Cousin Neta contacted me this week. Of course this lead me into the Dempster family files, where I re-discovered this neat little article. On May 29, 1949 The Brookings Register reported that Grandma Glenn had 104 Grand and Great Grand Children!
I don't know about you, but I can't imagine keeping track of that many cousins!
The full article written by Ed Stanley reads:
"If the people of the little town of Aurora were asked to name the All-Ameican mother of the United States, they would vote unanimously for Mrs. Frank T. Glenn.
For she can boost of what folks around here believe is some sort of record. She has reared 10 children of her own and now can name 60 great grandchildren and 40 more grand children.
And at the age of 82 she can rattle off the names of them all-given a little time. This makes a total of 104 direct descendants and all are living.
Despite her four-score and more years this little old lady still is fairly agile. Her clear blue eyes are sharp and they carry an Irish twinkle when she talks. She was born in Ireland -- up in Ulster -- March 1, 1867, and came to this country August 3, 1883.
On January 11, 1886, (she remembers all of these dates just like they were yesterday) she married Frank Glenn. They lived around Aurora from that time until his death in 1930.
Asked her recipe for rearing such a family with all of the great and grand children, her reply was strickly of an Irish nature.
"Just keep on reading the Scriptures every day," she snapped back quickly. "You won't go far wrong, if you practice what the Bible teaches. And keep out of other people's business. Don't gossip about others. If you work hard you won't have time to do that. And then you won't worry and you can live a long time. Simple, isn't it?"
Her children are Mrs. Georgia Johnson and William of Aurora; Mrs. May Morris, Lake Hendricks; Mrs. Violet Bain, Bushnell; Mrs. Daisy Bain, Wadena, Minn; Mrs. Gladys Blanch, Indianola, Iowa; Mrs. Amy Laabs, Volga; Walter of Aurora, and Mrs. Myra Eer Nisse, Rapid City, S. Dak.
A son, Frank, who was a corporal in the air corps during World War I, died after the war. But Mrs. Glenn calls his wife, Lois Bacon (she remarried and her second husband died) her own child. Lois is in the service and never forgets Mother Glenn on Mother's day.
Mrs. Glenn now lives in a modest home in Aurora where she likes to knit and visit her many "children" who delight to drop in on her for a happy hour or two in conversation about "these good days.""
The article inadvertantly left out one daughter, Margaret. I assume this was the reporter's error, not an lapse in Grandma Glenn's memory.
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