Timothy Maltby Parrish Family History

Written by Donald Maltby Parrish on 10 February 1988

My Parents

Timothy Maltby Parrish was born March 26, 1884 the third son of Ralph Robinson Parrish and Ella Plaisted Parrish. Ella was the widow of Bemis Maltby and had one son, Fred. The place of birth was a farmhouse west of Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, Lima Township, Sheboygan County. The farm at the time of birth was in Town Lima as townships are called towns in Wisconsin. The farm is located south and east of Plymouth on route 28 on the south side of the road at the junction of Town Line Road. The Dye Road Graded School (the old Parrish school) is at the junction of County Road M and Route 28 a short distance east. The Farmin Cemetery is located a short distance away on Route 28. This is where most of the Parrishes are buried.

Minnie Edmiston Young was born May 23, 1884 in Emmetsburg, Iowa. She was the second child and daughter of Thomas Young and Mary Struthers. They were immigrants from Scotland who became U.S. citizens February 1, 1889. They had seven children, five daughters and two sons. She was born at the Young residence 1307 State St. in the west part of Emmetsburg just north of the town water pumping station. They are still using this pumping station, but it had not been erected when my mother was born. The old house has been remodeled so there is not much left of the original. Thomas Young owned one city block and his house was the only one on the property. He had a barn and a chicken house and later plenty of beehives.

The high schools had a course called “Normal Training” that trained teachers for the country schools and Minnie took this course. It was still offered in 1932 as I took the normal training English class in my senior year in high school. Every township had a country school for grades through the eighth. For high school if you wanted to continue you went to a school in town. Minnie taught in the country schools and then progressed to schools in small towns. She ended up teaching sixth grade in the Emmetsburg schools. She continued to teach until she got married. Mother always addressed people by their last name, even life long friends though life and faithfully recorded all important dates in a notebook. None of the diaries have survived but I do have one of her notebooks. Timothy worked on the farm and at various jobs in Wisconsin until about 1905. His oldest brother, John, moved to Emmetsburg from Wisconsin. Timothy came to Emmetsburg probably at the request of his brother who was foreman at the Shadboldt Lumber Co. Timothy was also employed at the same company as yardman when he met Minnie Young. Probably in late 1909 or early 1910 he got a job at the Hart-Parr Gas Engine Company in Charles city, Iowa.

They were married at the Young family home with only a few close friends present on June 22, 1910. The marriage took place at 3:00 0’clock in the afternoon and they left that evening by auto for Charles City. They had previously rented a house at 402 Third Avenue. Their first son William John was born at 10 p. m. on Friday November 18, 1910 and he weighed about 7 pounds (apparently no scales were available). Shortly thereafter they signed a contract to have a house built at 511 Third Ave. They moved into this house in the first part of July 1911. Third Avenue was the first street in a residential area to be paved in Charles City. This was in the early twenties. Most city streets were unpaved at that time.

The next son, Donald Maltby, was born here at 4 a. m. Tuesday, September 8, 1914 and weighed about 8 pounds. Kenneth Ralph was born at 11 a. m. Wednesday, November 1, 1916 and weighed about 7 pounds. Charles Herbert was born here also at 11:45 p.m., Friday, November 29, 1918 and weighed about 7 plus pounds. This was only a couple weeks after the Armistice of World War I.

My Father

During World War I Timothy, everybody called him Tom (a few relatives called him Maltby) was an assistant foreman and later foreman of the Hart-Parr steel foundry where they operated an open hearth furnace to make steel. About 1923 the company shut down the steel making operation and I think my dad was laid off. He purchased a partnership in a welding firm in Mason City, Iowa. On December 17, 1925 he sold out and started back to work at Hart-Parr on December 22, 1925. Hart and Parr invented and manufactured the first farm tractor and was Charles city’s biggest employer. Hart lived up the street on Third Avenue in a big estate, but moved away about the time I was born so I never knew him. Charlie Parr was my Sunday school teacher for a number of years so I knew him and his children real well. Oliver Farm Equipment Company purchased Hart-Parr about this time (1930). Tom worked in the Newport Heating Boiler division of Oliver. This was an automatic heating boiler that burned anthracite coal and would run for several weeks without attention. Oliver sold this division and closed down the whole tractor factory in 1931. The last trainload of tractors was shipped to Russia and the plant closed the next day. I don’t have a record of the exact date this happened. The ironic thing about the closing is they were working overtime just before it happened. This was in the depth of the great depression and the plant closing brought the depression to Charles City.

