PRATHER-L Archives

From: "Jeanine Wichman" <>
Subject: [PRATHER] Opal Prather Carpenter - Iowa
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 09:08:57 -0500

The contrast between my Grandma Opal Prather Carpenter and our
ancestors, the Spriggs, are remarkable.

Grandpa and Grandma were married in her parents three room home in Viola
Township, Audubon County, Iowa in 1909. They spent their wedding night
in the bedroom under the rafters of her parent’s home. Grandma’s little
three year old cousin, who had always slept with Grandma when she stayed
over at her Aunt’s and Uncle’s home, insisted on sleeping with Opal that
night. So Grandpa and Grandma had a three year old little girl sleeping
between them on their wedding night. :-)

The following is from Grandma’s obituary, which also give you an idea of
what life was like for a descendant of the Spriggs and early Prathers.

“Mrs. Carpenter was born at Viola Center, Iowa in Audubon County on
August 17, 1890, the eldest child of George Edward Prather and Carrie
Ellen Dean Prather.
Opal completed her first eight years of education in a one
room country school and completed High School. She taught one term of
school and was a 4-H Club leader for many years.
She was married on February 23, 1909 to Oliver Burris
Carpenter at her parents' home, which consisted of two rooms downstairs
and one room upstairs. They began farming for their living.
In 1911 they moved to Milford, Iowa and lived there three
years before moving four miles south of Ruthven. After five years they
moved to a farm on the Clay/Palo Alto County line. Another two years
found them moving again just a few miles west into the Dickens territory
where they lived for 18 years. They then decided to buy their own farm
½ mile north of Silver Lake in Palo Alto County, taking possession March
1st, 1939.
The first of March was always moving day back then, no
matter what the weather was like. They experienced many hardships in
moving as roads were usually very muddy. In 1911, they put cattle and
horses in the livestock cars on the train for the long move from Audubon
County to Dickinson County. In 1914, they herded the livestock down to
Palo Alto County and moved their other possessions in wagons and in
their buggy. They bought their first car, an Overland, around 1920.
As a very young girl, helping at home, she vowed she would
never again sew carpet rags for making rugs, and no pick over
gooseberries, but did both after her marriage. She remembered when they
put fresh straw underneath their rag-rug carpet and tacking it down to
the floor. Also of making fresh straw ticks for bed mattresses after
threshing oats.
1947 found them retiring from farming. They enjoyed many
winters together at McAllen, Texas and one at Tucson, Arizona. In 1954,
they remodeled the second house north of the old Free Methodist Church
(in Ruthven), which now stands as the third house north of the Ruthven
High School, where she continued to make her home after Oliver Burris
passed away on December 5, 1959. He had suffered a stroke in 1952 and
recovered, but further strokes claimed his life.
After her husband passed away she continued to enjoy
escaping the cold Iowa winters by riding south each winter with Mrs.
Otelia Fitsimmons (Tel) of Webb to McAllen, Texas where they both owned
trailer homes.”

What a contrast of being raised in a three room home to having two homes
of her own, even if one was a trailer home.

I am looking forward to learning more about other Prather family
members.

Jeanine Carpenter Wichman

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• [PRATHER] Opal Prather Carpenter - Iowa by "Jeanine Wichman" <>