Alexander Teagarden FIELDS

  General Notes:

Photo: This is a photograph of the image of young, handsome Alexander Teagarden Fields, 1841-1904, inside the gold locket given to DeeAnna by Alexander's daughter, Bonnie Darr Fields, in 1965. The ornate locket, on its original gold chain, had belonged to Bonnie's mother, Sarah "Emma" L. (Meacham) Fields and had been worn by Emma when Alex served in the Civil War. Alexander was a member of the Teagarden family of Washington and Greene counties, Pennsylvania made prominent in local histories and by the book, GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM TEAGARDEN, From Arrival in America, Including European Background, by Helen Elizabeth Vogt, originally published in the 1960s.
From DeeAnna Allum Granston

To see a photo of the locket, go to the Index of Names. Click on "Meacham, Sarah Emma L. (The Locket)"


1841 BIRTH of Alexander Teagarden Fields ("Alex") (in Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania...or in Washington County, Pennsylvania)

1850 CENSUS, Pennsylvania, Washington County, East Finley Township (October 22) ("Alexander T.," age 10, is with his parents)

1855 DEATH (approximate) of grandfather, John Fields

MIGRATION with parents from Pennsylvania to Iowa

1860 CENSUS, Iowa, Iowa County, Honey Creek Township, P. O. Koszta (July 28) ("Alex," age 19, is with his parents)

1865 DEATH (approximate) of grandmother, Rachel (Phippen) Fields

1867 MARRIAGE of Alexander Teagarden Fields and S. Emma L. Meacham on December 23 in Marengo, Iowa County, Iowa, in Methodist Church parsonage by J. T. Simmons

1870 CENSUS. Where?

1878 DEATH of mother, Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields

1880 CENSUS, Iowa, Iowa County, Hartford Township, Ladora (June 11) ("A. T.," age 39, "Dry goods merchant") (wife "Emely S.," age 36)

1885 CENSUS, Iowa State Census, Jasper County, Washington Township (no specific date) ("A. T. Field," age 42, "Dry Goods Mer.") (wife, "E. L.," age 40, daughters "G. M.," age 14; "H. L.," age 10; "Nellie," age 8; "Bonnie," age 2; and "Bessie," age 2)

I was pleased to find the Alexander Teagarden Fields family in the 1885 census. It is the only census in which all five daughters are documented with their mother Emma, who died the following year (1886). Bonnie's 1960s correspondence conveyed an understandable unfulfilled longing for her natural mother, who died when Bonnie was only 3 years old. --DeeAnna

1886 DEATH of wife, S. Emma L. (Meacham) Fields at 42 years 6 months 24 days

1893 MARRIAGE of Alexander Teagarden Fields and Margaret (Eckles) Leighner on April 15 in Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa by Rev. Dennis Murphy, Methodist minister

1895 CENSUS, Iowa State Census, Jasper County, Colfax (no specific date) ("Alexander T. Fields," age 55, born in Pennsylvania)

1900 CENSUS, Iowa, Polk County, Beaver Township, Mitchellville (June 5) ("Alexander," age 58, "Merchant," wife "Margaret M.," age 51, "Bookkeeper")

1902 DEATH (approximate) of father, Lewis Fields

1904 DEATH, Alexander Teagarden Fields at 62 years 10 months 3 days

****

1910 CENSUS, Washington, Yakima, East Sunnyside Precinct (April 19) ("Margaret M.," age 58, widow, "Clerk, Dry Goods," is "sister-in-law" in the household of Lyman W. and Ada Bates)

1920 CENSUS, California, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles (January 5) ("Margaret," age 69, widow, "mother-in-law," is in the household of E. D. S. and Dora Pope)

1926 DEATH of Margaret (Eckles) (Leighner) Fields at approximately 78 years


DeeAnna Allum Granston, December 28, 1964 letter to Shirley Allum Hudlicky:

"I have been corresponding with Miss Bonnie D. Fields of Long Beach, California, an elderly woman and a daughter of Alexander Teagarden Fields born in 1841 in Pennsylvania, a son of Lewis Fields, who was born about 1812. Bonnie said that the Lewis Fields family moved to Iowa when her father was about 12 years old. She said before her sister Nelle died in 1960 she compiled Fields family data, but Bonnie does not know its location today.

