| This is Laura Ann Higdon and her Great Grandpa Charles
Polley. It was taken about 1939 near Eldora, Iowa. Laura and
her family lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma but went to Iowa to visit
relatives. He died 5 years after this picture was taken.
More information about Charles Polley: He died at age 87 and is buried at Eldora Cemetery in Eldora, Iowa. His wife, Lizzy, is buried there, also, but not next to him. She is some distance to the West of his grave. |
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Reason they aren't together:
Charles and wife, Sarah [Lizzy] Noyer, bought grave sites side by side. Lizzie died first and was
buried in her spot. While Charles was still alive his daughter, Anna Mae, died. Her husband
was Eldon Carey Moon.
Eldon had no money to purchase a grave site, so Charles gave his site, which was next to his wife Sarah, to his daughter Anna Mae. So this put the daughter buried next to her mother and left Charles with no place to be buried. I don't know the details but when Charles died he was buried in another site. When I visited the site in 1998 I found Charles buried next to his son. To make it more confusing, Anna Mae's headstone is there beside her father and brother, but she is actually buried by her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Noyer Polley, in another location, with no stone or marker to indicate she is there. This is all word of mouth passed on by relatives who were living in 1998. I think it is accurate.
Charles Polley Obituary
July 19, 1857--Jan. 8, 1944
Great Grandfather of Laura Ann Higdon Carpenter
Funeral services for Charles Polley, 87, who died Saturday were held Tuesday in the
Vilmont-Longenecker funeral home in charge of Rev. Howard Johnson of Steamboat Rock.
Members of the I. O. O. F. lodge of Eldora attended and assisted in the service. Burial was in
the Eldora cemetery. He died at the I.O.O.F. home in Mason City.
Charley Polley was born in Germany July 19, 1857. He came to the United States and to Eldora
with his parents and an older brother when a small child. He attended the public schools here
and in later life was employed in various capacities, farming and coal mining. Mr. Polley is
survived by three sons and one daughter, 16 grandchildren and four great grand children. Mrs.
Polley died in 1905.
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