Today’s Friday Find is another newspaper clipping preserved by Pauline Mentzer Briles. This particular clipping features Pauline’s aunt, Clara Mentzer Williams, and likely originated from a Yates Center, Kansas, newspaper.
OUR SENIOR CITIZENS
Our Senior Citizen this week is Mrs. Clara E. Williams, who is living on the farm on which she was born 85 years ago.
In the year 1870, George and Emeline Mentzer came to Woodson County from Kewanee, Illinois. Mentzer had served with the 24th Mass. Infantry throughout the Civil War. Sometime after the close of the war he decided to come west. He, his wife and small sons, Charley O. and Fred arrived at Neosho Falls in the spring of 1871.
While Mrs. Mentzer and sons put up at the Falls House for some time, Mentzer and a friend, Geo. W. Allen, purchased raw claims from the M.K.T. Railway along West Owl Creek, three miles west and a mile and a half north of present Yates Center. After building a small cabin, Mentzer brought his family to the claim of 160 acres.
Here several more children were born: Susie May, Henry A., Phillip E., Ernest E., Clara E. and Clarence A.
Clara E. Mentzer and John W. Williams were married April 1, 1903. They observed their 50th wedding anniversary in 1953. He died July 21, 1957.
Mrs. Williams was the mother of 12 children, all living except the oldest, Glenn, who died in 1944 at the age of 41 years. Other children are Mrs. Goldie Brodman, Mrs. Edith Harding, Harold, Leo, Lloyd, Mrs. Helen Smith, Wesley, Clifford, Letha, Mrs. Doris Claxton, Mrs. Verna Faherty.
Mrs. Williams makes her home with her son, Wesley Williams. She is fairly active and does much of her housework and enjoys it.
This newspaper clipping provides a wonderful glimpse into Clara Mentzer Williams’ life, her family’s pioneering spirit, and their lasting legacy in Woodson County. Thanks to Pauline Mentzer Briles’ dedication to preserving family history, we have another valuable piece of the past to cherish. Stories like these help keep our ancestors’ memories alive and remind us of the resilience and determination that shaped our heritage.