History

Lemuel Henry Boon (Boone) Family
This family's last name has been spelled both Boon and Boone through the years. The name "Boone" was used most often and carried on by Henry's descendants. The Boone family was living at 323 Maiden Lane in Iowa City during the 1880 U.S. Federal Census. Winnie had given birth to four more children by that time. The census record showed Henry working as a Scavenger. The occupation of Scavenger in those days meant being responsible for cleaning. Sometimes it was used to describe a Street Cleaner.

By the time of the 1885 Iowa State Census, the family had moved to Cedar Rapids.

Lemuel "Henry" Boone
Henry claims he was born 7 June 1788 in Virginia. His actual birth location is a mystery, however, because various records and census schedules showed, at one time or another, he or his family members provided his birth location as North Carolina, Kentucky, and Missouri.

There was a Lemuel Boone found in the 1830 Ray County, Missouri census. There was also a Lemuel Boone shown on the 1850 Slave Census Schedule in Ray County, Missouri. In that record, Lemuel was shown as one individual, not associated with a family. The birth year shown for this entry is 1810 which is in the ball park for "our" Lemuel. I couldn't find him in the 1860 census but it appears he was in Iowa City by 1864, at which time his eldest child, Kelsie, was born.

A year after the 1885 census showed Henry and family living in Cedar Rapids, his wife, Winnie, died on 28 Feb 1886. It was also about this time his daughters were marrying and moving out of Cedar Rapids. His daughter Kelsie and her husband moved to Mason City, IA by the year 1900. Henry followed and lived with her and her family for a while. By the time of the U.S. Census, 110 year old Henry was living at the poor house in Lake township, of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. He died in the Cerro Gordo County Hospital on 5 March 1904. He was 116 years old.

Reflecting on the Boone family's time spent in Iowa City, Mr. Boone and his "little Boones" were remembered in the following writing by Emma Watkins in 1920.

Them Days Is Gone Forever”
Memories of Ralston Creek
by Emma Watkins

Something in the soul of man makes him love to live over old times, recall old friends and repeat old sayings. Hope is for the future, memory for the past. Whatever they bring up has rainbow-colored edges, but hope may be disappointed, while memory remains true.

The spirit moves me to speak of something I know all about – something many of us know about – Ralston creek and the things connected therewith. I may not be an expert on high finance or low politics, but I know that old stream inside and outside from A to Z. It isn't a creek. It’s just a “crick”. It’s only a black sheep now, maybe once it was as clean and white as a lamb. Tennyson, in his famous poem had nothing to work on but a brook. He would have made a lot out of our dear little crick. It’s well worth any poet’s singing.

We never knew, in the old days, where the crick had its source. We just took it as it was. Between College and Burlington streets there was on the east bank an old stump and around the feet of that stump the water was deep and wide and full of gullible minnows, I should say “minnies” you catch minnows in creeks and minnies in cricks.

To go down to the stump and sit there with a fish line made of J & P Coats thread No. 20, with a bent pin at the end of it and a worm on the end of the pin, was to know pure delight. No minnies wiggled so deliciously as those, when you hauled them out.

A little farther down, the crick went past the gas house and tar ran into it, covering its surface with the most gorgeous dyes. The tar, in a pinch, could be chewed when you didn’t have a cent with which to buy wax. It was wax and not gum then.

Still farther down, the crick went past the cabin of Lemuel Boone and all the little Boones. He had been a slave down south and his cabin was exactly what we thought Uncle Tom’s cabin was. And he was the town’s whitewasher.

