4. VARNUM JUDSON RODRICK was born 29 Sep 1865 in Rossie, St Lawrence, NY, USA. He died 19 Mar 1944 in Northfield, Rice, MN, USA and was buried 22 Mar 1944 in Pine Island, Goodhue, MN, USA. VARNUM married IDA A DENAH COALWELL on 29 Apr 1891 in Rochester, Olmsted, MN, USA. [Parents]
Varnum Rodrick was a very big man. He farmed most of his life in the New
Haven, MN area and the house still stands today. He loved honey and cultivated
bees, both in his hives and in the walls of his house. He built a special trap
door in the side of their home and extracted the honey that way. His son,
Charles, recalled going to sleep hearing the hum of the bees. When times were
hard, he and his family left for Warroad, MN where he spent time
lumbering. He spent part of each year with Charles and Florence, dying finally
from an extended bout with facial cancer. He was a great story teller and
entertained us all with his memories of homesteading and pioneer life in
Minnesota.
5. IDA A DENAH COALWELL was born 11 Jul 1871 in Dane County, WI, USA. She died 27 May 1940 in Oronoco, Olmsted, MN, USA and was buried 31 May 1940 in Pine Island, Goodhue, MN, USA. [Parents]
Obituary taken from the Rochester Post Bulletin dated May 29 1940: Mrs. Varnum
Rodrick Dies at Oronoco.
Mrs. Varnum Rodrick, 80 years old, died at the home of her son, Arbie, in
Oronoco. She had been ill for several years.
Mrs. Rodrick, the former Ida Coalwell, was born July 11, 1871 in Dane
County, Wisconsin, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore A. Coalwell. She was
brought to Olmsted county by her parents when she was a child and had since
lived in the county.
In Rochester, April 29, 1891, she was married to Mr. Rodrick, who survives
with three sons, Joseph and Adelbert, of Northfield, and Arbie, of Oronoco,
and a daughter, Mrs. Otto Andrist of Pine Island. Another daughter, Mrs. Asa
Burdick, died July 28, 1939.
A sister, Mrs. Will Wilson, of Hastings, also survives, with three brothers:
Charles, Pine Island; Leonard, Ulen, Minn., and William of Milton, Wis.
Funeral services will be conducted Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the funeral home
in Pine Island and at the M.E. church at 3 o'clock. Burial will be in the Pine
Island cemetery. Mrs. Rodrick was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist
church.
6. DANIEL SLAYMAKER CULVER was born 7 May 1857/1859 in Walnut, Bureau, IL, USA. He died 29 Sep 1929 in Oronoco, Olmsted, MN, USA and was buried Sep 1929 in Oronoco, Olmsted, MN, USA. DANIEL married ROSA LEA MILLER on 7 Jun 1883 in Stockholm, Pepin, WI, USA. [Parents]
Daniel farmed in Minnesota most of his adult life. He was a short man with
dark brown hair. When Florence was just seven, he and his family left for
Lemmon, South Dakota to homestead there. His oldest two children were old
enough to homestead in their own right. They lived in a sod house on the
prarie and although the ground was good, natural disasters took their crops
for three years and they moved back to Minnesota. The Minnesota farm is still
in the family, Aaron Culver living there now. He is buried in Oronoco cemetery
7. ROSA LEA MILLER was born 22 Oct 1866 in Goodhue County, MN, USA. She died 27 Nov 1935 in Oronoco, Olmsted, MN, USA and was buried Nov 1935 in Oronoco, Olmsted, MN, USA. [Parents]
Rose was raised in Pine Island, MN. She married Daniel at the home of
her sister in Stockholm and began married life on their farm in Oronoco. She
was always an outdoor person and was glad to leave the housework to her girls.
She loved gardening and her chickens and her daughters main memory was of her,
apron raised and filled with feed or produce in her yard. She was a big
believer in education and her children all attended school - weather being no
reason to be absent. She is buried in the Oronoco cemetery.