There were no jobs to be had and things were really tough. My dad was on a committee of prominent citizens that traveled around to various towns to get ideas on what might be done to help the unemployment situation, but they were not successful. Tom decided after trying a few part time jobs to go farming. He made several trips to Missouri and picked out several farms he liked. Mother balked, as she was not going to move to a farm without electricity and indoor plumbing or running water. This ended the farming episode. Dad got a job as custodian of Lincoln School, a grade school, in 1933 and stayed there until he retired in 1951. The school was only a block from our house and it is still being used. All the Parrish kids went to school there. There were about 375 pupils in the school and every Christmas by dad got 375 cards and presents. He was always fixing the kids bikes for free whenever they would bring them to the house. Nobody before, and I would be since, kept that schoolhouse as clean as my dad. I had to clean it during one of my college Christmas vacations when my dad was sick. The first thing he did when he go out of bed was to inspect by work to see if it was done right. Thankfully, it was.

Tom liked only to work and didn’t have a hobby. He belonged to the Masonic Lodge and in later years was active in the Congregational Church. Mother was always active in the church. Both joined the Eastern Star in February of 1921 and were active for years. Dad was active in the Lodge all his adult life and held several posts in various lodges. Mother had her birthday club and the card playing club until she sold the house in 1965. The card club started out playing “500” and then changed to contract bridge when it became popular. In later years mother belonged to a pinochle club also. When the clubs started all the ladies were young and as people died or moved away others replaced them so the clubs were self-perpetuating.

In 1920 dad purchased a new Chevy touring car and drove it home on a Sunday morning. We were all surprised because my mother didn’t know he was going to buy a car. I don’t think we had a car before that, but dad had a car before they were married. The car really changed the life style around our house. When dad was in Mason City mother drove us over there just about every Saturday to pick dad up. We four boys went to the “talkies” as the new motion pictures were called while mother shopped. When dad was through work, we came home. During the summer and fall on Sunday we took trips to some of the scenic sights in Iowa and had a picnic lunch and supper. There were plenty of things to see in northern Iowa at that time and still are. We all had a good time, but as we got older we didn’t want to go as we had other interests. About 1925 dad bought a second hard 1924 Dodge Hi-Boy, which was one of the first enclosed cars. Iowa was coming out of the mud in the 20’s and the roads were getting better all the time and so were the tires. It became a lot easier, faster and more comfortable to get around. I don’t think driver’s licenses were required until the late thirties. We all drove the car as soon as we were big enough to see over the steering wheel.

Snow Storm

I remember one trip we made to Emmetsburg during Easter vacation (April 1926) from school. The night before we left it snowed 4 inches or so. We stopped at Lizzie Cullen’s, mother’s life long friend, about 4 miles east of Emmetsburg to eat a chicken dinner. During dinner the wind stared to blow and the snow started to drift. It had been a warm spring so the highway department had taken down the snow fences. We drove about thirty miles to near Sexton before we got stuck in the snow. The car stopped right in front of a farmers drive. As far as you could see cars ahead of us were stuck. The wind was really blowing and it was getting dark when the farmer came out with a team of horses and pulled us into the farmyard, which was one big snowdrift. The farmer had just gotten married that morning and someone had given him this team and harness as a wedding present. Others had left a side of bacon and a sack of potatoes on the back porch. We were the first ones to arrive and got the only bed in the house. To make a long story short: 35 people slept there that night and they all left in the morning by walking down the railroad track. All the snow was on the road and the fields were practically bare and the railroad was almost bare. We four boys slept in one bed with one blanket and was it cold. We had to go out and chop wood t keep a fire going in the kitchen stove, the only heat in the house. The menu consisted of potatoes and bacon and as there were only a few plates, eating was quite a chore.

On the third day William, my oldest brother, then about 15 walked the railroad track to Sexton and got on the train and went to Charles City to let my dad know where we were. On the morning of the fourth day the snowplow went through and cleared the road in front of the farm and we decided to leave. Most of the trip to Mason City was made through the fields as the highway department had taken down the fences so cars could drive. In the cuts in the road the snow had filled them so some drifts were 25 feet deep with cars and buses buried in them. It was a week before they got the road cleared. It warmed up and the fields turned to mud the next day, so traffic was at a stand still again. We were luck to have left when we did. This was one of the worst spring storms in history, but Charles City didn’t get any snow. I have never card too much for bacon since. I also hope I never get that cold again. We used to stop and see this farmer every time we went by on the way to Emmetsburg and became great friends of the family. The last I knew they had eight children.

