The story of Grandpa Will and the Montezuma connection

       Anyone who knows me, knows I enjoy visiting.
       To me, no one is a stranger.
       I also enjoy cruising Facebook and reconnecting with old friends, former classmates and discovering new acquaintances. That was the case earlier this year when I came across the Facebook page of Bill Bangham from Memphis, Tenn.
      I first met Bangham at a Christian Photojournalism Conference in Fort Worth, Texas more than 20-years ago. I attended the conference in 2001 and again in 2002.
       I recognized Bangham and asked him to be friends and he accepted.
   Bangham, who is now retired, spent years traveling the world working for the Southern Baptist denomination and other similar organizations taking photos and writing stories about the work of missionaries from around the world.
       In visiting with Bangham, I mentioned that I lived in Montezuma, Iowa.
      He stated that his Grandpa Will was born near Montezuma in the late 1800s while rolling across the state in a covered wagon train.
     That peeked my interest and I asked Bangham if he would share his story. Nothing come of my request until last week when Bangham responded to a post I shared regarding my new book of columns coming out this month.
      Bangham said he and a co-author friend have written a book and are looking for a publisher. The book is a collection of memoirs, titled “Tell Me a Story.”
      He sent me a chapter to read and I was surprised to learn that it is about his grandpa Will, who was born in a covered wagon near Montezuma.
     The story centered around the memories of a trip Bangham took as a teenager in high school from western Iowa to Annapolis, Md. in an un-air conditioned, Trailways bus.
       He shared this about his grandpa.
     “He (Grandpa Will) was born in 1879 on a wagon train from Ohio, crossing the Midwest. It stopped for a day by a stream outside of Montezuma, before packing up and moved on with what I picture a sleepless infant cradled by an exhausted mother, jostled in a horse-drawn wagon with little or no suspension. It would be days before they reached their destination in the western part of the state.
     As a young man, Grandpa moved his wife and two young sons to Scotts Bluff, Neb. Land was free to homestead. They may or may not have lived in a sod house; I’ve heard differing versions, one of which was they didn’t, but their neighbors did. His plan was to raise sugar beets.
      It only lasted a few years. His wife died of influenza. It was impossible for Grandpa to raise his young sons alone – age five and seven – and carve a farm from what was then still frontier. He tucked tail and moved back to Iowa where there was family.
      In the midst of their first winter back in Iowa, the boys fell through the ice while skating on a stream. It was bitter cold. They were soaked. It was a long walk back to their farm house. My father survived. His older brother developed pneumonia and died.
      Within a year, Grandpa lost half of his family.
     I saw him partially dressed one day. He had a hideous scar on his abdomen. He had been diagnosed with appendicitis, thrown on a train alone to ride the 60 miles to Des Moines and a surgeon. It looked as if the surgeon in stitching up the wound had pulled the edges together in a great pucker and wrapped a suture around it. It reminded me of the small leather, draw-string bag in which I carried my treasures as a child.
      He nearly died.
     His life was not all tragedy. When he returned to Iowa, he married the woman I knew as Grandma. She was a wonderful Grandmother. She and Grandpa were so different. She was full of laughter and play, he stoic and quiet.”
      The story goes on to share his memories of Grandpa Will, and the adventures of going fishing, eating fresh baked cookies, sitting on the front porch talking, snowball fights, sledding and riding with his cousins in a sleigh and much more. 
     Writing down memories is good and something we all should be doing. You may never meet Bangham, and that is OK. There are others in the world waiting to share their stories.
     In our fast-paced, crazy world, we need to slow down, turn off our cell phones and spend more time sitting on the porch and visiting with our friends and neighbors. A cold glass of iced tea will make it even better.
     Thanks Mr. Bangham for sharing the story of your grandpa Will and the Montezuma connection.
     Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.