Family History in the News: The Clara Mentzer Williams Clipping
Do you have newspaper clippings tucked away in your family files? If so, some of them might offer more than just announcements — they can provide rich histories of the families they feature. I recently rediscovered such a clipping in my collection. While the article focuses on Clara Mentzer Williams, it also preserves a valuable history of the Mentzer family in Woodson County, Kansas.
OUR SENIOR CITIZENS
Our Senior Citizen this week is Mrs. Clara E. Williams, who is living on the farm on which she was born 85 years ago.
In the year 1870, George and Emeline Mentzer came to Woodson County from Kewanee, Illinois. Mentzer had served with the 24th Massachusetts Infantry throughout the Civil War. Sometime after the war’s end, he decided to head west. He, his wife, and their small sons, Charley O. and Fred, arrived at Neosho Falls in the spring of 1871.
While Mrs. Mentzer and the boys stayed temporarily at the Falls House, George Mentzer and a friend, Geo. W. Allen, purchased raw claims from the M.K.T. Railway along West Owl Creek, three miles west and one and a half miles north of present-day Yates Center. After building a small cabin, Mentzer brought his family to settle on the 160-acre claim.
Several more children were born on the homestead: Susie May, Henry A., Phillip E., Ernest E., Clara E., and Clarence A.
Clara E. Mentzer later married John W. Williams on April 1, 1903. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1953. John W. Williams passed away on July 21, 1957.
Mrs. Williams was the mother of 12 children, all living except the eldest, Glenn, who died in 1944 at the age of 41. Her surviving children included Mrs. Goldie Brodman, Mrs. Edith Harding, Harold, Leo, Lloyd, Mrs. Helen Smith, Wesley, Clifford, Letha, Mrs. Doris Claxton, and Mrs. Verna Faherty.
Today, Mrs. Williams makes her home with her son, Wesley Williams. She remains fairly active and still enjoys doing much of her own housework.
(by L.A.H.)
Since the Woodson County newspapers from this period have not yet been digitized, finding this article today would have required reading through years of microfilm. I’m incredibly grateful that my grandmother chose to save clippings like this, preserving pieces of our family’s past that would otherwise be difficult to recover.