Let’s follow the crick back northward. Not far from its bed on the avenue, was the Mineral Spring, the waters of which we believed to have magical properties of healing. Then away on north the crick went, and then turned east. Not far from it were the Carleton grounds, where Bob Glenn and Chick Wydenkoff and Sandy Tantlinger curved them over the pan or swatted them high and far; and Porter’s pasture, where we drove the cow in the morning and back at night, when she didn’t get into the pott.(illegible)

It was at Washington street that our beloved crick went wrong. It fell into bad company. It went wet. It was roofed over with a roadway and when the waters came out from that scary and mysterious place, into which we often penetrated with fear and trembling, those waters gave forth a strange Budweiser odor, which arose from the nearness to the brewery. Every now and then, even today, I walk past some large, husky man and seem to catch a whiff of that same unforgettable smell that the old crick picked up at Washington street.

Alas, where are the minnies of yesteryear? Still more alas, where are the Budweiser odors of yesteryear?

Before the new-fangled College Street bridge was put up, the crick was crossed by a little foot bridge and one of the delights of old days was to run down, after a heavy rain, to see whether the crick was running over the bridge. A heavy rain would fill College Street before our house with water, sometimes from curb to curb, and the pleasure of wading in it, before the water subsided, was an unalloyed joy.
Source: (Iowa City Press Citizen, 1 May 1937, Sat pg. 3)

Henry Boone, aged 109 years, has been adjudged insane at Mason City and taken to the county jail. He was a slave for 73 years.
(Source: The Des Moines Register 12 Feb 1898)

HAS LIVED 111 YEARS
Negro in Mason City Who was Born in 1788
Was a Slave for 72 Years of His Life
Remembers the News of the Death of Washington

Mason City, Nov 7 – The recent death of Jesse Bracken in this city at the age of 100 years and five months recalls the fact that there is living in the city at the present time a man who has reached the advanced age of 111 years. This is Henry Boone, a colored man, who is making his home with his daughter, Mrs. L. W. Tyler on Water Street. Mr. Boone was born in slavery in the state of Virginia June 7, 1788, on the plantation of a rich Virginia planter named Sandals. He was a slave for seventy-two years and was never sold from the family of his original master. When his first master died, he went to Arkansas with Mrs. Blunt, his master’s daughter, and remained there until he was liberated by General Curtis, by whom he was brought to the north and has remained here ever since.

Mr. Boone is in remarkably good healthy and bodily vigor and works around the house continually. He retains his memory splendidly and can remember distinctly the news of the death of George Washington, as he was at that time 11 years of age. The war of 1812 found him a full-grown man 24 years of age and h e says he can remember distinctly the thrilling occurrences of those times.

In the old slavery times the marriages of the slaves were arranged entirely to suit the convenience of their masters and Mr. Boone has had eight wives, nearly all of whom were sold away from him to some other estate. He is the father of thirty-two children by his various wives, four of whom are the children of his last wife, whom he brought to the north with him and who died about twelve years ago.

Two of theses children, Mrs. L. W. Tyler and Mrs. F. L. Palmer, are residents of this city.
At the time of his second marriage Mr. Boone was 70 years of age. Gen. Curtis brought the old slave and his wife to St. Louis and then to Muscatine, Iowa, and he has since lived in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. He came to this city about three years ago and has lived here ever since.

He has never used tobacco in any form, but says he was accustomed to the use of stimulants as they were served to the slaves by their masters in the days of slavery. He expects to live for many years to come and will no doubt live to be one of the oldest men in the country.
(Source: Globe-Gazette (Mason City, Iowa 9 Dec 2021, pg. A1)

Was Born in 1788
Lemuel H. Boone of Mason City Dies at an Extreme Old Age.
Lemuel H Boone is dead. One hundred and sixteen winters have been his in which to live. Born in slavery, reared in slavery, knowing hardly anything but slaver from the time he was born until he was sixty-seven years of age, he was one of the numbers to enjoy the emancipation proclamation issued by the immortal Lincoln. He was born in 1788. We have on several occasions given lengthy write-ups of this most interesting life. Such experiences as he was able to relate only come to a very few lives. His health has been failing for some time, and his mind gave way with his body so it was decided to remove him to the county house, where the best kind of treatment could be given him. Even in his condition he seemed to enjoy himself and was pleased with his surroundings. He had been failing for some time and it was known several days ago that death would soon claim him, and last night he passed away. He was the father of twelve children, six of them now living. He was the father of James Boone and Mrs. J. V. Tyler, both of this city. The deceased moved to this city from Iowa City eight years ago. His wife died nineteen years ago.
(Source: Courier, (Waterloo, IA), 5 March 1904)