Depression Years

My parents were frugal people and everything was owned free and clear. The house had a small mortgage, but this was soon paid off. My dad never made big money but my mother could stretch a nickel further then anyone I knew. We always had plenty to eat and all the clothes we needed not what we thought we needed. As we boys got older we carried papers and did odd jobs, which helped out. During the summer I pulled weeds, helped cull chickens and caddied at the golf course. The others had jobs too. I might mention that most of the Youngs had a hearing problem and the men on the Parrish side of the family were bald headed at an early age. My dad was bald as long as I can remember.

On the night of March 25, 1931, the high school building caught on fire. This was some fire and burned for most of the next day. I was a at meeting in a basement room the night the fire started and when I turned the lights out to leave the switch was so hot you could hardly touch it. The fire started in this area and whether the switch caused it no one will ever know. The old knitting mill building down town on North Main Street was partitioned off into classrooms and was used as a school for the rest of the year and all the next year, my senior year. Our class was supposed to graduate in the new high school building that was under construction, but it was not finished in time. Our diplomas have a picture of the new building, but the actual exercises were held in the gym of the manual arts building. This building has been leveled and no loner exists. In later years another high school was built on the east side of town on land we use to hunt on when I was a boy.

After all of us graduated from high school the folks had more time to travel around and enjoy life. The depression was getting better and people had a little more money. I started college in 1931 and Kenneth started in 1934. William and Charles did not attend college. Bill took a correspondence course in accounting and followed this line of work all his adult life. I worked in the engineering department of the Des Moines Electric Light Company after I graduated March 20, 1937 from Iowa State College. Kenneth graduated June 19, 1938 from the University of Iowa and came to Des Moines and started selling life insurance. After about a year he moved back to Charles City, but was not too successful selling insurance.

William was married to Helen Casey in the Rectory of the Catholic Church in Lawler, Iowa on September 16, 1935. This union produced four daughters and one son. World War II was rapidly approaching, but nobody knew it. I got married to Herdis Anderson at the St. John’s Lutheran Church in Des Moines, Iowa on July 3, 1940. We produced two sons. I was ordered to active duty on May 10, 1941 as a First Lieutenant. Charles had already been drafted on March 17th. Kenneth was drafted a year later. I was at sea with the troops on December 7, 1941 and arrived in Panama the next day. After two years in Panama I was transferred to the staff of the chief Signal Officer, Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia. Arlington County is called Arlington and is next door to Washington, D.C.

Charles Herbert Parrish

Charles, we all called him Chuddy or Chud, was killed by a bomb in New Guinea on March 11, 1943. Chud was driving a truck and had parked it in a grove of trees when the bomb hit them and killed 35 soldiers. This was the last plane of the raid and he missed his target. Chud was first buried in a cemetery at Finschhaben about 50 miles north of Port Moresby. A friend of mine that worked with me in Des Moines was camped near this cemetery and went over and took a picture of Chud’s grave and sent it to me. His grave was near the entrance though he was buried in plot 1697. To the best of my knowledge, this picture and the letters from the Chaplain and others have been lost. However, I do have a picture of the cemetery entrance. After the war the body was moved to Fort McKinley, Manila, Philippine Islands. He is buried in Plot F, Row 15, Grave 24. I have the flag that covered the coffin.

The last time I saw Chud was in August of 1941 in Prescott, Arkansas during maneuvers. Andy, my wife, came down for a visit and we just happened to see Chud. I have a picture of him at that time. Chud was on the convoy that passed through the Panama Canal in January of 1942. I saw the ships as it took several days for them to pass through the canal, but of course I didn’t see Chud though I knew he was on one of them. This convoy was joined by a convoy coming down the west coast making it the biggest convoy ever assembled, I think. This was the first big support General MacArthur received. The convoy went to Australia and mother received several letters from Chud while he was in Australia and I received several letters from Chud while he was in Australia and I have a copy of one of them. Before the war Chud worked at Oliver, but just what he did I never knew. It might help to point out that I left Charles city in June of 1932 and have only been back for short visits since. Lots of incidents happened that I’m not aware of and people forgot to tell me when I did visit. The folks had their headstone already installed in the cemetery so my dad had a fitting epitaph engraved on the rear of the stone for Chud. My mother took Chud’s death real hard and it would have really upset her if the body had been sent back after the war. She was in no condition to be stressed. I for one prevailed on her and I’m sure some of the others did too, to have the body buried in the Philippines where it will be cared for as long as this nation lasts. Chud was never married so left no issue.

