Abbott

ABBOTT, GRAY, INGRAHAM

Posted By: Peggy Webster Volunteer (email)
Date: 4/17/2014 at 18:38:49

ROLAND JOHN ABBOTT
By Ronald Abbott

Ronald John Abbott was born March 4, 1917, to John Elmer and Sarah (Gray) Abbott, on the same farm as his father and his siblings. Roland's four older siblings were also born in this house near Greenfield.

When Roland was about five, his father had him ride horses a half-day back to the barn. The top half of the barn door had blown shut and horse went into the barn, knocking Roland off and breaking his arm.

Roland was seven when his twin brothers, Verl and Earl, were born. Until then there had been four girls and three boys. His comment was, "Oh goody, we got the girls beat now!"

When Roland was about ten, he and his sister, Dorotha (against his father's wishes) went and hung a May basket at the neighbor's. Roland fell out of a big pine tree where he had been hiding and suffered a bad fracture to his upper leg. His dad had to go and meet the doctor and bring him with horses as it had rained, and the Iowa mud would roll the doctor's tire's tight. In later years X-rays showed Roland had fractured his back at the same time.

While chasing a horse when he was a teenager, he fractured his ankle on a corncob.

He married Lorrene Hazel Ingraham on July 7, 1936. They had three children: Roland, born February 13, 1938; Connie, born November 5, 1939; and Bonnie, born July 19, 1943.

During the winter months Roland and Lorrene would keep the yeast and bananas under covers at the foot of their bed to keep them from freezing.

They farmed in Iowa and later moved to Arizona. Roland earned many trophies for is prize horses.

Their son, Ronald, currently owns one of the farms the family lived on near Diagonal, Iowa

Roland passed away on January 6, 1995, in Arizona.

Transcribed from Adair County Iowa Sesquicentennial Edition 1851-2001
Page 186