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Ancestors
Johan Andreas Harnagel was born in 1831 in Gross
Dohren, Germany. He was the person responsible for bringing his parents and
sisters to America. I imagine he and his whole family were sick of Germany
constantly being at war. Johan was serving in the German army. In 1855 while he
was home on a pass, he gathered his parents and sisters and took them to the
United States, Lee County, Iowa. This was a very brave thing for a young man of
24 years of age to do. His brother Henry was already in the United States. His
sister, Mary Harnagel, was my father’s paternal grandmother.
George Elliot Judy About 900 AD there was a slave or serf in Switzerland
who saved his master’s life. For this he was given his freedom. He took his
master’s name of Chudy. The name was changed from Chudy to Judy at some later
time. He is the ancestor of George Elliot Judy. He was born in Pennsylvania. At age 15 he went from
Pennsylvania to Iowa with his father and 2 brothers. They homesteaded in Lee County, Iowa. When George was 18 he
was sent back to Pennsylvania to bring his mother and siblings out to Iowa. His
first wife died. (Name unknown.) He
then married Mary Ferguson from Holland, and they were the parents of my
father’s mother, Clara Ellen Judy.
Frederich William Kast He came to this country (date unknown) as a young man
with his 2 brothers, landing in New Orleans. He found work on a Mississippi River steamboat that ran from
New Orleans to Saint Louis, and that is where he met and married Mary Harnagel.
He died of small pox while on a run, and is buried in Cairo, Illinois. He is my
father’s paternal grandfather. He died when his son (my father’s father) was 14
months old. Mary never remarried, and she raised her three children by working
as a seamstress. I still have this gravy ladle that belonged to Mary, my great-grandmother (my Dad's grandmother).
Donald Heydt Kast is my father. He was a
doctor, graduating from University of Iowa Medical School in 1924. His parents
were far from wealthy, but they were able to help him get his education because
he was their only child. When he graduated from high school in West Point,
Iowa, they moved to Fairfield, Iowa so he could live at home with them while
attending Parsons College. Then they all 3 moved to Iowa City so he could live
at home while attending medical school. My grandma (Clara) took in students to
room there and take their meals there. Grandpa (Fred) worked in a grocery
store. Dad (Donald) had a job summers as a stage manager for Midland Chatauqua, (which is a story in
itself.) During the school year his job was to start up the coal furnaces in
the mornings in several homes of the wealthy, and going back in the evenings to
bank the fire in each home. He loved his work as a doctor, and he cried when he
retired.
George William Cook Many ancestors on my mother’s side had the first or middle
name of William. The most notable that I know of was George William Cook. He
was my mother’s maternal grandfather. He was born in North Carolina, son of
Henry and Sallie Cook who were of English descent. At the age of 18 years
George left home to make his own way in the world. He learned the blacksmith trade from a Quaker in Tennessee,
and lived with them for three years. He moved on and worked as a blacksmith for
a plantation owner, Nathan Mills. He fell in love with Mr. Mills’ daughter,
Sarah, and married her 3 years later. Then the Civil War broke out. He considered
himself a Union sympathizer, so he and several other men fought their way to
the Union line in Ohio, and there he joined the Union Army. After the war he
moved his family to Mercer County, Illinois, and continued his work as a
blacksmith until retirement. He also served as the local “dentist” by pulling
the aching teeth of the locals.
Nathan Mills was the owner of a
plantation in Tennessee. He was my mother’s maternal great-grandfather.
Nathan’s grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather were all
named John Mills. Nathan’s great-great-grandfather was born in 1691 in England
and immigrated to Deep River, Guilford County, North Carolina (date unknown).