"She writes, 'The Lewis Fields family was ours. Our mother [Sarah L. Emma Meacham Fields, wife of Alexander Teagarden Fields] passed on when my twin and I were two years old and Papa's sister [Aunt Kate] came to our house. I had four sisters. Grace was born on a homestead after the Civil War in Nebraska, and Hattie and Nellie were born at Koszta, Iowa, my twin sister Bessie and I in Iowa.

"My sister Hattie was a missionary for the M. E. Church in South America for 17 years. Her husband was head of the German department at U.C.L.A. at Los Angeles, California. Nellie was a principal in the city schools of Minneapolis for 35 years and taught school in Anaheim, California for 26 years. Bessie an I were both nurses in the 1st World War. She was in Ft. Riley, Kansas, and I served in France 11 miles out of Paris. Grace and Hattie and Bessie married, but Nellie and I did not.

"Aunt Kate had two sons and Aunt Rachel never married. Both the sons are gone. Uncle George, Sam and Frank are all gone. They lived at Koszta and Ladora.

"Grandpa Lewis was a good-looking old man and a farmer. My father [Alexander] was a merchant. We did not claim relationship to Marshall Field, but he did write us a beautiful letter at the time of Papa's death. He had bought goods from Marshall Field for 35 years.

"My father [Alexander] was 19 years old when he joined the Civil War and was in Co. G, 7th Iowa. I heard his mother [Mary Ann] was a Catholic and Grandpa Lewis was a Carmelite and had my father immersed in the Iowa River when he was 12 years old. He [Alexander] died a high Mason (32nd).

"My father had a cousin in Davenport, Iowa--Hon. Bruce T. Seaman.* His mother was a Teagarden, and Papa's mother was a Teagarden.

*Shirley, according to your October 23 letter a book exists titled SEAMAN Family of the Middle West: An Account of the Descendants of William Seaman Who Died in 1814 in Washington County, Pennsylvania, by William M. Seaman, 1952."


February 23, 1965 letter to Shirley Allum Hudlicky:

"Today I received old photos to keep, gifts to me from Bonnie Fields, including photos of her father, Alexander Teagarden Fields, and of her mother, Emma (Meacham) Fields (taken 1863), a tin-type of Alexander holding Bonnie and her twin sister Bessie when they were babies, and a photo of Emma holding Bonnie and Bessie when they were infants; also a tin-type of Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields, Bonnie's grandmother. Bonnie sent me the name and address of one of her cousins who possesses a photo of Lewis Fields."


May 31, 1965 letter to Shirley Allum Hudlicky:

"The Lewis Fields branch of the Fields family has occupied much of my time lately, especially the Alexander Teagarden Fields family. Bonnie Fields of Long Beach, California, who is in her 80s, suffered a heart attack in March but is recuperating, she says. Bonnie sent me a locket to keep that belonged to her mother, Emma (Meacham) Fields, which, according to Bonnie, her mother wore during the Civil War. The locket is a large, round one, gold, with designs engraved on both sides, suspended from a double-link chain with a 'tin-type'...'type'...likeness of Alex Fields inside.

"Thanks to Bonnie's cousin, I now have a photo of Lewis and Mary Ann (Teagarden) Fields, copied from a tin-type."



SIGNATURE (Alex): From military pension record

SIGNATURE (Emma): From original letters and original postcards, 1859-1883, gifts to DeeAnna in 1965 from Bonnie Darr Fields

SIGNATURE (Margaret): From Alex's military pension record

MILITARY SERVICE: Sergeant, Company G, 7th IOWA INFANTRY VOLUNTEERS, July 8, 1861 to July 12, 1865. Mustered out at Louisville, KY.
Note: On Aug. 31, 1864 while in the line of his duty at Jonesborough, GA with his Company and Regiment, Alex received a shell wound in his left hip, a piece of shell entering near the joint disabling him from active exercises or manual labor. He was treated in U.S. Field Hospital 16th Army Corp near Jonesborough, GA; he was also treated in the same hospital at Atlanta, GA. From Atlanta he was sent to U.S. Gen'l. Hospital at Camp McClellan near Davenport, IA. He also contracted "varicocele" in June, 1864.

Bonnie Darr Fields (1882-1967), daughter of Alex and Emma, February 14, 1965 letter to DeeAnna:

"My father was the color bearer and was shot during the Battle of Shilo."

