IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
KATE MARTINSON (1858-1941)
PAPERS, 1872-1944
(bulk 1872-1917)
1 linear inch
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ACQUISITION: |
The papers (donor no. 141) were donated
by Bea Ann Ziegler in 1993. |
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ACCESS: |
The papers are open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
»Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
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PROCESSED
BY: |
Your name, year»Leslie Czechowski, 1995. |
Biography
Kate
Emily Anderson was born on October 16, 1858 in Rockford, Illinois, and at age
eleven moved with her family to a homestead in Dickinson County, Iowa. In 1877 she married George Emerson and had
four children, one of whom died in infancy.
For twenty years she managed their home and land in Dickinson and Worth
counties, eventually divorcing Emerson.
In 1897 she married Andrew Martinson and they and their ten children
farmed in the same area. She and Andrew
moved to the town of Milford in 1917, where she was active in church affairs
and in her favorite pastimes of writing and painting until her death in 1941.
Scope and Content Note
The
Kate Martinson diary dates from 1872
to 1917 and measures 1 linear
inch. Almost each year on October 2
from 1872 until 1893 she wrote about the previous year's activities including a
recitation of marriages, births, and deaths in her family. She described some of the joys and hardships
of life in rural Iowa including a tender account of the brief life and death of
an infant child. Her husband George
worked away from home for long periods of time, and in 1889 she learned that he
had another wife and other children; although she was pregnant, she sent him
away and eventully divorced him.
After her marriage in 1897 to Andrew Martinson she
resumed writing in her diary, although not with the regularity and depth as
previously. Generally it was a report
of the comings and goings of their children.
Obituaries of Kate and Andrew Martinson are included.
Folder no. Description
Folder
1
Diary, 1872-1917
Obituaries, 1941, 1944