Wilma Lucile IVERS ¹

   Other names for Wilma were Mrs. Ancil William MIERS and Mrs. Wilma Lucile MIERS.

   User ID: P00050709.

  General Notes:

Wilma's father was of Welch and German descent. (see reference 16 below)

Wilma grew up in Guthrie Center, Guthrie County, Iowa. Guthrie Center is
in a rugged part of the South Raccoon River Valley. Pennsylvania Dutch
were the first settlers around the mid 1800's. The hills around the town
were once hardwood timberland with thick undergrowth supporting many
hazelnut bushes and black walnut trees. Nutting, gathering nuts, was a
fall activity when the leaves were ablaze with brilliant colors from the
hardwood trees. The walnuts were either run through a hand operated corn
sheller to remove the hulls and spread out to dry or were laid out to dry
then the hulls removed. Walnut hulls stain hands and clothing making a
very nice dye.

Near Guthrie Center is Panora, near where some of Wilma's relatives
settled. Panora was a contraction of the word Panorama. Early settlers
viewed the land from a hill and exclaimed, "What a beautiful panorama."
Other relatives of Wilma's settled near what became Springbrook State
Park which included a spring fed lake. In 1848, the road running through
Springbrook was used by pioneers. Later it was a route for gold
seekers. By 1976, the farms in Guthrie County produced 70 pounds of
ears of corn to the bushel and 60 pounds to the bushel of: alfalfa seed,
dry beans, clover seed, dried peas, potatoes, soybeans, vetch, and
wheat. Also farms were producing lima beans, shelled corn, flax seed,
rye, and kaiffir corn at 56 pounds to the bushel, as well as, 50 pounds
to the bushel of apples, buckwheat, carrots, millet seed, onions, rape
seed, sorghum seed, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. Other crops were
barley, bluegrass seed, cherries, cucumbers, grape stems, hemp seed,
lespedeza seed, oats, peaches, pears, plums, popcorn, rye grass, sudan
grass, and timothy seed. Quite a production record following a bunch of
pioneers invasion into the state!

As a teenager, Wilma was a runner, winning county foot races. She was
very limber and when her 4th child was born, she could still stand on one
step and without bending her knees, lay her hands flat on the step
below. She liked playing basketball and while the teacher wanted her on
the team, her parents did not like her to come home after dark when
practice was over so she did not join the team.

She wanted to own a piano and learn to play so she sold vegetables out of
the garden for five cents a bunch to earn the money to buy one. She
finally earned enough for a piano by the time she was 16. She taught
herself how to play and enjoyed playing the rest of her life. She was
just going to be asked to play for church services when she became ill
and died.

Wilma won a scholarship to a college in Minnesota with her Guthrie
Center, Iowa, high school grades, the lowest of which was 92%, but
instead chose to attend American Institute of Business (AIB) in
Des Moines, Iowa, where she learned good secretarial skills such as
shorthand and typing. Both skills were very fast, typing at 125 accurate
words a minute. She could still take shorthand from news broadcasts
(probably approximately 300 words a minute) when she was in her 60's.
After AIB, she became a stenographer for a lawyer in Des Moines then was
in a stenographic pool for doctors at the Veteran's Administration
Hospital in Knoxville, Iowa, where she met Ancil.

Ancil and Wilma went on a hot dusty bus to Omaha where they married, had
a brief honeymoon and danced on their wedding night. They lived in
Knoxville, Iowa, having met when both worked at the Veterans
Administration Hospital in Knoxville. Wilma was a stenographer taking
dictation from the doctors and Ancil was a barber for the inmates. This
hospital was a recouperation and treatment hospital for shell shocked
victims of World War I. Men who had been in the war had been so
frightened that they lost mental ability to function. Some were worse
than others, could not feed themselves, and lost control of their
functions. More were cured in the Knoxville hospital than at any other
hospital of that type, but not all were able to be released. Ancil's and
Wilma's daughter, Lucille, was one of the young people in town who
entertained the patients with vocal music groups from school and church.

After marriage, Wilma was a primarily a housewife and mother. Wilma
liked gardening, vegetables and flowers, and said she never felt better
than working in the garden. She canned and froze vegetables that she
raised.

Their house in Knoxville, Iowa, had a furnace that burned coal. The fire
would die down over night and Wilma would have to "bank the furnace",
revive it, in the morning. The furnace had large ducts. There was one
large register in the living room where the kids would gather in the
morning and warm up after getting out of bed. The register would then be
very hot so the kids had to bounce up and down from one foot to the other
to keep warm but not burn the bottoms of their feet. (see reference 14
below)

Ancil belonged to the Odd Fellows Lodge in Knoxville, Iowa, and also to
the Patriot Militant organization. Wilma belonged to the Rebecca Lodge
No. 70 and the Ladies Auxiliary Patriot Militant (LAPM).

They moved to 108 27th Street Drive, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the fall of
1951 when Ancil went to work for the United States Navy department as an
electrical inspector for Collins Radio communications equipment bought by
the government.

