A J Gwinn Visits Mother

A J GWINN VISITS MOTHER

I found this as I was looking for something else and it intrigued me. "A.J. Gwinn visited over Sunday with his mother, Mrs. Samuel Gwinn" There is no date on this copy, but the Statement of Condition for the Cambria Savings Bank is as of Sept. 7, 1918.

Mrs. Samuel Gwinn is Cynthia (or Sintha) Gwinn. Samuel had been gone about 20 years, yet Cynthia was still known as Mrs. Samuel. It wasn't necesarily bad, it was just the way of the time. It would be two more years before she could vote.

A.J. Gwinn was Andrew J Gwinn, Cynthia's eldest son, born on the trek from Virginia (the area is now part of West Virginia) to Iowa. It is interesting to me that the local paper did not feel the need completely name him. Typesetting was time consuming and anything that could reduce the number of letters needed was used. The community was small and everyone would know which of Mrs. Samuel Gwinn's sons was "A.J."

One last item: I've never heard of the Pleasant View area. The Chariton papers that I am more used to would have called this the Humeston or Leroy area, maybe Derby. I'll have to look into the term Pleasant View area. Perhaps coming from Humeston, smaller areas are defined, like Poverty Ridge or Rabbit Ridge in Lucas county.