Ancil William MIERS ¹

   User ID: P00050715.

  General Notes:

Ancil was probably part German, English and Irish. German from his Miers
side (and maybe Dutch from his dad' side, the Creagers), English from his
dad's Johnston side (Hannah [Rusling] Johnston was born in England), and
Irish from Ancil's mother's Etcher side of the family. (see reference 9
below) .

Ancil was named Ancil for Ancil B. Johnston, his grandmother's brother,
his dad's mother's brother. Ancil B. Johnston was the brother of Hannah
Fowler Johnston who married Isaac Freeman Miers. Hannah and Isaac were
Ancil Miers' grandparents.

Ancil's middle name, William, was named for his Grandpa Smith, William
Seth Smith.

Ancil and Alta had no children and divorced Aug., 1933.

Ancil and Wilma took a hot dusty bus to Omaha, Nebraska, 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.

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, later named Rockwell,
International. Ancil and his family moved to 108 27th Street Drive,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the fall of 1951. He retired from the government
with a combined 31 years of service from the VA hospital and the Navy.
Between living in Knoxville and finding a home in Cedar Rapids, he roomed
at the WMCA. But for one month of that time, he took his family to stay
in a cabin at a park in the country near Cedar Rapids called Palisades.

The following is about living in Knoxville:

Their house 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)

When his daughter, Lucille, was little, Ancil made two huge kites out of
cloth. A box kite and an airplane kite that were so large that only he
could fly them. They were a wonder to Lucille and she liked to look at
them in storage in the old fruit room. The fruit room was an unheated
room in the basement of the house. Stored in it were the black walnuts
gathered in the fall, usually by Wilma's parents who brought them to
Wilma's home. There on the floor, Lucille would crack the nuts for use
in baking but it always took a long time to get enough nut meats as she
ate more than she saved for baking. Home canned vegetables from the
garden and home canned boughten fruit were stored in the fruit room along
with meat packed in lard in large thick ceramic crocks to keep it from
spoiling. Ancil and Wilma had grape vines which made a nice snack for
the children while they played outside, and they had a very large
garden. Beside the garden, Ancil dug a hole down below the frost line in
the ground and placed in it a wooden box he had made that just fit the
hole. Root vegetables from the garden would be tossed in there for
winter storage. The wooden lid was placed on top and covered with leaves
for insulation. The snow would cover the leaves. When the family wanted
those vegetables, someone would brush the snow aside and open the box to
select which ever vegetables were desired.

Beside the garden there had been a garage which had been built with a
foundation under it that was filled with dirt. Ancil moved the garage
to another side of the house. Then, dug out the dirt in the foundation.
In the cement depression where the garage had been, he made a round table
by filling in a wagon wheel, from an old horse pulled wagon, about four
feet in diameter with cement between the spokes. He laid it on a
cylinder shaped stand of cement he made using an old large round
cardboard wastebasket (which had probably been a container that something
had come in before it was used for a wastebasket). This made the table
leg. Under the leg and as part of it was a square cement piece which he
made by using another box for a form. In the corner of the cement
patio, the family called a "platform", was a cement fireplace with a high
chimney he made of cement with rocks on the outside for decoration. This
made a good place for picnics and eating outside. On the back, toward
the road, was about a three or four foot wall with hollyhock flowers
along the top, on the side toward the house were lilac bushes, on the
side toward the garden were asparagus which grew into bushes after the
asparagus had run its course for the season. On the front side were
steps the width of the platform leading to a little sidewalk that ran
along the front of these steps as it led from the garden to steps up into
the back yard and the house. The "platform" was a great place to play.

Ancil also led a band named the "Rainbow Rythm Band", which the people in
it erroneously called an orchestra. The music stands Ancil made were
wood wraped around the music shelf and all the way to the floor on three
sides. They were painted white with a rainbow painted across the front.
Ancil said he was not the leader but the members called him that. He
arranged everything from activities to music. They bought one set of
sheet music and transposed it to fit the various instruments. Lucille
transposed Ancil's music for him. He played E flat alto sax. There was
a trombone, two trumpets, a drummer, and a piano player. His daughter,
Lucille, sang one or two songs with them when they played for Odd Fellows
Lodge dances in or out of town and for another hall in Knoxville, Iowa.
An adult singer sang the rest of the evening. When not singing, Lucille
danced the whole evening. In fact, she and a girl friend learned to
dance by taking an Arthur Murray dance book with them during band
practices. The Odd Fellows dances were "sock dances". People danced in
their socks to preserve the carpet. This was a fun activity Lucille
participated in with her dad.

