We don’t know for certain where the newly-married couple – D.J. and Barbara Boller – made their home immediately after their nuptials in November 1881. As we mentioned last time, the Boller and Miller farms were not very far from each other (see map below), located in Washington Township in SW Johnson County near the little Mennonite community of Amish. In an article celebrating D.J & Barbara’s 54th anniversary – June 27, 1935 Mt. Pleasant News – we find that their “first home was established on a farm near Kalona where they lived 3 years.” One obituary we’ve found mentions that D.J. was “engaged as a farmer and school teaching when a young man.”
1869 Township map (above) shows the Miller farm (NW corner) and the Boller farm (SE corner).
About three years into D.J & Barbara’s marriage (1881-1884), my grandfather, Waldo Emerson Boller, was born in the Deer Creek area on June 15, 1884. More, obviously, about him later.
Sometime after Waldo’s birth in 1884, Daniel & Barbara began looking for a change in scenery and a home for their new family. An 1886 map of nearby Greene Township in Iowa County, indicates that the Bollers were living on 80 acres of farmland there. See maps above/below…
On June 20, 1886, D.J. and Barbara had their second son, Ora Frank Boller, born in Parnell, Iowa County – located just NW of the Boller farm in Greene Township of Iowa County.
In that same 1935 anniversary article (above) we mentioned earlier, it states that Daniel decided to leave Iowa County, setting out in a different direction with his life around 1888. While census records are silent on the subject, it’s apparent that D.J. picked up his family of four and moved further west to Grinnell, Iowa – in Poweshiek County – where he went into the furniture business with his younger brother, George D. Boller.
The September 18, 1888 edition of The Grinnell Herald announces the sale of Miles & Stevens Hardware business to The Boller Brothers – George and Daniel (D.J).
Sadly, from what The Herald reports (below) – the first few months of business for the Boller team certainly had its bumps and bruises!
On June 12, 1889 – a massive fire destroyed a good portion of Grinnell’s business district – with the Boller Brothers losing $8,000 – with only $4,500 in insurance!
But apparently, despite the loss, the Bollers attempted a comeback – advertising by July that they were “Ready For Business” – expanding into binding twine, barbed wire, gasoline stoves, ice cream freezers, and machine oils!
By November of 1889, The Herald reports that The Bollers had joined with two other merchants to form one whole block of business on the newly-restored Ames Block of Grinnell. Yet, despite the new business move, it appears that bad luck continued to follow the Bollers – with a $70 forgery trick played on them when a young man swindled them on a horse-deal gone bad.
We aren’t sure why the Bollers threw in the tool in Grinnell, but The Herald reports in January, 1892 that George had signed on as a traveling salesman for the Buck Stove Company of St. Louis, and D.J. had already taken his family back to Kalona to continue the furniture business there.
One of the possible reasons for the 1892 breakup in Grinnell – besides the string of bad luck and financial losses – could be due to D.J.’s newly-found profession as an undertaker.
Furniture and undertaking may, at first glance, seem like an odd combination. However, during the pioneer days, the role of undertaker quickly fell to those with related skills: the cabinetmakers, who could build caskets. After a death, for example, someone in the family would bring the local cabinetmaker some record of the size of the deceased —perhaps a pole notched to indicate the person’s length and width (see pic above). In turn, the craftsman would make a coffin to those dimensions.
Over the centuries, the Mennonites have become excellent craftsmen working with the many fine woods found in their communities. Remember that when the early Mennonite settlers looked for new land to farm, they were experts at identifying healthy trees. The Deer Creek area was well known for its fine selection of hickory, walnut and cherry groves. Those trees produce some of the finest wood available to those who have the skills to carve and construct fine furniture.
Now – back to the Bollers in Grinnell…
That 1935 wedding anniversary article (below), tells us that the Bollers lived in Grinnell for four years (1888-1892) while “Mr. Boller learned the undertaking business.” During this same time period, Christian Harbach, Des Moines’ first cabinetmaker and undertaker, opened a training school for undertakers, and by the 1880’s, Polk County was the home of one of the country’s best-known embalming schools, with the state’s professional association being one of the first to be established in the country (1881). It’s very likely D.J. received his training and licensing through Harbach’s School of Embalming or one like it.
Bruised but not broken, 36-year old D.J. was now trained and ready to take on his future, and soon would be re-locating to yet another small Iowa community that would support his new business venture – Boller Furniture and Undertaking.
According to the 1895 census records (and confirmed by that same 1935 newspaper article), Daniel & Barbara Boller and their two children, Waldo (age 10) and Frank (age 8) lived for about three years (1892-1895) in Kalona (Washington County) prior to their big move to nearby Henry County in 1896. At this point in time, D.J.’s parents, Jacob & Catharine Boller, had retired from farming and were living in Kalona as well. Read more here.
Kudos to the amazing resources below for the many quotes, photographs, etc. used on this page.
Greene Township, Iowa County, IAGenWeb
Furniture and Undertaking: An Odd Combination?, Jocolibrary, January 16, 2014
Wayland Couple Married 53 Years, Mt. Pleasant News, June 27, 1935, p 4
Boller Brothers buy business, The Grinnell Herald, September 18, 1888, p 3
Boller Brothers accident, The Grinnell Herald, November 6, 1888, p 3
Boller Brothers accident, The Grinnell Herald, December 14, 1888, p 3
Boller Brothers ad, The Grinnell Herald, April 5, 1889, p 3
Boller Brothers ad, The Grinnell Herald, May 3, 1889, p 4
Grinnell Fire, The Grinnell Herald, June 21, 1889, p 1
The Grinnell Fire – June 12, 1889, Poweshiek History – Facebook
Boller Brothers ad, The Grinnell Herald, September 13, 1889, p 2
Boller Brothers expansion-Ames Block, The Grinnell Herald, November 5, 1889, p 3
Dan Boller/George Boller, The Grinnell Herald, January 5, 1892, p 3
Dan Boller, The Grinnell Herald, January 26, 1892, p 3
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