BOOK: THE HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY, IOWA, Union Historical Company, Birdsall, Williams & Co., DesMoines, Iowa, 1881, page 458:
"Private: Fields, Alexander, veteranized Dec. 30, 1863"

MILITARY PENSION RECORD: No. WC 837 747

OCCUPATION (Alex): Clerk-Merchant; Postmaster of Koszta, Iowa

LOCATIONS: Washington County and/or Greene County*, Pennsylvania (probably Washington County); Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia (until about 1855); Iowa County, Iowa (Koszta; Ladora); Poweshiek County, Iowa (Malcom); Jasper County, Iowa (Colfax)(moved to Colfax about 1881); Polk County, Iowa (Mitchellville)(moved to Mitchellville about 1898)

*Bonnie Darr Fields thought her father had been born in 1841 at Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania. Alexander's obituary states he was a native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and the 1850 census does document Alexander in his father's household in Washington County.


BOOK: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM TEAGARDEN, From Arrival in America, Including European Background, by Helen Elizabeth Vogt, published 1967, page 340, regarding Alexander Teagarden Fields and Sarah Emma L. (Meacham) Fields:

"Alexander left his home in Pennsylvania at fourteen and worked on the Ohio River westward into Iowa where he found a fine piece of land and settled near Koszta on the Iowa River in Iowa County. He studied medicine but never practiced. He was a successful dry goods merchant and owned stores in Koszta, Mitchellville and other Iowa towns. During the Civil War he was a captain in the 7th Iowa Infantry and a color bearer during the closing period of the war. They had seven children.

"Emma's brother was the Indian Agent, Alfred Meacham, who was nearly killed in the 1873 Modoc Indian War in California by the Indian "Steamboat Frank" who, troubled by his conscience later in life, went to Iowa and tried to free his soul by talking with Emma. Alfred wrote "Wigwam and Warpath" and "Winema, the Woman Chief" in tribute to the Indian woman who saved his life. There is a monument to him near Reno, Nevada."


BOOK: THE HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY, IOWA, Union Historical Company, Birdsall, Williams & Co., DesMoines, Iowa, 1881, page 666:

"KOSZTA. Samuel Huston laid out this town about two months after the first township election in Honey Creek and named it Koszta in honor, it is said, of a Polish nobleman of the same name. The original plat was in the northeast quarter of section 14, township 81, range 12, and was officially acknowledged June 12, 1856. Theodore Hench made an addition just south of this April 21, 1857, and it is now known as Hench's Addition. When the post-office was established William Hench was appointed postmaster. N. M. Adams was the next, and then A. T. Fields and D. L. Stick."


CHURCH AFFILIATION (Alex): Methodist

CHURCH AFFILIATION (Emma): Quaker; later, Methodist




NEWSPAPER:

Excerpts from THE WEEKLY CLIPPER, Colfax, Iowa (original newspaper loaned by Grace Brunson Tedrow):

COLFAX DIRECTORY:

E. D. Duncan, W. R. C. No. 5--Meets in the Mason House sample room on the second Wednesday in each month. Mrs. A. T. Fields, President, Mrs. M. M. Leighner, Secretary*

School Board--J. A. Mattern, Sec.'y; Geo. D. Wood, Treas., Mrs. Sarah Williams, Mrs. A. T. Fields, Isaac C. Balthis, John Cochran, W. M. Kroft and Jese Slavens, Directors.

*Mrs. Leighner became Alex's second wife after Emma's death




CAUSE OF DEATH (Emma): "Hemorrhage" --obituary

BURIAL LOCATION (Alex; wife Emma; daughters Nellie and Bonnie; daughter Grace and her husband Fred): Colfax Cemetery, Colfax, Jasper County, Iowa, Oak Hill Section, Plot 144



OBITUARY (Emma) from THE WEEKLY CLIPPER, Colfax, Iowa, Saturday, February 6, 1886:

SUDDEN DEATH--At 10 o'clock yesterday our people were filled with sorrowful surprise by the announcement that Mrs. Emma Fields was dead. It was not known outside the circle of her intimate friends that Mrs. Fields was dangerously ill, and as she was well enough to attend and take active part in the meeting at the M.E. church Thursday evening, no one was prepared for the news of her death. Her death was the result of a hemorrhage peculiar to her sex, superinduced by over-exertion. Her fatal illness lasted only from 9:30 in the evening until 11:20 the next day. Mrs. Fields was almost 41 years of age; the wife of A. T. Fields, and the mother of his five daughters. Possessed of a loving heart and sympathetic nature, she was the idol of her domestic circle, from whose arduous duties she could always spare a moment to dispense charity or a word of cheer to the discouraged or afflicted and there are not a few who date the advent of better thoughts, better aims and better life to her noble influence and effort. A loving, devoted wife is gone, and the tender hand of a patient watchful mother is stilled forever. Her brothers and sisters in the church of which she was a faithful member join in the sorrow of her bereaved companion and family over this sudden and irreparable loss. The funeral and interment will be from the home next Monday.



