Maude Drew – A Scholar and Professor's Wife

Maude Mildred Drew was the youngest and only daughter of Thomas Drew and Margaret Walch. She was born in April 1882 in Caldwell Kansas. Both the 1900 and 1910 US censuses show Maude living with her parents on Webb Street in Caldwell. In 1910, the 27-year-old Maude was teaching piano, most likely out of her parents’ home. She may have already obtained a bachelor’s degree by that time. She also may have graduated from Central Wesleyan College in Warrenton, Missouri, where her future husband obtained his bachelor's degree. In any case, she is the first woman in the Walch family to earn a college degree.

At the age of 32, Maude married George Henry Von Tungeln, 33, a Harvard PhD graduate and recently hired assistant professor of sociology at Iowa State College. Following the marriage they moved to Ames, Iowa, where they resided until 1944.

Dr. George von Tungeln was an early pioneer of rural sociology, and served as Chair of the Rural Sociology Section of the American Sociological Society. By 1932, Dr. Von Tungeln was Head of the sociology section of the Department of Economics and Sociology at Iowa State College, and had gained national prominence for his work. Maude also furthered her study at Ames and in 1929 became the 12th recipient of an MS degree in Sociology at Iowa State University.

George died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1944 at 61 years of age as he was completing his thirty-first year as a member of the Iowa State College faculty. In 1969, Maude established an Iowa State University scholarship in honor of her husband, which is now called The George Henry and Maude Drew Von Tungeln Scholarship. Maude died in 1973 in Santa Barbara California at 91 years of age. It is believed that Maude and George had no children because there were no children listed in census reports.

The photograph above is Maude Drew with her mother, Margaret Walch

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A few years ago I found the following posted on the Internet: “I have recently come upon a family history written, and passed on by, Maude Drew von Tungeln. If anybody has a contact for her, or a relative who may know of her, please email me.” The posting was written by Nathan Drew Allen, 34, a descendent of Gladys (Drew) Allen. Unfortunately, Nathan's e-mail address is no longer valid, and all attempts to contact him or his parents have failed. If anyone knows his whereabouts and contact information, please let me know. I very much would like to incorporate Maude’s family history into the Walch history.

Alfred Henry Drew -- Merchant of Waukomis

Alfred Henry Drew was the younger son and second child of Tom Drew and Margaret Walch. He was born in New York in 1876 and moved to Kansas with his family when he was about three years old. He grew up in Caldwell and, like his brother Stephen, he moved to Oklahoma as a young man, where he operated a general store in partnership with his father. Alfred's general store was located in Waukomis which is located 9 miles south of Enid and 21 miles north of Dover, where his brother also operated a general store.

In 1898 at 20 years of age, Alfred married Cora Bell Riley, 18, in Enid, Oklahoma. They were living in Waukomis in 1900 with their one-year-old daughter Gladys. At that time, Alfred declared that he owned the general store free and clear of mortgage. Their second daughter and last child, Audine H. Drew, was born in 1906 in Waukomis. The census record shows the family was still living on Main Street in Waukomis in 1910.

Alfred died at the early age of 42, six days before Christmas in 1918. At the time Cora was 40 years old; Gladys, 18; and Audine 11. Cora died in 1965 and was buried with Alfred in the Waukomis Cemetery.

Gladys Drew married Richard Wayne Allen of Enid in about 1920. By 1930 they were living in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Gladys and Richard had at least one son: Richard Drew Allen. Richard eventually moved to San Diego, California, where he worked as an aerospace engineer. Little else is known about Gladys's life except that she was buried alongside her parents in the Waukomis Cemetery in 1951.

Alfred’s youngest daughter, Audine Hildred Drew, married Hosea Balleau Prewitt in Flint, Michigan, in 1921. They were still living in Flint in 1930, where H.B Prewitt worked as a wholesale heating salesman and engineer. They eventually moved east where their three children settled, in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Audine died in 2005 at age 98 in Chesterfield, Virginia, where her son Robert Drew Prewitt lives.

The above photograph is thought to be Alfred standing next to his father Thomas Drew.

Stephen Drew - Merchant of Dover

Stephen Howard Drew, the oldest son of Tom Drew and Margaret Walch, was born in August 1874 in New York and would later write that his left leg was deformed due to infantile paralysis. He came out to Kansas with his parents when he was about 4 years old and grew up in the rugged cattle town of Caldwell. He spent most of his work life as a merchant store operator, a career he most likely began in his father's grocery store in Caldwell.

