Fred Earl Coulter

  General Notes:

Fred Coulter had a 320 acre farm in Felix Township, Grundy Co., IA called The Elms. The farm was renamed Velvet Lawn Farm in 1940 when the old elms were cut down to make way for rural electricity lines.

When Fred was 14, he could pick and shovel a hundred bushels of corn a day - no easy feat. It required walking behind a horse-drawn wagon, picking the corn, husking it with a husking peg or hook worn on one hand, and tossing the golden ear into the wagon. When the wagon was full, the load was hand -shoveled into the corncrib or bin. Fred had a steam threshing outfit with which he did custom threshing (he recalled his Uncle Allen A. Crecelius was his best thresher). Later, Fred did custom bailing and silo filling. Starting in 1915, he became one of central Iowa's biggest cattle feeders, usually raising Herefords. in the 1930s and 40s, he served as Justice of the Peace for Felix Township. (He could have married his daughter Darleen and her husband Leonard in 1946.) In 1944, Fred was the largest hemp grower in the United States. The hemp was harvested in 1943 by Italian prisoners of war, and in 1944 by German prisoners of war. With our hemp supplies from the Philippines cut off, it was needed in the war effort for making rope, helmet covers, landing nets, and thread. A marijuana permit had to be obtained from the federal government before the hemp could be planted.

Bring a thimble!

In 1909-1910, my father Fred Coulter was one of two suitors of Verna Kurtz, who taught in a one- room country schoolhouse in Marshall County, Iowa. She lived at home with her parents, as did Fred, several miles away at Coulterdale Stock Farm.

Verna's older sister Mary Kurtz, also a country schoolteacher, hosted a quilting bee, inviting neighborhood ladies to come on a Sunday afternoon and help quilt a quilt- top. She sent out invitations---with the admonishment to "bring your own thimble," and as a joke, she sent one to Fred, as a way of informing him he wouldn't be able to court Verna that Sunday, as the Kurtz farmhouse would be full of ladies sewing.

Well, the joke was on Mary! Fred accepted the invitation, and on Sunday afternoon he showed up in his 1909 Jackson horseless carriage, wearing his Sunday-go-to-meeting best suit and tie, with a starched and ironed white shirt courtesy of his mother, and her best silver thimble in his vest pocket. I suspect he was a big hit, being the only male in the otherwise female group!

And about that other suitor of Verna's... one Saturday, Fred had to work later than usual in the field. But wanting to see his sweetheart, he shaved and bathed and threw on his best clothes and motored over as fast as the 1909 Jackson would go. It was late in the evening, but Verna was still up, having just said goodbye to her other suitor. Fred hadn't taken time to eat any supper, he was in such a rush to get there. He was hungry, and he recalled half a century later how much he had enjoyed eating the box of store-bought candy left by his rival for Verna that evening!

Fred asked Verna to marry him a number of times before she finally said yes, and they wed in the new parlor of her parents' farmhouse in Taylor Township, Marshall County, Iowa, on September 14, 1910. A skilled seamstress, Verna sewed her own wedding dress, shown below (you may need to click on the blue link). Fred's parents retired to a fine house on the east end of Conrad, Iowa, with their young daughter Lois; and Fred and Verna set up housekeeping at Coulterdale Stock Farm in Liscomb Township, where Fred had been living.

Fred married Verna Opal Kurtz, daughter of Christian Gingrich Kurtz and Hannah Jane Puterbaugh, on 29 Aug 1923 in Groom's Farmhome In Felix Township, Grundy, Co., IA. (Verna Opal Kurtz was born on 14 Aug 1890 in Vienna Township, Marshall County, Iowa, died on 20 Aug 1920 in Her Home In Felix Township, Grundy Township, Iowa and was buried in Conrad Cemetery, Conrad, Grundy County, Iowa.)

Fred next married Lucille Eleanor Dutton, daughter of John Clinton Dutton Jr. and Bertha Alice Shutes, on 29 Aug 1923 in Groom's Farmhome In Felix Township, Grundy, Co., IA. (Lucille Eleanor Dutton was born on 29 Dec 1901 in Near Cottage, Buckeye Township, Hardin County, Iowa, died on 12 Jan 1976 in Marshalltown, Marshall County, Iowa and was buried in Conrad Cemetery, Conrad, Grundy County, Iowa.)