Wilma was active in a Navy employees retirement organization, NARFE, for
which she wrote articles about her travels with her daughter, Lucille,
and other travels she had taken for the Iowa State NARFE newsletter in
the early 1980s time frame. Wilma was an active member of her church and
was very much missed by the ladies there when she died. She rolled
bandages for the red cross and was active in National Association of
Retired Federal Employees (NARFE), Chapter 133. She carried membership
cards for: The Cedar Rapids Public Library, United Airlines Mileage
Plus, AAA for Iowa, AARP (American Association of Retired Persons),
American Bible Society, Mercy Prime Timers (Mercy Hospital in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa), Golden Age Passport for entrance to the national parks,
Fishing Club of America, The State Conservation Commission of Iowa, Iowa
Association of Chiefs of Police and Peace Officers 1987 Sustaining Member
supporting better law enforcement, and voters registration card. She had
a valid drivers license at least in 1939 and 1941and later from the early
1960s for more than 20 years. (see reference 12 below)

Wilma died in her own home of Colon cancer, Hepatic Carcinoma, and
metastases to her liver. She also had mildly high blood pressure, some
arthritis, burcitis, diverticulosis, and allergies in general but also to
bee stings. (see reference 13 below)

When Wilma lay dying, her friends came to visit. After they left, Wilma
said, "Isn't it nice to have friends." That statement was subsequently
inscribed on her tombstone.

Ancil and Wilma are both buried in Knoxville, Graceland Cemetry, Marion
Co., Iowa, Section 9 (North part of old cemetery), Lot 2.

Found among Wilma's notes was a poem which was indicative of her:
At Christmas time good friends recall
The joys of long ago,
The Happy, kindly ways of all
The friends they used to know;
And though some travel far apart
And journey different ways,
All keep a corner in their heart
For Happy Yesterdays.

Ancil graduated from Knoxville High School, Knoxville, Iowa. He had a
barber shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma and worked as a barber for the Veteran's
Administration Hospital in Knoxville, Iowa. After he and Wilma married,
he took a correspondence course in radio repair and worked in a local
repair shop. He and the other employee in that shop started a
partnership doing house and business wiring and repairing anything
electrical from radios to home appliances. After that, he started his
own business located in the basement of his house in Knoxville. Later,
he took a job in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, working for the United States
Navy Department doing electrical inspection of the military radios and
electrical products of Collins Radio Company. He retired from the
government with a combined 31 years of service from the VA hospital and
the Navy.

Ancil had memberships in the AAA Motor Club of Iowa, Fishing Club of
America, State Conservation Commission of Iowa, a communing member of
First Christian Church as of April 2, 1961, and was a registered voter.
(See reference 11 below)

Ancil had had a heart attack at age 52 and had a cancer on his kidney
which necessitated the kidney being removed. He died primarily of high
blood pressure and hypertension.

References: Data provided about Wilma and Ancil Miers was found (1) in
Wilma Miers' personal records and (2) by personal knowledge of their
daughter Lucille Miers Webster. Data provided about Wilma and Ancil
Miers children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren was provided (3)
by personal knowledge of
Lucille Miers Webster, (4) Ronald William Miers, (5) Larry Joe Miers, and
(6) Willis Ancil Miers.
(7) Other references are listed with the particular data they represent.
(8) "Iowa A guide to the Hawkeye State" compiled and written by the
Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administraion for the
State of Iowa, American Guide Series, Sponsored by The State Historical
Society of Iowa and published by the Viking Press, New York, 1945. (9)
Guthrie County, Iowa, 1976, Official 1976 Bicentennial Special Edition,
with plat maps and telephone book for current residents of Guthrie
County. (10) Cemeteries of Marion County, Iowa, 1776-1976 book by Marion
Co. Genealogical society, published by R.C. Booth Enterprises, Harlan,
Iowa, with a publication date of 1974. (11) Contents of Ancil William
Miers' billfold when he died contained membership cards to various
organizations. (12) Contents of Wilma Miers' purse when she died
containing membership cards to various organizations and oher papers from
her house. National Association of Retired Federal Employees
newsletters containing articles written by Wilma Miers of Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, in the early 1980s. (13) Iowa Department of Public Health
Certificate of Death for Wilma Lucile Miers, page 918, and records she
kept in her personal papers. (14) Remembrances of Wilma and Ancil Miers'
daughter, Lucille. (15) Birthday book belonging to Wilma (Ivers) Miers
and given to her originally by Jennie Groeneweg in 1933. Jennie was born
January 11, 1891. (16) Notes from a paper Judy Simmons, daughter of
Helen (Ivers) Simmons and granddaughter of Mae Pearl (Slaybaugh) Ivers,
wrote when in the 1950's for a high school project about her family
history. Her references were living relatives.

Wilma married Ancil William MIERS, son of Joseph Freeman MIERS and Lulu Estella Bell SMITH, on 7 Jul 1934 in Omaha, Douglas, Nebraska, USA. (Ancil William MIERS was born on 25 Nov 1903 in Knoxville, Marion, Iowa, USA, died on 24 May 1975 in St. Lukes Hospital, Cedar Rapids, Linn Co., Iowa and was buried on 27 May 1975 in Graceland Cemetery, Knoxville, Iowa, Block 10, Lot 2.)