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Robert Anderson Smelser
BIRTH 6 Jul 1859
Benton County, Iowa, USA
DEATH 23 Mar 1944 (aged 84)
Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa, USA
BURIAL
Westview Cemetery
La Porte City, Black Hawk County, Iowa, USA
PLOT Block 4
MEMORIAL ID 70903910 · View Source
MEMORIAL
PHOTOS 1
FLOWERS 1
Progress Review, La Porte City, Iowa Thursday, March 30, 1944, Page 10
R.A. Smelser Funeral Held
Native of This Community Was 84 Years Old at Time of His Death
Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock in the Ashley and Waldroff funeral home, for Robert A. Smelser, who died at the Isolation hospital in Waterloo, at 6 o’clock last Thursday A.M., after suffering a stroke.
He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Smelser, born July 6th, 1859, in Benton county, near La Porte City. He was eighty-four years old at the time of his death.
He accompanied his parents to Indiana when a small boy and married Trilly Laughner there. Five children were born to that union, three daughters and two sons: Mrs. Carrie Brookshire, Mrs. Pearl Turner, Mrs. Inez White, and Ernest, all of Indianapolis, Ind., and Charles of Mont Rose, Colorado.
Mr. Smelser returned to La Porte City and married Edith Lucas in 1894, and she died on November 11, 1938.
He was a harness maker most of his early life.
He is survived by three sons by his second marriage, Thomas E., Waterloo, and Bert A. and Gaylord E. of La Porte City.
Two daughters, Mrs. Cleo A. Gardner and Myrtle Smelser died in 1934 and 1907 respectively.
Twenty-two grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren also survive
A.H. Schroeder, student pastor of the Presbyterian church, conducted the funeral services and burial was in West View cemetery.
The pallbearers were Walter Carlisle, Henry Peters, Milt Harmon, Dow Fike, Art Goldsberry and J.B. Walden.
"Robert A Smelser/Edith Smelser
#30443. Final Decree 21 May 1901 Book 69 p. 507. Default Decree for Plaintiff [Robert]. He is entitled to the relief prayed for in this Petition. Married in Aug 1893, Blackhawk County, Iowa."
"Greene County Archives' Bulletin 6, Jan 1989. Abstracts of Divorce Records 1900-1910"
Robert and Edith are never together on any census records after 1900. Robert married Mrs Jemima Retfrow [Jemima Elizabeth Jump] 15 Dec 1908 in Polk Co., MO. "Missouri, Marriage Records, 1805-2002". Contributed by #47170716
Family Members
Spouses
Centrilla Laughner Shoemaker
1862–1944 (m. 1882)
Edith V. Lucas Smelser
1865–1938 (m. 1893)
Children
Ollie Pearl Smelser Wiley
1883–1968
Carrie Elizabeth Smelser Brookshire
1884–1980
Cleo Smelser Gardner
1894–1934
Thomas E. Smelser
1896–1956
Bert Almon Smelser
1897–1955
Gaylord E. Smelser
1908–1978
