Yesterday we visited Leroy's Aunt Lydia who turned 95 in January. Her parents were part of the failed attempt to establish a new Mennonite settlement near May City in Osceola County, Iowa. The first settlers arrived in 1887 and the last ones left in 1915.
Lydia's parents, Eli S. Stauffer and Mary M. Brubacher were married in Iowa in 1905. They had three children when they left Iowa in 1911 and moved to Snyder County, Pa. Eli's parents, Daniel and Susanna Stauffer, moved to Snyder County with them.
Lydia was born in 1913. In 1919 the Stauffer family moved from Snyder County to Groffdale, Pa. and a year later to Ephrata, Pa. where they lived the rest of their lives.
Lydia's maternal grandparents, Jacob and Elizabeth (Martin) Brubacher, left Iowa in 1912 and moved to Stanton, Michigan. In 1926 they moved from Michigan to Lancaster County, Pa. where they lived the rest of their lives. Lydia has this sale bill from her maternal grandparent's sale in Iowa in 1912, nearly a century ago. A cemetery is the only thing that is left of the Mennonite settlement in May City, Iowa.
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