This brought them to “kinder, gentler” spot, the Raccoon River Valley -- often better known as Coon Valley -- with good soil, water from a major tributary of the Des Moines River, and ample woodlands. The family arrived in Jackson Township no later than 1894, because son Edward is known to have married his wife Maggie Judd that year. Not only did the wedding take place in Sac County, but Maggie was in fact a Sac County native that Edward would not have had an opportunity to become acquainted with until after his arrival. The following year’s state census includes all members of the family, including new daughter-in-law Maggie. In that record, Edward is listed as a farmer, but Fred had apparently decided he had had enough disappointment, and had gone on to become a carpenter.

After that 1895 document, Fred vanishes from public records. His fate is a mystery. The most likely explanation is that he died in the mid-to-late 1890s. If so, one would think his name would appear in a death index or a transcript of cemetery gravemarkers, but so far this is not the case. Family notes do not shine light on the matter. It may be that Fred and Penina separated or divorced, making him hard to track amid lots of other solo Fred Warners of that era. No gossip has survived referring to discord between the spouses, but it is a fact that in the late 1890s, the marriage of Fred’s brother Clifford and Penina’s sister Ella did fall apart back in Nebraska. It is tempting to think maybe this happened to Fred and Penina, too. All that is clear is that Penina and her girls moved away from Sac County by the end of the 1890s, and Fred was not with them.

Penina, Lillian, and Frances ended up in Cerro Gordo County by 1900. This is where Penina’s uncle Daniel Shreckengost had come after having spent the 1870s and at least part of the 1880s in northern Illinois. Daniel had died in 1893, but his widow Abiah Shreckengost lingered, along with a number of her children, first cousins to Penina. This must have been enough family presence to have lured Penina there. Why she did not stay with her son and his family is not clear. Perhaps she did not get along with her daughter-in-law, or perhaps Fred was still in Sac County and she wanted to be rid of him.

Penina and Frances -- as well as Fred -- have not been located in the 1900 census, which would serve as a vital clue to their story. But Abiah Zimmerman Shreckengost and her offspring do appear, and so does Lillian Warner, who by then was married to Perry Horton Jones, a dentist. All were living in Cerro Gordo County. Logic implies that Penina and Frances were somewhere in the county as well.

Penina’s precise locale becomes traceable again with the Iowa state census of 1905. By then, she and Frances were residing with, or right next door to, Lillian and her young family in Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo County. Penina was still there as of the 1910 federal census. While she was part of this home, Penina would have been able to help care for her grandson, Donovan Jones, freeing Lillian to assist at her husband’s office.

In the early 1910s, Lillian and Perry moved to Florida. Penina stayed in Iowa, becoming part of her younger daughter’s household. The 1920 census shows her as a widow residing with Frances and Frances’s first husband Carl Bowers. Their home was also in Cerro Gordo County, but in Mason City rather than Clear Lake, Mason City being where Abiah Shreckengost and her descendants were also to be found. As far as is known, Penina remained with Frances through her death, which occurred 20 September 1923.

In brief, here are descriptions of the lives of the children of Fred Warner and Penina Jane Shreckengost:

Edward Charles Warner (shown at left in 1934, at sixty-four years of age), born February 1870, was already a full adult when he reached Iowa with his parents, but apparently had not found a Butler County girl to be his wife. It does not seem to have taken him long after getting to Sac County to meet and woo Maggie Judd, five years his junior. Wed on Christmas Day, 1894, they lived at first in Sac County. By the end of the decade they had moved a few miles east into Calhoun County, and not long after shifted halfway back. This brought them back within Sac County, but into the more easterly part, putting them in Coon Valley Township rather Jackson Township. The changes of venue seem minor by 21st Century standards, but back in the days when automobiles were experimental and the locals all still used horses for transportation and plowing, moves such as those meant a new set of neighbors and new acreage to develop, and indicate Ed and Maggie had not found their preferred situation. A sign they might have been less than content with their financial circumstances is their hesitation to add to the family. Their daughter Ruth did not appear until early 1899. Son Frederic came along a couple of years later, but it was 1905 before the next child, George, was born -- this was ten years into the marriage. However, some of Ed and Maggie’s hesitation may also have stemmed from having lost their very first baby, a son, at birth.

