EJ and ET's Blog

ANCESTRY OF OUR FAMILIES - FRENCH & GERMAN

Eleanor's ethnic heritage is German. All 4 of her grandparents came to America from Germany in the early 1880s as young people without their parents. They traveled to Breman, Germany where they boarded a steamship for the long trip to Baltimore, MD. Altho they probably knew each other, each came at a different time. We have no details of the trips, but some of the "steamer trunks" that carried their belongings have been saved by family members. Eleanor feels honored to now possess the spinning wheel and china coffee pot that Grandmother Bruene brought in her trunk. The spinning wheel is constructed with wooden pegs so that it came apart for the trip.
Since Eleanor's ancestors were farmers, they took a train to Chicago and on to Gladbrook, IA. where each "hired out" to an established farmer. He lived with the family, received his room and board and, in addition was paid a few dollars monthly. Within a few years the thrifty hired man could accumulate enough to purchase land or send some back to help his family or pay passage for brothers, sisters, parents or cousins to America. Germany required young men to serve in the Army; the story is that one of my grandfathers immigrated to avoid service. The other grandfather had 6 brothers and a sister and their father couldn't earn enough as a tailor to support the family. Eventually that entire family came to Gladbrook and each of the boys took title to land to provide a good living for a wife and family. In taking title to land their family name, Koster was spelled with an umlaut over the O and was interpreted 2 different ways. Two brothers signed Koster; the others Koester, adding an e instead of the umlaut O. The brothers farmed as neighbors and succeeding generations have continued the two spellings.

INDIANOLA COMMUNITY LIFE for TEAM ELEANOR & GENE

Eleanor and Gene have worked together on several community projects. During the 1980’s they participated in “Adventures in Attitudes”, an educational and growth experience that deals with
“the whole person” rather than sets of skills or compartments of knowledge. After qualifing as leaders they presented the 20 unit sessions of about 28 hours, to more than ten church, banking and community groups.
They also teamed with Dick and Nancy Buxton (Dick was President of Peoples’ Bank, competitor of Warren County Brenton Bank) to raise funds to build a new Library for the City of Indianola.
The average price of new books at that time was about $12, so by asking a City of 8,000 to each contribute that amount; many small gifts from children and adults made the $200,000 project a reality.

INDIANOLA COMMUNITY LIFE for ELEANOR

Although family and household needs always had priority Eleanor also enjoyed community activities. Membership in United Methodist Women encouraged support of local and world wide missions. For this project the Service Group met in our basement many years to create over 75 evergreen wreaths and swags that were sold at the UMW December Bazaar. Eleanor served as President of UMW one term and continues as Program Chairman of Sarah Circle.
An invitation to join Grow & Glow Garden Club sparked a greater interest in gardening, landscaping and flower arranging and resulted in winning contests at Club and Warren County shows; Eleanor served as President of the Club for 2 years. During the Christmas season in 1982 a committee of the Club helped decorate our entire home for the annual “Tour of Homes”.
Another outlet for Eleanor’s interest in nature was the Indianola Park Board. During the years of her service the Board was enlarged to include Recreation and there was heated discussion about the use of parks for “active” or “passive” enjoyment. An early park such as Buxton Park was almost an arboretum, very passive; a later park, Pickard Park has multiple ball fields, a cross country track route and a Frisbie golf course as well as picnic facilities.

INDIANOLA COMMUNITY LIFE for GENE

Living in Indianola for 42 years we became deeply involved in the affairs of the greater community and that's the way we wanted it to be. When we moved here in 1965 Scott was a sophomore in High School playing football, wrestled and had his own transportation with a 1950 Plymouth Sedan. Sana was in 6th grade and soon became a cheerleader so it was logical to join The Sports Booster Club. Sana also played bassoon in band which meant supporting the Music Boosters; Scott became active in drama which may have attracted Gene to roles in several Carousel Theatre productions.
We transferred our membership to the First United Methodist Church when we moved here and through the years Gene has been active as Sunday School Teacher, Lay Leader, Administrative Board Chairman, Trustee and Co-Director of a major $400,000 "Focus On The Future" fund drive in 1980. He was also instrumental in the creation of an Endowment Fund for Church Property Maintenance.
Rotary invited Gene to join their Friday noon Service Club and having been a Kiwanis member in Perry and a Lion member in Vinton he accepted, serving as President in 1976 and District Treasurer twice when Donald Koch and Everett Laning, Indianola Club Rotarians became District Govenors. Rotary was sponsor of Youth for Understanding, a student exchange program thru which we hosted for one year each, Jan Sjoqvist from Sweden and Carola Hoeft from Germany while Scott and Sana were High School Juniors and Seniors.
The Warren County Fair incorporating 4-H and adult livestock competitions was an annual event running since 1855 and was governed by a Board of Directors.
Gene served as Secretary & Treasurer from 1975 to 1989 and became Historian in 1990 by preparing 30 Director Handbooks containing historical facts accumulated from various sources. In 1975 Gene became involved in arrangements for purchasing 1 acre by the Warren County Historical Society at the southeast corner of the 40 acre Fair Grounds for creating a museum and helping raise funds for building and erecting a permanent location to display accumulated artifacts; he still serves on the WCHS Endowment Fund Board and as Financial Advisor.