THOUGHTS FROM DEVIN STRECKER

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Onnalee,
My brother and I stumbled across this blog that we have been reading with great interest:

Travels Around Kansas

You might already be aware of it. It's a gentleman who lives in Lucas, KS, and writes about his travels around rural Kansas.
His ancestors built a lot of the structures in Osborne County and beyond.
Thought you would enjoy it.
I also really enjoyed your post about Iva Marr. I am interested in doing some research about her, but don't know when I'll have time. But I have an idea for a story, maybe primarily fiction because I doubt I will ever be able to do enough factual research, but here's my story and my idea.


This part is true. My parents moved onto the Fowler Farm in the mid-'70's before I was born, right after they got married. Did you mention you lived there too at one time? For some reason I thought maybe you said you had. Anyway, my grandma Eva Strecker had lived there at some point I know. The house we lived in was built by the Fowler brothers and they had even set it in stone on the front steps of the house - it spelled out "FOWLER." I believe there was a house on the same location prior. In fact I always thought that part of the original basement had been used for our basement, maybe they just expanded it, because one corner of the basement seemed much older than the rest, but that could just be my memory playing tricks on me. However I'm sure there was another house in the same area as where ours was. One day my mom was out in the garden which was south of the house. She was digging around probably planting or weeding and somehow she found a gold wedding band! Imagine the chances of finding a tiny ring in the dirt on a farm. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. This was one of the first "mysteries" I ever was interested in as a child. I often wondered who's wedding band that had been, and I liked to imagine there was a whole story about it. Then, recently, I was reading through that history book that I bought at the church event a few years ago when we were all having lunch at the gymnasium. It's the book with the photo of Iva Marr on the front. One of the stories in there mentions that our farm used to be called the Dan Marr Ranch (I think, I don't have the book with me at the moment). So I got to thinking, maybe Iva Marr lived on our farm, and maybe it was HER ring. Maybe someone proposed to her and she didn't want to go through with the marriage and she threw the ring into the field? Anyway I thought it could make an interesting story. What do you think?
Devin

Thanks for the thoughts about Iva Marr, Devin.  It sounds like it could be a true story to me.  :)
No, I didn't live in the Fowler Farm Home.  I lived with Maude Robbins until Millard & I were married.
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