Abner Lewis and Martha Jane GOLLIDAY were early residents of Benton, Iowa. They owned a piece of property in the southeastern part of Benton on the north side of the railroad tracks. This was known as the homeplace. In addition to the six living children of that union, there were other childrenwho were stillborn. The children who lived were: Dora Mae, Dicey Fernard, John Lewis, Charles, Earl, and William Abner.

Dora Mae was the oldestand Dicey Fern (my mother) was the youngest. Both girls passed away when they were in their thirties.

Abner GOLLIDAY was employed in some way whereby he used a team of horses to haul things. It may be it was a freight wagon, but I am not sure. He injured his back in this employment and it resulted in his death. At the time of his death, my mother, who was the youngest child in the family, was still a baby.

I do not know of the origin of Benton, but I am inclined to think it was one of the many towns that grew up around the railroad. There was a time when a daily freight train came through to load and unload freight. Two passenger trains also passed through daily, one going east and north, and the other went west and south. There was also a stockyard where farmers left their stock to be loaded into boxcars for shipment to stockyards in St. Joseph and Kansas City, and possibly to points in the north.

Other businesses were a cheese factory, a lumber yard, a dry goods store, two grocery stores, a restaurant, a barber shop, a blacksmith shop, a garage, an opera house, a telephone office, a bank, a hotel, and a post office. There may have been others, but I don't know about them if there were.

During my childhood, there were two active churches, the Methodist and the Christian. I was told that at one time there was another, located one block west of the Christian church an on the opposite side of the street (north).

was the first, being the oldest of the boys. He was given a job as a section hand by the section foreman, Mr. GUNTER, after the death of his father. For a time, he was the sole support for the family, except for a few years when he was working at an ice plant in Des Moines, and when he worked on a dredge boat on a river west of Benton. He was the only suport of my mother and me, his niece.

The youngest boy, William Abner (Buck) GOLLIDAY, bought a property near the main part of town, where his mother and John lived until their demise. I was bornand raised in that house. After my mother and father were divorced, my mother married Raymond WEAVER and they moved to Blockton, Iowa. I was left with my grandmother and Uncle John. John purchased the house from "Buck" after his mother passed away. John spent the greater part of his life in Benton and lived there until his death. I lived there until I moved with my husband to Kansas City, Missouri.

Some of the older people I remember were: Mr. and Mrs. GUNTER, living just west of the GOLLIDAY home; Mr. and Mrs. GERMAN, west of the GUNTERS; Mr. and Mrs. McFARLAND, west of the GERMANS; Mrs. Dora GAINES, across the road from the GERMANS; and Jim and Dorotha HALEY, living in the house that belonged to Mr. and Mrs. McFARLAND. Our home was across the street from the HALEYS; Mrs.Jane HALEY lived just west of the Methodist church; Mr. and Mrs. John DILLENBURG also lived there.

I am presently at my daughter's home in Deepwater, Missouri, but will soon be back home in Leavenworth, Missouri.

SOURCE: 1887 - Benton, Iowa Centennial - 1987. p. 191. Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library, Mount Ayr IA

Transcriptions and notes by Sharon R. Becker, October of 2012

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