Ivan was born in Russell, IA on October the 18th 1915. He lived all his life, 89 years, in Russell, IA. Ivan’s Grandfather, Patrick Ford and his Grandmother, (Ivan could not remember her first name, she was always known as Grandma) came to America from Ireland during the Potato famine in Ireland, landing in the USA in 1877. Why did they come to Iowa? The saying on the East Coast at that time was “Go West Young Man!” West they did go, landing in Russell, Iowa. He, his wife, and two children all headed west. His Grandmother, at this time, was pregnant with his father, Dennis Ford.
Employment at that time was - work for the railroads. He worked for the R.R. about 15 years as Section Forman at nearly every town from Ottumwa to Russell. In about 1916 he took the examination for Rural Mail Carrier and passed it. He then carried mail out of Russell for about 25 years. The Model T. Ford car had not made it to Russell as yet and for the next three years he drove a team of horses 27½ miles, six days a week. Roads were nothing but trails. The first day he carried mail he got lost and never got back home that night. It was out near Olmitz somewhere. The trails were very hard to follow through the trees and he took the wrong road and went south. After the Model T came along he still kept his team of horses as a backup to get the mail delivered in bad weather.
After they got vehicles the routes were increased to between 53 and 54 miles, but there were only two carriers. Now days the routes are as long as 75 miles. Today, one of the Russell rural carriers delivers mail for Melrose. Melrose has one mail carrier that goes east and ends up at Rathbun Lake. The Russell carrier stops at Melrose and sorts his mail then goes out and delivers it. He then returns to Russell and proceeds with the Russell route.
His mother, Sarah was born on a farm east of Russell. Her father, Iven , came from Ohio, his wife having past away; he was left with 3 teenage daughters. Spring came and he headed north, stopping at Russell and purchased a farm. The original farmhouse is no longer there. He then had to go back to Ohio and get the three girls he had left behind. Grandfather Iven then built the farmhouse, which Jimmy Werts now owns, southeast of Russell. Ricky Elmore now lives in the house Ivan’s grandfather built.
Ivan had three sisters. Oldest sister Carmen was born in 1905 and went to school in Russell. She graduated from Russell High School and then went on to Simpson College, in Indianola, for two years. Later, Carmen quit teaching at Britt and joined up with the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, in Washington, D.C. She retired from the FBI.
Phyllis, his middle sister, was a nurse. She went to Iowa City for her studies. She was there for five years and worked in their hospital for a little bit after completing her studies.
Josephine attended and graduated from Simpson College and then taught school. She later married the Superintendent of Schools in Altoona.
Ivan worked at Hahne Printing Co. for 3 years as a linotype (typesetter) operator. Before living and working in Webster City, Ivan had worked at the bank in Russell. When he was in high school, one summer, he met up with Homer Jeffries and Howard Smith in the bank down here on the corner. Homer said to Ivan “Why don’t you come in and learn how to run the posting machine?” So, that summer he did. This just added to his education. He even earned a whole $7.50 cents a month. That was the amount they got for collecting the Iowa Southern Utilities light bill. Those were rough times. While there he did learn how to run a Burroughs posting machine and how to feed a press.
Then the banks in Russell closed. In the late thirties they reorganized. Bob Parker worked at the bank from 1935 until 1943 when he became a Rural Mail Carrier. Bob told Ivan they needed somebody at the bank, would he be interested? Ivan’s first question was “How much do they pay?” Bob had no idea. Ivan wrote the head man in Chariton asking about the job. He got a letter back from him. A meeting was set up in Des Moines and Ivan went down from Webster City. They met in some hotel lobby. Ivan was hired right there on the spot. He returned to Webster City to give his notice and then came down to Russell on December 1, 1943. He worked in the Russell Bank for about ten years. Then he went to Chariton and worked in that bank as a cashier for about twenty-four years until 1977 when he retired.
Ivan attended Russell Elementary Schools and later graduated from Russell High School in 1933. He then went on to college at Simpson College for one year.
