Continuing with Gerald Nathan Hodgson’s Northwest family narrative, with thanks to Michael Howard Hodgson:
D.W. Hodson & Minnie B. Leach Joined in Marriage — September 19, 1895 At Marshalltown, Iowa — Marshall County
Marriage performed by James C/unreadable/ak — Justice of the Peace
The Leaches came from Kentucky. Great-grandfather Nathan was completely illiterate. Mom’s chief recollection of him was of an old man with a cane sitting by the fire and almost constantly twiddling his thumbs.
The Leaches still believed in witchcraft for treating of some diseases. Dad’s old folks were definitely opposed to it. A good many amateurs practiced medicine and were probably no more dangerous than some of the licensed doctors. Mom, in her early life, was afflicted with stomach worms but eventually got rid of them. I don’t know how — perhaps with castor oil and turpentine. I think she was nearly grown before she did get rid of them, however. Great-grandfather Darling was very literate and a great reader of such books as were available. Mom mostly remembered him as reading the Leather Stocking Tales and the Bible. Not a very religious man, he read the Bible for pleasure and for the sake of argument — he said you could prove anything by it.
My recollections of Mom’s early life are rather limited. She was born (I believe) at Union, Iowa, February 2, (Groundhog’s day) 1876. (Through some error, the date on her tombstone is 1877.) Died in the Spring, 1963 — 87 years.
She had more education than Dad though I don’t think she ever officially graduated from the eighth grade but she read freely and could spell reasonably well. She could also sing tunefully. She had three brothers and three sisters — Nate and Harry who spent most of their later lives in Oklahoma — and Howard — the youngest, who was a casualty of the Philippine War, believed to have fallen off a foot bridge into a swollen stream. He would have boarded a ship for Europe and World War I in a few days. His father, John Leach, lived off his insurance during his last years. Her mother (born Mary Frances Darling) died a while before Howard did.
Orphan George 