Today I am posting a family history written by Abraham's daughter, Estella Eldora Newkirk Turner. This letter was posted on Ancestry.com by a descendant of Estella. In total, there are nine pages. I am including the first page in this post. It is obvious to me that even though this family went through some tough times, they loved each other very much.

Page 1

Hello All,

This is a Land Ownership Map of Brookfield Township, Clinton, Iowa. Highlighted in yellow you will see that A.(Abraham) Newkirk and J.M. (James Madison, Abraham's Father) Newkirk have property
next to each other. This is the only land records I found for the Newkirk family while they lived in Iowa. No records were found at the Bureau of Land Management(BLM), General Land Office (GLO) Records Automation web site. [1]


[1]   A Newkirk (1874), U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918, Brookfield, Clinton County, Iowa (1874), Library of Congress, Washington, D.C, G&M_80; Roll Number: 80. Ancestry.com <database on-line.>

Iowa Farming After the War

During the Civil War, wheat prices went up, and Iowans planted more. By the end of the war, the price of wheat had bottomed out. Further, pests like grasshoppers and chinch bugs attacked the wheat, destroying the whole crop in some years. For many Iowa farmers, that was the signal to put their energy into corn and livestock. Iowans realized they could make more money on corn, particularly when faced with competition from wheat from newly-opened farms on the Great Plains. Corn was worth more per acre and Iowa could grow it better than Nebraska and Kansas.  Farmers had tended to be careless in their use of the land. This was not just Iowa's problem; Americans were used to thinking there would always be more land for new farms. By the 1880’s they saw this would not be true much longer. Farmers began to take an interest in keeping their soil fertile. They rotated corn with oats and hay to prevent crop diseases and insects. Crop rotation also helped to keep the soil supplied with different plant foods, instead of wearing it out by growing the same crop year after year.[1]

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[1] http://www.iptv.org/iowapathways; Iowa history http://www.destination360.com

Marching Home...

Marching Home...

After the war, Abraham returned to Iowa, where he courted Orpha Gregory for two years. They enjoyed activities such as county fairs, picnics and dances. Iowa held its first State Fair in 1854. Abraham  married his sweetheart, Orpha Gregory on 31 December 1837.[1] Abraham bought and farmed land in Brookfield, Clinton, Iowa.[2] In 1870 he had real estate valued at $3,000 and $600 in personal property.[3]

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[1] Abraham Newkirk, Marriage Records, 1840-1930, Clinton County, Iowa. Clerk of the District Court. FHL Film 1005210, Book I, page 231. Accessed 22 September 2012.

[2] A Newkirk (1874), U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918, Brookfield, Clinton County, Iowa (1874), Library of Congress, Washington, D.C, G&M_80; Roll Number: 80. Ancestry.com <database on-line.> Accessed 5 November 2012.

[3] Abe Newkirk household, 1870 U.S. Census Brookfield, Clinton, Iowa, population schedule, page 35A, sheet 35, dwelling number 105, family number 105; NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 1761. Ancestry.com. [database on-line]. Accessed 17 September 2012.