Dr. Franklin Henry LANDIS graduated from Marion Simms Medical College in St. Louis, Missouri. he came to Benton, Iowa, to practice medicine, where he met and married Ellen Delphine HAVILAND. They had two daughters, Beatrice, born December 26, 1900, and Louise, born March 19, 1903. Louise died November 18, 1980, in Pennsylvania.

"I always wanted to go on calls with my dad. If I didn't get to go, I might run off, heading for dad's office. When mother missed me, she would call dad, and with a peach stick, she would start down the street. "Sometimes Dad rode horseback across the frozen snow. When stay until daylight or until the water receded, as so many times the bridges were not safe to cross."

"Usually he carried two leather bags, one full of medicine and small instruments, and the other had larger instruments. Louise and I were sure he took the babies in that one. He was a country doctor for over 50 years."

"We had a small grade school. All ages and sizes were together. We played baseball at recess time. After the high school was built in 1916, basketball was the game. Louise was a forward on the team.

"I was a member of the first class to graduate from the Benton High School in 1919. Other members of my class were Earl MICHAEL, Zetha GERMAN (BAILEY), Esther WALLACE (DIXON), and Lewis Rychnovosky. Following high school, I attended Iowa State Teacher's College.

"The Methodist and Christian churches were always busy centers. We were Methodist. Rev. T.S. RHOADES had a big influence on my life. I joined the church. My husband and I were married by him in 1930 in my home in Mount Ayr. He baptized our three children in a special service at the Mount Ayr Methodist Church.

"My aunt, Lett DAVIS, came from Nesho, Missouri, with her four children: Roy, Lloyd, Harriet, and Homer. She moved into a store, owned by my grandfather HAVILAND and was the telephone operator for many years."

SOURCE: 1887 - Benton, Iowa Centennial - 1987. Pp. 151-53. Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library, Mount Ayr IA

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

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