OBITUARY (Emma) from THE WEEKLY CLIPPER, Colfax, Iowa, Saturday, February 13, 1886:

AT REST--The announced arrangements for the obsequies of Mrs. Emma Fields were abandoned last Saturday after the CLIPPER had been mailed to permit the attendance of a sister from Dakota and to afford time for the assembling of the W. R. C. and G. A. R. posts here to pay their last tribute of respect and love to one who had been such a sincere, faithful and unostentatious worker in every noble charity of each order. The date for the funeral was fixed for Tuesday at 12 o'clock P.M.., and Rev's R. A. Carnine, of Brooklyn, and B. W. Vinson, of Corning, had signified their intention to attend. Actuated by a spontaneous feeling of sorrow and sympathy everyone came to the aid of the bereaved family. At the appointed hour, the W. R. C. and G. A. R. members repaired to the residence where the relatives and friends bade their last good by to the calm, angel face in the casket. Then the mournful procession marched to the Methodist church, where the solemn funeral exercises proceeded: Rev. Vail of the Presbyterian church read from the Scriptures, and prayed; Rev. R. A. Carnine preached an eloquent sermon; and Rev. Vinson followed in a touching tribute to the deceased. Then the funeral cortege was formed and proceeded to the cemetery, where the burial was conducted according to the impressive ritual of the W. R. C.
This funeral was the most pronounced demonstration of popular sorrow ever known here. Without any general understanding to the effect all of the business houses were closed from 12 to 1:30 P.M.; the church was crowded to overflowing, and a large number went away for lack of even standing-room; the casket was appropriately decorated with wreaths and bunches of natural flowers; the grave was profusely decorated with hanging wreaths of flowers and evergreens entwined to where the casket was lowered upon a bed of evergreens; while each member of the W. R. C. bore in her hand a sprig of arbor-vitae; at the church also the silent but eloquent emblems of woe, in black and white satin, bespoke the irretrievable loss to the church.
Emma Meacham (Fields) was born in Johnson County, Iowa, in September, 1843 and died Friday, February 5, ins. She was married to A. T. Fields in 1866, and was the mother of his five daughters who survive her. She was a faithful, devoted wife; a tender and loving mother, and a Christian whose practical life-work cast a radiant halo about her tomb. She has gone from our midst, but the memory of her dignified gentleness, her uniform kindness to and sympathy for the poor and the afflicted; her zeal in every good work have enshrined her memory within the heart of every one who knew her.
May she rest in peace!

PERSONAL MENTION

We noticed the following persons from abroad in attendance at the funeral of Mrs. Fields: Matilda Meacham, Groton, Dakota; Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Cannon, Iowa City; Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Mulch, Solon; Mr. and Mrs. L. Huston, Koszta; Dr. and Mrs. Darr, Dr. John Bricker and W. B. Fields, Ladora; Mr. and Mrs. B. B. Hubbard, Malcom; Mrs. Tillie Andrews, Mitchellville; State Sup. J. W. Akers, Des Moines; Robert Burns and daughter--Mrs. Allie McGregor--Mr. H. H. Weston and Deputy Sheriff J. H. Weston, Newton; Colonel Snyder and daughter Jennie(?), Shelah; Lewis (sic) Fields and daughter Rachel, Booneville.
**
Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Cannon and Mrs. J. L. Cook attended the funeral of Mrs. Fields at Colfax Tuesday. Mrs. Fields was Mr. Cannon's aunt.