When he was a kid he lost his right eye in an accident. Cleo Baughman and Ivan were playing in the old barn and had slingshots. Green apples were about the size of the end of his thumb. They were trying to shoot through the knothole in the barn wall. Ivan peeked through the knothole and just at that time Cleo shot the apple right through the hole and hit Ivan in the eye. He had sight in that eye for a long time, but does not have sight in that eye today. At first he lost some vision, but eventually it came back and he was getting along with it pretty good. It was never as good as the other eye, but yet it was his master eye, which he could never understand. If you take your finger and point at something, one eye will make the object jump off while the master eye brings it back into alignment. Well, it was his damaged eye that had that control. He got by with his vision while he worked at the bank and he can drive a car just fine. He has 20-20 vision in the good eye, today. He has had no vision in the bad eye for the last 15 or 20 years.
He was married in 1936 to Kathleen. Her family lived in the first house south of Campbell Section off the southeast corner of that area. Ivan was helping him get the mail delivered and took the South route through Bethlehem and New York back to Russell. This is where he met Kathleen.
Ivan was on the town Council when the first load of free cinder was brought in from the round house in Ottumwa to be placed on the Russell streets. The first street to get spread was Ames St. just south of the Phippen Oil Co. They would bring them in the flat car and the men in Russell took the cars over on the sidetracks. They took a teepee (two big telephone poles) and put it up on the side of the car. Took a rope and made a pulley at the top of the teepee. With a scoop they were able to haul the cinder to the streets where they dumped the cinder. The cinders were only good for a couple of years before they were shot. The city got tired of all that work just to have the roads last a couple of years.
After that the city got shale for the roads. Shale was a little bit better than cinder. This shale came from out near the Olmitz mine. The shale piles were as high as Russell High School. The slag piles around the Olmitz mine and the mines near Williamson would burn for years and years, giving off a horrible sulfur smell. Talk about pollution, this was it.
Marilyn was Ivan’s oldest daughter. She married Cecil who taught school for a little while.
Judy, his next daughter, lives outside of Russell on a farm. She married Dean.
Ivan’s son, Gary lives in Cedar Rapids. They had a business of their own. He worked with hospitals and is now retired.
Ivan was on the council when they brought the water into town. Wells was their source for getting water. There was a well and a pump right outside the Bank building, along with a horse trough. There were hitch racks all over town. At the churches and other locations in town. The churches used to have outdoor meetings in the summertime, but after the horses were around for a while, they couldn’t have the meetings outdoors because of the flies and the smell.
The wells couldn’t have been too pure. Ivan said the wells and the outdoor toilets were usually about 40 feet apart. Even so, the taste of the water was better than the deep well water. At first the deep well water tasted like sulfur. Many attempts were made to get rid of the bad taste, including filtering. They finally succeeded in getting the water to taste better. But at the beginning it was pretty bad water. They financed the new water system with bonds. Lane Western out of Ames was the construction company who came in and constructed the water tower and deep well. The first tower was constructed where the park is now. They later constructed the tower that is in Russell today. Ivan’s Dad always used to say, “Russell would never have water or sewers because they couldn’t afford it.”
When a farmer came to town, he did two things; he brought a dozen old hens and a cow with him. There used to be a barn behind every house. Up and down the alleys you would find the hens and the cows. Everyone had a little horse-drawn buggy. In the early twenties, most people did not have a car. The thought in those days was, “If you don’t buy a car, eventually everyone will go back to horses”. When people first started driving a car, it was terrible. The drivers really didn’t know what they were doing. They were the worst drivers. In those days the cars never traveled faster than fifteen miles per hour. Some of them today still only go fifteen miles per hour. A lot of people just pulled them into the barn in the winter, placed a blanket over them and waited until spring to take them back out of the barn. The cars had to be cranked to get them started. They didn’t have batteries in them in those days.
Because he was a bank employee he ended up involved with the Homecoming activities every year. The Commercial Club (local merchants) usually sponsored the Homecoming.
Mr. Winsor ran a hatchery just outside of town near the cemetery. Ted Smith had the best hatchery in town, but Mr. Winsor had his at about the same time and did just fine. Ted would have his chicks during the three months of summer and would make as much in that three months as other merchants made in a whole year. People came from a great distance just to buy Ted Smith’s chicks. His annual income was $9,000.
He went on to talk about the accident with his eye and about his hip. About 20 years ago he was in the parking lot at the Chariton Post Office and he slipped on the ice. During his stay in the hospital, doctors placed three pins into his hip to repair it.
If you would like to read the entire interview, please visit the Russell Historical Society Museum/Library.
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