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The 'Rightmire Report'

(3) William Rightmire was the first child of Benjamin and Martha. He was born on August 10, 1834, probably in Hardin County, Ohio. He married Margaret Ellen Kimmel on August 10, 1863 in Bureau County, Illinois. Margaret Ellen is the daughter of Amos Kimmel and Nancy Hummell. She was born on Jun 12, 1845 in Tuscararus County, Ohio.

William and Margaret Rightmire originally settled in Walnut Bureau, Illinois, but moved back to Ohio sometime between1870 and 1873. Their fifth child, Mary Eva Rightmire was born in Hardin Ohio. Also, the 1880 Ohio census listed William and Margaret Rightmire as Ohio residents. They then moved to Creston, Iowa shortly after the 1880 census since their last child, Vernon Elmer, was born in Union County, Iowa in 1883. Margaret died shortly after the birth of Vernon Elmer. She is buried in Harmony Cemetery, on Pole Rd. near Creston, Iowa. The obit on Margaret E. Rightmire read:

"Margaret E. Rightmire wife of Wm. Rightmire died at her home in Union County, Iowa, June 8th 1884. She leaves a husband and seven children, one a baby only five months old, to mourn her loss. Mrs. Rightmire was formerly a resident of McDonald township, this county."

Twenty years later, a 1900 Soundex file take from the 1900 census in Shannon City, Iowa, gave the following listing on William, sixteen years after her death:

Rightmire, William; white, b. Sep. 1834, age 65; living alone.

Research records of Alice Beyke recently noted the following: "William and Margaret Ellen Kimmel Rightmire lived northwest of Shannon City, Iowa, on a farm. There are no buildings there today. Margaret died June 4, 1884 and William died Nov. 12, 1914; they are buried in Harmony Cemetery not far from where they had lived."

William and Margaret had seven children:

(4) Martha Edith Rightmire was born July 10th, 1864 in Walnut Bureau, Illinois. She married James William Miller on September 12, 1884 in Creston County, Shannon City, Union, Iowa . Martha Edith died on June 15, 1935 in Wasco, Kern, California. Martha and James William Miller had seven children. There family is discussed in Section 5.

(4) Ada Elizabeth Rightmire was born January 1, 1866 in Walnut Bureau Illinois. She married Marion Sylvester Stradley on December 15, 1885 in Afton, Iowa. Ada died on October 17, 1942 in Shannon City, Iowa. They had six children. Their family is discussed in Section 6.
(4) Harrison Alden Rightmire was born on March 25, 1868 in Walnut Bureau, Illinois. He married Celia Letita Atha on December 29, 1892 in Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas. Harrison Alden died on August 2, 1944 in Shafter, Kern County, California. Celia died on April 18, 1946 in Bakersfield, Kern County, California.

Harrison Alden and Celia Letita had five children; (5) Roy R. Rightmire was born in 1894 and died in 1894; (5) Byron H. Rightmire was born on March 3, 1896 in Keaton, Hardin County, Ohio. He died on February 2, 1969; (5) Jay S. Rightmire was born on August 18, 1899 in Keaton, Hardin County, Ohio. He married Ivah Anthony. Jay died in August 1967; (5) Walter L. Rightmire was born on January 10, 1910 in Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas. He married Luica Comm; (5) Velma Fern Rightmire was born on December 12, 1913 in Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kansas. She married Alton Davis Downey on July 4, 1934.

(4) James William Rightmire born in Bureau County, Illinois, March 26, 1870. He married Alice Margaret Usher in Gosper County in 1898. James William and Alice Rightmire and family are discussed in Section 7 of this Chapter.

(4) Mary Eva Rightmire is believed to have married someone with the name Graham. However, I have no other information on Mary Eva.

(4) Amos Benjamine Rightmire. According to the 1880 census, Amos Benjamine Rightmire was born June 21, 1879 in Ohio. Alice Beyke, in December 1998, wrote that a relative, Irma Miller, believes "Amos Benjamin was born in Ohio June 21. He married Mabel Sears, they had no children. Irma visited Ben in Missouri when she was a child. They called him their 'rich Uncle' although there was no appearance of wealth. (If he owned a farm and lumber yard he wasn't doing to bad). Somehow in her mind he was connected with oil wells and always thought of him as a batchelor although he had been married. She says he was a Mason. Mabel died many years before Ben who died April 1, 1964. They are both buried in Wayne, NE, although he died in Missouri.

"My Aunt Mariam also visited Uncle Ben in Missouri while her husband was going to school there. She thought him to be kind of a strange fellow. Her way of saying he was kind of odd. My Mom and Uncle thought that he had taught school also and at the Wayne Normal College. Perhaps they had him confused with Vernon. The reason I am so interested in him is that they also thought he had worked on a family history of the Rightmire's. If he did, it probably got tossed after he died."

(4) Vernon Elmer Rightmire was born on December 26, 1883. He is the youngest of the William Rightmire family. Vernon married Evangeline Christiansen on August 8, 1908 in Wayne, Nebraska. Vernon Elmer and Evangeline and family are discussed in Section 8 of this Chapter.