Stephen's father Tom took part in the first Oklahoma Land Rush and staked a claim in Hennessey. Stephen and his brother Alfred, most likely with their father's assistants, established general stores nearby the town of Hennessey. Stephen store was in Dover which is located 10 miles directly south of Hennessey. Alfred’s store was located 12 miles north of Hennessey in Waukomis, Oklahoma. Their proximity most likely helped them to share delivery cost and purchase baulk goods at discount.

Nineteen-year-old Stephen may have already been living in Dover in 1893 when he married 18 year-old Maude Hughes in Enid, Oklahoma, which is located 30 miles north of Dover. Stephen and Maude had three daughters: Edith, born in 1894; Ruth, in 1896; and Grace, in 1899. Ruth died tragically at 11 months of age and was buried in the Dover cemetery. In the 1900 US census, Stephen, 25, and Maude, 26, are listed as operating a general merchandise store in Dover. Their home was free and clear of mortgage; and they were well enough off to support a live-in maid.

Unfortunately, the marriage ended sometime before 1908, the year that Stephen, then 32, married Grace, a 28-year-old previously married woman. That marriage ended by 1920, when in the census of that year Stephen is listed as “divorced” and was living in a boarding house in Dover. By 1930 Stephen, 53, was living with his third wife, Irene, 32. His general store was now referred to as a grocery store.

Dover was first called Red Fork. It was located on the Chisholm Trail, which originally was a freight trail that crossed the Oklahoma Indian Territory, linking Texas and Kansas. A railroad was built along the trail; and a station built at Red Fork to service locomotives. Its name then was changed to Dover Station. In the 1889 Land Rush, Dover Station was part of newly created Kingfisher County and became a “boom” town overnight. However, the nearby Hennessey Station was more successful in attracting business. As a result, Dover’s boom population dissipated over the next several decades.

During Stephen Drew’s life three events in Dover made national news. The first was the Dover train robbery by the “Wild Bunch,” a gang composed of the Doolin Gang and former members of the Dalton Gang. In April 1895 the gang boarded the Rock Island train at Dover and robbed the express car. Around two o’clock that afternoon, a posse caught up with them at a camp near Ames. Tulsa Jack Blake was killed in the shootout. The rest of the gang scattered, never to reunite as a gang.

A second notable robbery occurred in Dover almost thirty-seven years later. In January 1932, the infamous Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd robbed the banks in Paden and Castle on the same day, and robbed the bank in Dover the next day.

But perhaps the most notable event occurred in September 1906. Just south of Dover, heavy rains washed away a bridge one night as the Rock Island train from Texas bound for Kansas came through. All but one car plunged into the Cimarron River. Of the 225 passengers aboard, over 100 lost their lives, making it one of the most deadly train accidents in history.

Stephen's first wife and daughters moved to Wichita, Kansas following the divorce. Maud raise the girls there as a single parent. Edith Drew was living in Wichita with her mother in 1930. Her whereabouts after that date are currently unknown. Her sister Grace Drew was married in Prescott, Arizona, in 1931 to Amos Francis Bumpa; but there's nothing further known about Grace and whether she or Edith had descendents. After 1930 Stephen’s whereabouts are also unknown. He was not buried in the Dover Cemetery so he likely moved on.

Today, Dover is a town of only a few businesses, boarded-up storefronts, and a population of 362, but it did have a spectacular aurora display. The photograph of that display (above) was taken by Dave Ewolt. The photograph of the couple above is believed to be that Stephen Drew and a second wife Grace. It is an excerpt from a previously posted family group photograph courtesy of Cait Hendron, Stephen Drew's 1st cousin three times removed

Walch Sisters – Lost, Found & Persevered

I posted historic family group photographs about a month ago and asked if anyone could identify the family members. Grace Walch and her daughter Dorothy Benkendorf were the only people who were previously identified, (right side of the photo above). Recently, I took another look at the photograph and use Dorothy's approximate age to deduce which cousin is standing next to her. As it turns out, John Harold Mendenhall is the only male cousin of the right age to fit. The woman behind him therefore is most likely Jessie Walch as an adult.

As a genealogist I am sometimes asked what has struck me the most doing family research. My short answer is: perseverance. I am continuously amazed by the tragic and seemingly devastating events that some family members have experienced over their lives; and by their ability to adjust and get on with living.

Grace Walch appears to be a case in point. She was 27 years old when her first husband died. She then remarried but experienced a divorce. At age 51, she grieved the loss of her 27-year-old and only child, Dorothy. And, when she was age 78, her third husband died after 27 years of marriage.

Actually I don't have to go deep into history to uncover such tragedies. My own sisters have been widowed and one has experienced the death of a 29-year-old son. They too have shown resilience. I think that in some ways this knowledge of our family’s perseverance and resiliency serves to booster our own defense system. We will not be spared the pain of tragedy, but should feel less abandoned and hopeless in its wake.