Grandma Riekena

RIEKENA

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 1/3/2020 at 21:46:14

Grandma Riekena, mother of W. W. Riekena, is perhaps the oldest person living in Grundy county. If she lives until Friday, Feb. 13, she will be 96 years of age. Mrs. Riekena came to Grundy county in 1865 and while not the oldest settler in the county, she is the oldest living in Shiloh township. If we are mistaken in this we will be glad to publish the facts. Grandma Isebrandt, who lives about four miles west of Wellsburg is 95 years of age and came to Shiloh about the same time as Mrs. Riekena. In those days people came for miles from all over the country to get coal from Steamboat Rock and the settlers in West Grundy reaped quite a little harvest during the coal season from the people who were obliged to stay all night. They came from east of Reinbeck and usually had to stay all night. Anything was good enough for them. A blanket and a hard bench was just as good as a feather bed. They took what they got and never grumbled. It is different these days.

--The Grundy Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 12 February 1903, pg 9