OBITUARY (Alexander) from THE COLFAX CLIPPER, Colfax, Iowa, Saturday, January 9, 1904:

PASSED FROM EARTH

Last Monday morning ended the long and painful illness which marked the close of the busy, eventful life of Alexander T. Fields; weary mortality gave up the unequal struggle and passed to the investigation of those mysteries which are unfolded only when we give up the vital flame to sink into oblivion.
A. T. Fields was a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and had he lived until the 1st of March, 1904, would have been 61 years old. The history of his life is that in his childhood his parents removed from their home near Wheeling, Va., coming to Iowa and locating on a farm near Koszta in Iowa county. Alexander was at this time 14 years old. Four years later at the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, he was among the first to enlist in his country's service, joining Company G, 7th Iowa infantry, serving faithfully and bravely in every campaign and battle in which his regiment engaged, and to the end of the great struggle, when he returned to Iowa, being mustered out of the army in 1865. On the 23rd of December, 1866, he was united in marriage with Miss Emma L. Meacham. The fruits of this union were seven children, of whom five daughters survive: Grace M., Harriet L., Nell. M., Bonnie D., and Bessie B. From Koszta to Ladora, thence to Malcom and then, in 1881, to Colfax, whence some six years ago he went to Mitchellville which marks the itinerary of his arduous life. During his residence here his wife passed away, and seven years later, in 1893 he was married to Mrs. M. M. Leighner, who survives him. His business and social life here were remarkable for their success--for his happy home life, for his love and devotion to his family, for his liberality to the unfortunate and his support of churches and activity in promoting institutions of learning. He was a leading member of the Masonic fraternity and also of the G. A. R., and those societies combined in conducting the obsequies last Thursday--the funeral being held from the residence, at Mitchellville, conducted by the M. E. pastor, Rev. Morley, assisted by Rev. M. Stahl, of Colfax, after which the body was brought to Colfax over the Interurban, and laid to rest at Oak Hill, beside the mother of his children.




AUTOGRAPH ALBUM:

Excerpts traced by DeeAnna from autograph album of Emma (Meacham) Fields (loaned to DeeAnna by Grace Brunson Tedrow):

"Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Love mercy, walk humbly before God is my motto. --A. Meacham"

This could have been written by Emma's father, Anderson Meacham, 1800-1882, or her brother, Alfred Meacham, 1826-1882
____________________

"When from those we love we part, from hope we comfort borrow, and whisper to our aching hart (sic), we will meet again tomorrow. --Your Sister, Tilda, Solon, Iowa, Oct. 16, 1879"
____________________

"I love my mamma and papa." --Bessie Fields, March 25, 1892"

Bessie's natural mother Emma had died in 1886; this would have been written regarding her stepmother Margaret
____________________

"Yours truly, Will Alvord, Booneville, Iowa (at Koszta, Iowa, March 22, 1880" ('beautiful, flowing handwriting)




VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS, gifts to DeeAnna in 1965 from Bonnie Darr Fields:

Alexander Teagarden Fields (tin-type in a gold, engraved, large, round locket on a gold chain)

Alexander Teagarden Fields (head and shoulders) (James Photographer, Iowa City, Iowa) (measures 2 1/2" X 4")

Sarah Emma L. (Meacham) Fields as a young woman

Sarah Emma L. (Meacham) Fields holding twin daughters Bonnie and Bessie (John Pflaum, Photographer, Colfax, Iowa) (measures 2 1/2" X 4")

Alexander Teagarden Fields holding twin daughters Bonnie and Bessie (tin-type measures 2 1/2" X 3 1/2")

Sarah Emma L. (Meacham) Fields; formal photo taken in 1863 or 1864 (original); Emma is wearing a long coat) (Calkin & Mahana, Iowa City, Iowa in 1863 or 1864) (measures 2 3/8" X 4")

The Fields Sisters: Front, Bessie and Bonnie; Standing, left, Hattie; Seated, Grace; Standing, right, Nellie

Sarah Emma L. (Meacham) Fields (head and shoulders) (L. M. Macy Photographs, Brooklyn, Iowa) (measures 2 1/2" X 4")

Alexander Teagarden Fields, when older

Margaret (Eckles) (Leighner) Fields, second wife of Alexander (original) (measures 5 1/4" X 7 1/4")

House [rented] at Mitchellville, Polk County, Iowa with family gathered on the front porch, as follows:
Left to right, Margaret M. (Eckles) (Leighner) Fields (1848-1926), second wife of Alexander; Nellie Meacham Fields (1876-1960); Bessie Bricker (Fields) King (1882-1952); Bonnie Darr Fields (1882-1967); Cornelia Devote; Lewis Fields (photo taken early 1900s)