Parents Death

My dad took sick and was in the hospital when I visited him in 1957. From my conversation with the doctors there was not much wrong with him that they could determine. He died a week later on May 29, 1957. Kenneth got a hold of me in Taos, New Mexico to give me the news, but I didn’t return for the funeral. Personally, I think he had a mini-stroke as he lost all interest in everything. He had had a mild heart condition for years but cerebral hemorrhage was the final cause of death.

By 1965, mother could no longer keep the house up so she sold it and moved into the Starr Home on Third Avenue only a few blocks west of our house. She was there about a year when she got sick. Andy and I visited her in the hospital and she seemed to be doing fine. At the Starr home you have to be able to take care of yourself, as they had no nursing care. Kenneth took mother from the hospital and put her into the Chautauqua Guest Home, which was a nursing home. A week later she had a heart attack (coronary thrombosis) and died while Kenneth had gone to get some supper. This was July 5, 1967. The old Starr Home has been torn down and a new building erected on the same site. My mother always thought her name was Marion, but she used Minnie all her life. After Chud’s death she needed a birth certificate in order to collect Chud’s insurance and that is when she found out her real name was Minnie. Her grandmother’s maiden name in Scotland was Marion Edmiston and I think that is where the confusion came from. In some of the memorabilia you will see her referred to as Marion. The folks are buried in Riverside Cemetery in Charles City, Iowa. The dark spot on the back of the tombstone is a defect in the stone common to this type of granite as I was informed by the people that made the monument.

William John Parrish

William, everybody called him Bill, worked for the Commercial Bank when he got out of high school. After a number of years he went to work for Oliver. After his marriage to Helen they lived in Charles City for about ten years and then Oliver transferred him to Shelbyville, Illinois. They stayed in Shelbyville for one year and then were transferred to South Bend, Indiana. Oliver closed the plant and let Bill go. He worked for the City of South Bend in Redevelopment until he retired. While visiting a daughter in Denver he suffered cardiac arrest and died within a day or two. He is buried in Highland Cemetery in south Bend. His widow still lives there as this is being written.

Kenneth Ralph Parrish

Kenneth married Marcia Gates in Charles City December 5, 1947. Ken worked for Western Buyers and they transferred him to Algona, Iowa in 1954 where he was living at the time of his death. Before the war Kenneth worked for Jasperson and Ball in the turkey raising and processing business. Kenneth was a Mason, Shriner and Adjutant of the American Legion. He was a Deacon in the Congregational Church and was well known in Algona. He had a heart attack and was in the hospital at Mason City, Iowa. He had another heart attack, which was fatal. He is buried in Riverview Cemetery in Algona. He died September 6, 1976. Marcia and Ken got a divorce in 1968 and his family moved to San Juan, Texas in 1971 where Marcia still resides. This union produced five daughters and a son. During WWII Kenneth was drafted on August 6, 1942 and rose to the rank of Captain. After the war he stayed in the reserves and retired as Lt. Colonel in the Air Force.

Donald Maltby Parrish

After WW II we lived at 3314 52nd Street, Des Moines, Iowa. I had several jobs and then in 1948 had the opportunity to become a manufacturer’s agent for a new corporation, Rural Transformer and Equipment Co., in Texas. The corporation is now known as RTE Corporation. We moved to Texas in June of 1948 and took up residence at 6402 Lovett Ave., Dallas, Texas where I still live. I was an agent for 12 years for various corporations. In 1960 RTE decided to build a branch plant in Arlington, Texas. I became the plant manager and ran it until April 1968 when I resigned. As it turned out this is when I retired. I will write another history of my family and give more details. We had two sons. My wife, Herdis died of a stroke June 8, 1983 and is buried in the family plot at Grove Hill Cemetery here in Dallas.

Records and Memorabilia

There is quite a bit of memorabilia of the various families in my possession including bibles. This has been put on videotape. There is also a videotape of movies I took between 1946 and 1957 showing various members of the families. I also have recordings of my folk’s voices. All these records are available to any family member for their use. The exact dates given are correct, those referred to, as years are a close approximation. After comparing several sources the spelling of the names are correct to the best of my knowledge. The Town of Lima is referred to as Town Lima and in some cases just Lima. I guess all are correct and refer to Lima Township. My mother had my grandfather’s middle name as Rufus, but I know Robinson is correct. I have personally visited all the places named and talked to existing relatives to verify the facts.