Vandalia

ANDERSON, CAVETT, COOPER, FLEMING, PULVER, UNDERWOOD

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 12/28/2020 at 14:47:37

Live to Old Age in the Town of Vandalia, IA
Vandalia, with its small population of only 53, has eight persons who are 76 years of age each or over.
Robert Anderson, nearly 88, is the oldest, and his wife, Mrs. Jennie Anderson, is 82. Others are John I. Cavett, 83; Mrs. Eliza Fleming, 82; Edward Cooper, 82; his wife, Mrs. Ada Cooper, 82; Connett Underwood, 81, and Wm. Pulver, 76.
All are in reasonably good health except Mr. Anderson, known to all around Vandalia as “Uncle Tucker,” who has been suffering since Thanksgiving morning from a broken blood vessel in his head. He is reported to be slowly improving, however.
Mr. Cavett, who has kept the general store there for about 50 years, still does all of his own work in the store and looks many years younger than 83.
Mr. Underwood, although compelled several years ago by rheumatism to use crutches, seems to derive much pleasure from walking and thus keeping fit.
Mr. Pulver was only three years old when his parents moved with him from Des Moines, yet he remembers seeing Indians wrapped in their bright blankets riding past his home on their ponies and the stage coach which used to go past his door that sometimes stopped for water.
The younger residents look up to the older eight and it is with reverence that they listen to the stories told of the days of early settlement. They often point out some tree that has grown to a great height and tell how it was used as a land mark in the old days. – Newton Daily News.
Source: Pella (IA) Chronicle, Thursday, January 25, 1934, page 7