Passed the Century Mark
Aged Mason City Negro Dies Aged 116 Years – He was an Inveterate Smoker
Lemuel Boone, aged 116, died Wednesday night at county hospital. He was 67 years of age when he was emancipated from slavery. He was an inveterate smoker. He was the father of twelve children.
Source: Davenport Morning Star (Davenport, IA) 6 Mar 1904

Henry was buried in Elmwood St. Joseph Cemetery in Mason City, IA. A note on Find-a-Grave states his grave is unmarked.

Winnie (Jenkins) Boone
Little is known about Winnie, She was approximately thirty years younger than her husband, Henry. Census records state she was born about 1836 in Mississippi. On another record she reported her father had been born in Maryland. Her mother was unknown. Her name has been seen both as Winnie Jenkins and Winnie Hutchison. The surname of Jenkins was used the majority of time.

Winnie died in Cedar Rapids on Feb 28, 1886 of apoplexy.

Kelsie Boone
Kelsie was born 30 April 1864 in Iowa City, Iowa. In 1880, she was single and living at home with her parents in Iowa City. Her occupation was shown as a dressmaker. She married Thomas Miller 13 March 1884 in Cedar Rapids, IA and they had one son, Thomas. On 5 Dec 1889, there was a notice about Kelsie and her husband in The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, IA . The notice showed Kelsie Miller, plaintiff, against Thomas Miller, defendant. Kelsie was claiming a divorce from Thomas and wanted custody of their minor child, Thomas.

Although the divorce notice was posted on 5 Dec 1889, a marriage record exists showing she married Louis William Tyler, four years earlier, on 3 Nov 1885 in Cedar, IA. It's likely the marriage location was Cedar Rapids rather Cedar County, IA. Lewis's occupation was shown as Barber at the time.

In June of 1953, her son, Thomas C. B. Tyler wrote a historical piece for Mason City’s Globe-Gazette newspaper about Early Negroes who came to the city in 1890. His story explained that in 1891 he and his parents were living in Marshalltown, Iowa. His father, Lewis, decided he wanted to move to Mason City. Ahead of his family, he went there in the fall of 1891. Colored people were scarce, men, women and children about a dozen. He went to work as a barber for Charles Watson, a master barber and proprietor of the largest shop in town.

Thomas told of how he and his mother followed: “Mother and I came the following spring from Marshalltown. I am told that when Dad met us at the Iowa Central station, now the M. and St. L., she said, “Lewis, you have moved me to half a dozen towns in the few years we have been married. This is the last move. I’m here to stay.” The Tyler family has lived here 60 years.”

The 1920 Mason City census shows Lewis was employed as a Stationary Fireman for the RR. In 1925 the family is still living in Mason City. Son Thomas, a widower, was living with them. On the census form, Kelsie names her mother as Winifred Jenkins and her father as Lemuel Boone.

Kelsey died at age 83 on 11 July 1947 in Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. She is buried in the Manley Cemetery in Worth County, Iowa.

Obituary

-------Thomas Charles Boone Tyler

Kelsey's only son, Thomas, was born 20 Jun 1884 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her first husband, Thomas Miller, is presumed to have been his father. Following his parents divorce, his mother remarried and her new husband, L W Tyler, accepted him as his own.

Thomas's full name as Thomas Charles Boone Tyler was documented on his WWI and WWII draft registration records. Both records also show Lewis Wlm Tyler as his birth father. Thomas married Grace A Stratton on 4 Nov 1908 in Mason City. She died just two years later on 27 May 1910 at the age of 23. She died at the home of her parents in Worth County, IA. Thomas was still a widower when he passed away in Mason City, Iowa on 23 September 1961. It looks like he and Grace did not have any children.

