Means Memories

 Old postcard from eBay showing the band shell and stage in McKinley Park, Creston, Iowa.

I was driving down the east side of McKinley the other day, glancing into the park grounds when I had a memory of going to the Means family picnic there with my grandparents 70+ years ago.  It was just Grandpa and Grandma Ridnour and me and a whole bunch of people I did not know. I remember walking over to a shelter with them and putting the picnic basket on a table. There were some kids around my age and Grandma tried introducing me to them thinking I would have someone my to play with. But I was very shy and wanted to stay near the only two people I knew. The only other thing I remember about that day was that I was glad when it was over and I remembered some woman named Zoah.

This photo of five Means cousins was taken years before that picnic, but could have been at a previous Means reunion. Left to right, Ethel, Zoah, Delphia, Blanch and Jessie. All five of these girls' fathers were brothers. Zoah's nephew Harrison was a high school classmate of mine. He could have been one of the other kids that Grandma Delphia introduced me to at the picnic. I did once ask him if his family went to the Means reunions and he said they did go to some of them.

This Means family photo dates to 1939. I know because those two babies were my cousins Glen and Larry Roberts. Glen was born in January, 1939 and Larry in September, 1937. Front row, left to right, Lloyd Perryman and his wife Drothel Means Perryman, George Means and wife Matilda Lippincott Means, Evelyn Ridnour Roberts holding her son Glen and Lois Ridnour Mitchell holding her nephew Larry. Back row, left to right, Orphas Means, Joe Ridnour and his wife Delphia Means Ridnour, Howard Roberts and my mother, Ruth Ridnour Lynam far right. Orphas, Drothel and Delphia were the children of George and Matilda Means. Evelyn, Ruth and Lois were the daughters of Joe and Delphia Ridnour. 

George Means was one of eleven children, seven of them sons. Those men married and had numerous children, many of them sons and so on down the line. So if I meet anyone in southwest Iowa with the name Means, it's almost a given that we are related. One of Grandma Delphia's Means cousins was named Basil which I thought was unusual enough. Then on the family tree I saw his middle name was Wan. Basil Wan Means. I did not see anyone he might have been named after. Could his parents have heard the name Juan, liked it, and spelled it the way it sounded?

I can not mention the Means without also thinking about the Lippincotts as great-grandma Matilda was a Lippincott. Her parents were referred to in the Adams County History Book as "two of the more colorful personalities in Mount Etna". And of the photos the person who wrote that shared was the two of them smoking their clay pipes. I've previously shared that photo as well as one of the Mt. Etna Mill they operated.

This is a studio portrait of  great-great grandpa David.

And this is one of great-great grandma Kate.

I thought I had posted them before, but do not find that I have.

Just recently I found this photo of a much younger David Lippincott - shared on Family Search by some other family member also hooked on genealogy.

I never think about these long ago many times great grandparents of mine without wondering just what genes, traits, and bit of personality they passed on to me.