In about 1906, Ed and Maggie moved to Stanley County, SD. They remained there until the early 1910s, during which time their next two children were born. No later than the end of 1912 they came back to their earlier stomping grounds in rural Coon Valley Township, Sac County, in the vicinity of the community of Wall Lake. They may or may not have come back to the parcel they had earlier cultivated. Here the last two of their children were born.

The seven children, not counting the lost baby, were Ruth, Frederic Ralph, George Edward, Ruby, John Henry, Imbert Michael, and Eugene Charles. Ruth chose to be a Sac City gal to the end of her days. And her days were long, as she passed away in 1995 at nearly ninety-six years of age. (Her daughter lived out her entire life in Sac City as well.) Almost all of the other Warner/Judd children -- certainly the five sons -- moved to Chippewa County, WI, where they lived variously in such places as Holcombe, Cornell, and Cadott. Most or all of these relocations occurred during the Great Depression. Once they were established, Chippewa County is where their homes remained, except that at least two -- John and Bert -- spent time elsewhere while serving in the military in World War II and in the Korean War, and Eugene eventually retired to Coronado, near San Diego, CA. The five sons passed away one by one from 1978 to 2005. What Ruby did during her lifetime is less clear. She passed away in August, 1960 at sixty-two; she was the only one of the family other than her unnamed stillborn brother to fail to reach at least seventy years of age.

As for Ed and Maggie, they finished out their lives in the Sac City area. Maggie passed away 17 October 1937, having seen a few of her sons already move away to Wisconsin. Ed survived her by nearly a decade, succumbing 2 May 1947. His body was placed beside that of Maggie at Cory Grove Cemetery, Sac County, IA. The graves of a number of their children can now be found there as well -- even though arranging this sometimes meant that remains had to be transported from Chippewa County.

Mary Lillian Warner, born September, 1872 in Nebraska (probably in Butler County), was known mostly by her middle name, and several sources list Lillian as her first name. (An example is the 1920 census.) For the most part, after adulthood she appears as Mary L. in formal public records. She shared much the same upbringing as her brother Edward, inasmuch as they were so close in age. She, too, moved to Iowa as a young woman with her parents, though she was old enough to have been married by then. After getting to Sac County she may have “gone off to find a husband.” The main reason to think that is that the husband she found does not seem to have ever been associated with Sac County. He was Perry Horton Jones, son of Murray P. Jones and Amelia Elna Horton. Perry had been born 21 November 1867 in Boston, Erie County, NY -- his grandfather Nathaniel Jones having been a pioneer of that community -- and had come with his parents and siblings to a farm near Allison, Butler County, IA (not to be confused with Butler County, NE) in 1879, where he had subsequently spent his teen years. He had attended dental school in Iowa City, and then married Lillian in Omaha, NE. So the question is, where might he have met Lillian? That answer is not known at this time. What is known is that after the wedding, which took place 12 October 1898, the couple settled in Clear Lake, and Perry established his dental practice.

Lillian came to the marriage as an “old maid” of twenty-six, but she was certainly still young enough to anticipate quite a number of pregnancies. Circumstances seemed ripe for the Joneses to have a big family. For a dozen to fifteen years in Clear Lake, and then another three-dozen and more years in Florida, they led a highly stable existence. Perry presumably enjoyed a reliable income as dentist -- he must have, as he maintained that profession until he retired in old age. (In Florida, he also farmed, but this no doubt means he had enough income from dentistry to buy a lot of land.) Moreoever, the spouses seemed to have been compatible -- their marriage was an until-death-parts-us sort of thing. And yet the couple’s one and only child was Donovan Warner Jones, who was born in Clear Lake 16 July 1900. It is likely that there were medical reasons why Lillian did not give birth again. The home was not as empty as it might have been, though, as Lillian’s sister Frances resided there until her marriage in late 1909, and mother Penina remained even longer.

