IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
Lela Aurilla Yost (1890-1977)
Eight Decades of Lela Yost, 1995
0.5 linear
inches
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ACQUISITION: |
Eight Decades of Lela Yost (donor no. 446) was donated by Carol Basgall in 1997. |
|
ACCESS: |
Open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
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PROCESSED BY: |
Karina
E. Cutler and Lisa Peperkorn, 1997-1998.
[YostLela.doc] |
Biography
Lela Yost was born in Butler County, Iowa
on August 4, 1890. After graduating from high school in 1909, she attended the Teacher's
Institute in Allison, Iowa. Yost taught at Fairview School, Ripley Township,
Butler County, Iowa, a one-room schoolhouse, until her marriage to Richard
Ludemann on September 18, 1910. The
couple settled in Mason City, Iowa.
The Ludemanns had four daughters and
one son. During the Great Depression the family moved to Portland Township
(just east of Mason City) to farm. The
family returned to Mason City after World War II. In 1946, Lela and Richard Ludemann moved to Rockwell, Iowa where
Richard Ludemann died in September.
Later, Lela Yost Ludemann returned to Mason City and remained there
until her death from cancer on November 3, 1977.
Scope and Content Note
Eight Decades of Lela
Yost is a “genealogy in words” written by Lela Yost and her daughter, Carol
Basgall, and compiled by Basgall in 1995. Not just the story of
Lela Yost, the book contains eight decades of photographs, clippings, and text
documenting five generations of men and women in the Ludemann and Yost families. The work is 170 pages long.
Eight
Decades of Lela Yost is especially valuable for its information and
first-hand accounts of farming from the late nineteenth century and into the
twentieth century. It begins with the history
of the Yost family from their immigration from Germany to the United States,
and continues through their move to Iowa.
In addition to the farm life of Yost’s family, there is discussion of
the social life of the times, such as county fairs, and political and holiday
gatherings. Yost also mentions the rise
of the railroad and later, the automobile and how these changed life on the
farm. There is also discussion of the effect
the Great Depression had on the Ludemann family and its farm, as well as descriptions
of Yost’s experiences as a schoolteacher.
Interspersed with Yost’s own writings are the comments by her daughter,
Carol Basgall, as well as copies of letters, newspaper articles, sketches by
Lela Yost, photographs, greeting cards, and postcards.
Related
Collections
Mae Ludemann papers.
Ludemann was Yost's sister-in-law.
SCVF Description
Folder
1
Eight Decades of
Lela Yost by Lela A. Yost (in collaboration with her daughter Carol
Basgall).