PHOTOGRAPHS taken by DeeAnna in 1965:

Fields plot at Colfax City Cemetery, Colfax, Jasper County, Iowa

Large Fields stone

Inscriptions for "Emma" and Alex

Inscription (on same stone) for Emma's sister Matilda, buried on Fields plot (plus negative)

Foot stone with MATILDA on it

Alex and Emma's daughters Grace, Nellie and Bonnie (and Grace's husband Fred) are also buried on this Fields plot




CORRESPONDENCE:

Excerpts from letters to DeeAnna from Bonnie Darr Fields, daughter of Alex and "Emma":

"Mama was a Quaker and taught school at Koszta, Iowa. She married our father after the Civil War. She and Papa planned to be married before the war ended and went to a minister to be married, then decided they would wait until she finished her schooling and the war was over. The minister gave my father a Bible and told him to read it every day. He carried it in his vest pocket over his heart. Mama had her picture taken (a tin-type), sent it to Papa, and he put it in the Bible. He was the color bearer during the Battle of Shiloh; he was shot, but the Bible and tin-type saved his life. I had the Bible with the dent of the bullet in it; I gave it to my pastor, Rev. Alexander Nicholes.

"Mama had two sisters and three brothers. Her sister Matilda went to California with her two brothers during the '49 gold rush. Mama's brothers were in the Modock Indian War. Uncle Alfred Meacham was quite a character--he was partly scalped by the Indians--and wrote a history called THE WIGWAM AND WARPATH (by A. B. Meacham). His wife was from Salem, Oregon, and there is an historical building there in his memory containing items from the Modock Indian War. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery."

"An old friend in Long Beach, California told me that she attended the last prayer meeting Mama attended. She said that Mama had an intuition that it would be her last meeting and that she prayed for everyone from the national capitol to the school board members. That night she had a hemorrhage. The doctor came four times and finally told our father that Mama had 4 hours to live. Papa told Mama, and she told him to have us girls come to her bedside. Mama said, "I want all of you to love children and to be schoolteachers." And holding Hattie's hand, she said, "This is to be my missionary." Hattie was a missionary in South America for 17 years. Nellie and I taught school, Grace taught music, and Bessie was a nurse."

"I'm sending you Mama's locket, the one she wore during the Civil War, and Papa's picture is in it. It was all tarnished, and the little hinge on it was broken. My sweet friend here in Santa Ana had it fixed."




HEIRLOOMS:

LOCKET, round, yellow gold-filled locket engraved with scene of homes/church along a river bank; circa 1860s; one and one-half inches in diameter, five-sixteenths of an inch thick, on a 22" gold chain; locket is hinged and opens to reveal a likeness on metal (as a tin-type) of Alexander Teagarden Fields (1841-1904); locket belonged to Emma Meacham (Fields) (1843-1886), a gift to her from Alexander, her fiance, later her husband; Emma wore the locket while Alex served in the Civil War, his enlistment from July, 1861 to July, 1865; gift to DeeAnna in 1965 from Bonnie Darr Fields

To see a photo of the locket, go to the Index of Names. Click on "Meacham, Sarah Emma L. (The Locket)"

VINTAGE HANDWRITTEN LETTERS, 1859-1886 (year of Emma's death) exchanged primarily between Emma (Meacham) Fields and her future husband Alex when he was in the Civil War; between Emma and her sister Matilda ("Tilda") Meacham; and between Emma and her brother Alfred Benjamin Meacham (special agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and superintendent of Indian Affairs for the State of Oregon); gifts to DeeAnna in 1965

Alexander married Sarah Emma L. MEACHAM, daughter of Anderson MEACHAM and Lucinda WASSON, on December 23, 1867 in Marengo, Iowa County, Iowa. (Sarah Emma L. MEACHAM was born on July 12, 1843 in (Perhaps Tiffin) Johnson County, Iowa, died on February 5, 1886 in Colfax, Jasper County, Iowa and was buried on February 9, 1886 in Colfax City Cemetery, Jasper County, Iowa.)

Alexander next married Margaret M. (Eckles) LEIGHNER, daughter of Abraham Piatt ECKLES and Eliza Jane RYCKMAN, on April 15, 1893 in Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa. (Margaret M. (Eckles) LEIGHNER was born in 1848 in Indiana and died on May 4, 1926 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California.)