Obituary

Priscilla Boone
Priscilla was born about 1876 in Iowa City. Her family had moved to Cedar Rapids by 1885. A local newspaper article showed she was attending school in Cedar Rapids in 1885. She was listed as a 4th grade student in Miss Mary Sosel's class. The school was located in what was called the Monroe building.

Priscilla got caught up in an environment of crime beginning with her theft of clothing from a Cedar Rapids residence in 1886, She was sentenced to a term in the state industrial school for girls in Correctionville, Iowa.

A Scott County, IA marriage record shows twenty-seven years old Priscilla (Boone) Mass married Bert Alexander 18 June 1900 in Davenport, IA. Her name was listed as Priscilla Mass and her maiden name listed as Boone. She indicated her marriage to Bert was her second marriage. She showed her father's name as Henry Boone and her mother's name was shown as Winnie Hutchison.

On April 9, 1900, two months before they were married Bert, who had been making his home at 118 East Fifth street became ill and a physician, Dr. Bowman, was called. He found Bert suffering from a high fever and he was thought to have a mild form of the small pox. Since it was such an infectious disease, his house was put under guard. Later the board of health of City of Davenport decided to send Alexander and all who had been exposed, to the city’s pest house, awaiting the development and the cure of the disease. He was released on April 24.

Following their marriage, Priscilla and Bert made Davenport, Iowa their home. It was there, in March 1909, that Priscilla was arrested for selling liquor illegally. Just three months later, Bert was wanted in Rock Island, Illinois on a charge of getting money under false pretenses. Bert was evading arrest until he was found in St. David, Illinois. The city marshal tried to arrest him but Bert refused to stop. The marshal shot at him as Bert fled. As far as the marshal knew, Bert had gotten away. However, he was found dead early the next day, lying in a yard.

Priscilla, at some point, relocated to Chicago, Illinois. She was found there in the 1930 U.S. Census, living on South Parkway Street. At age, 58, she was still widowed, and working as a housekeeper for a Lodging House. The obituary for her sister, Kelsie Tyler in July of 1947 mentioned her surviving sister, Priscilla Alexander of Chicago, IL. The last visible evidence of her existence was in the form of a social security claim was filed for her on 11 Mar 1943. A note on the claim record points out that as of 23 Sep 1977 her name was listed as Priscilla Alexander.

No records could be found to suggest Priscilla had any children.

Isabelle Boone
Born about 1867. A Linn County, IA marriage record shows Isabelle was married to Scott Davis on 16 Nov 1903. Isabelle was 14 years younger than her new husband. The couple moved to Fairmont, Minnesota by 1910. Scott was working as a Janitor at Club Rooms in Fairmont. By 1920, the two of them were residing in Fort Dodge, Iowa. They were living in a home they had mortgaged on 8th Avenue North in Fort Dodge. By 1930, their home was paid for. The 1940 U.S. census shows Scott had passed away by that time. Isabelle, age 73, was shown as a widow and was living in the same house on 8th Avenue North. Isabelle died in her home on 28 Mar 1951. She was 84 years old and died of a cerebral hemorrage, Scott and Isabelle did not have any children.

Caroline "Carrie" Boone
She was married in Cedar Rapids on 20 Feb 1899 to Frank Palmer. They made their home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The 1900 U.S. Census shows them still living in Cedar Rapids, along with their two daughters, Gladys, age 3 and Beatrice, age 1. Frank's occupation was shown as Banker. The Palmer family eventually moved to Detroit, Michigan. A record of her death was not found.

Charles Boone

James Boone

S. H. Boone

Isadore Boone
Daughter Isadore L Boone has a delayed birth record which shows she was born in Iowa City on 13 Nov 1880. Her mother was noted as Winnie Jenkins Boone.