By no later than 1914, Lillian and Perry moved to Alva, Lee County, FL. This relocation would by the mid-1920s lure Frances Warner, by then a widow, to join them. Lillian would have the comfort of her sister’s nearby presence until her dying day. Perry passed away in 1950, and Lillian followed in 1953. Donovan, who married multiple times, fathered at least two children. He spent portions of his life in Georgia and South Carolina, but ended up back in Florida. He passed away 10 December 1987 on Merritt Island, Brevard County, FL (where Cape Canaveral is located). At least one of his children is believed to still be alive.

Frances Mildred Warner was a later-in-life child. She was born 4 August 1888. Her marriage license states that her birth occurred in David City, Butler County, NE, but this may have been a short-hand way of describing the homestead in the Rising City area. Her mother was still in her thirties in 1888, but had not had a child since her early twenties. Frances married Carl Leroy Bowers. He had been born in 1886 in Hancock County, IA. He was a son of Charles Wesley Bowers and Ellie B. Mosier, and after the early death of his mother, had been partly raised by his grandparents in Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo County, which accounts for him meeting Frances. The wedding took place at the home of Perry and Lillian Jones 12 October 1909. By the time of the event, Carl had established himself as a bookkeeper for a grain and lumber company in Mason City. The couple immediately settled in Mason City, and appear to have spent the entirety of their somewhat brief marriage in that community, though they moved from house to house with some frequency. When Lillian and Perry moved to Alva, FL, Penina Warner moved in with Frances and Carl. Apparently Penina preferred to remain in Iowa than go all the way to Florida.

Carl Bowers died 7 October 1920. Three years later Frances lost her mother as well, leaving her on her own. Nevertheless she lingered in Iowa for a significiant interval -- the 1925 census shows her as a roomer in a large Mason City boarding house -- before joining Lillian and Perry. Once in Florida Frances met and married Kentucky-born John Davis Tandy, a descendant of Kentucky pioneers. The wedding occurred in 1927. She and John appear to have spent their whole married life in Alva, where John was a bookkeeper. (Frances must have found bookkeepers attractive.) For at least eight years the pair lived either right next door to the Joneses, or even shared a home with them. (The 1930 Federal census, and the 1935 Florida state census, list them as separate households, but their entries are consecutive.) By the late 1930s, Frances and John obtained a home of their own elsewhere in the neighborhood.

John passed away in 1950. Once Frances was deprived of her sister in 1953, she moved on to the Miami area -- it is quite possible she was looked after there by her nephew Donovan Jones. Frances expired in that locale 7 July 1956. Her name and death date are included on her first husband Carl Bowers’s grave at Clear Lake Cemetery in Cerro Gordo County, IA. This implies she is buried there. However, it could be her name was part of the marker when it was created in 1920, in anticipation of her joining him, and then the date was added thirty-six years later. Logic dictates that her actual mortal remains were interred in Florida, probably with those of John Tandy. This would make more sense, as by the time of her death, she had been married twice as many years to John as she had been to Carl.

The genealogical line established by Fred Warner is still modest in size. George Edward Warner fathered three children. Ruth Warner Gustafson had only one. Ed’s other four sons had none, and as of 1930, Ruby Warner had only had one. By that point, Donovan Jones had only sired two. Inasmuch as there is no indication Ruby or Donovan had more after 1930, it could be Fred Warner only had seven great-grandchildren -- even less than the number of his grandchildren, which already was somewhat low at eight. It is safe to say the total number of Fred’s descendants is still only in the dozens, rather than the multiple hundreds that make up the clans of his brothers John and Clifford. Happily, even today the line endures.

Some of Fred Warner’s descendants in 1934. The eldest individuals here are Edward Charles Warner and his wife Maggie Judd. On the left is Frances Warner Tandy. The other individuals are Ed and Maggie’s children Ruth, Ruby, Imbert, and Eugene and grandchildren Luanne Gustafson and Margie Wade.

To return to the Warner/Alexander Family main page, click here.