The family used to drive 38 miles from Knoxville to Des Moines to buy
supplies for Ancil's wiring and electrical business. Wilma would fry
chicken and pack a lunch which was eaten beside the narrow two-lane
highway. They would park at the edge of the road and sit on a blanket
under a tree somewhere to or from Des Moines. One such trip, only
Lucille went along. On the way home she and Ancil stopped to eat at a
restaurant where he had finished putting in their new electrical wiring.
The restaurant owners gave them a malt mixer which had been replaced with
a new one. That malt mixer was used throughout their grandchildren
growing up mixing ice cream, milk and malt flavoring as a favoite snack
at "Grandma and Grandpa's house". Lucille' son kept the malted milk
mixer as a remembrance after Ancil and Wilma died.

Before television was in homes, they had radio. Ancil wired a speaker
into the bathroom so the radio positioned in another room could be heard
in there. When television came out, in black and white only for several
years, his family was the first in Knoxville to have one because he
wanted to learn how to repair them. Lucille would come home and find
people she did not even know standing all around the living room watching
this new invention. In the early 1950's, he made a remote so he could
lay in bed at night, watch television from the living room through an
open door, and use the remote to turn it off when he wanted to go to
sleep. He could also mute the commercials with it. It was many years
before remote controls were available on the commercial market. If he
wanted to have something, he figured out a way to make it.

As a hobby, Ancil started construction of a miniature carnival in his
basement in Knoxville but finished it in Cedar Rapids where they moved in
the fall of 1951. The rides were run by motors. So were the little girl
who jumps up and down excitedly while waiting to ride the merry-go-round,
the dog that scratches himself, the men who eat a hamburger and drink a
soft drink, and some dancers. The cotton candy machine spins with its
confection whirling around in it. There was a concession named for each
of his daughters-in-law and one for his daughter. One ride was made from
his grandson, Dennis Webster's baby food cans. Gerber products put baby
food in metal cans in the 1950's. Ancil was proud of the fact that he
constructed it primarily from junk. Except for a few items that had to
be purchased to complete a project, the entire project, including motors,
was constructed from used parts that had been salvaged from other
products. In 1999, his son, Larry J. Miers, has the carnival.

Ancil always seemed to know what went on out in the world so understood
his children's world as they grew up. Wilma was the same when the great
grandchildren came along. While Ancil was normally very even
emotionally, Lucille did see him with tears running down his face a few
times. Two of those times were when she got married and when she went
with him to visit two cousins in Seattle, Washington, who had just had
strokes.

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 to the Ladies Auxiliary Patriot Militant (LAPM).

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.

Ancil and Wilma are both buried in Knoxville, Graceland Cemetry, Marion
Co., Iowa, Section 9 (North part of old cemetery), Lot 2. Wilma belonged
to the Christian Church and Ancil was baptized in the Christian Church.

Wilma, who tied with a boy for top grades in her high school graduation
class, won a scholarship to a college in Minnesota with her Guthrie
Center, Iowa, high school grades, the lowest of which was 92%. However,
she chose instead 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.

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. In NARFE, she wrote articles about her travels with her
daughter, Lucille, and other travels she had for the Iowa State NARFE
newsletter in the early 1980s time frame. 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)

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.

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)

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) Record of Births Marion County, Iowa, 1897-1918 (at Knoxville, Iowa),
Book 6, page 332. (9) Data received from Myrtle VanLoon, daughter of
Stanley Earl Smith, brother to Orville and sister to Ruth who collected
family history data. When Ruth died, Myrtle acquired Ruth's data.
Myrtle gave Lucille (Miers) Webster the family history data to make
copies on April 6, 2000 at Myrtle's home in Knoxville, Marion Co., Iowa.
Also, Myrtle and Lucille had conversations both in person and on the
telephone. (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 organiztions. (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.
@MI2320@

Ancil married Alta WILBUR on 30 Aug 1924 in Knoxville, Marion, Iowa, USA. (Alta WILBUR was born on 25 Dec 1905.)

Ancil next married Wilma Lucile IVERS on 7 Jul 1934 in Omaha, Douglas, Nebraska, USA. (Wilma Lucile IVERS was born on 7 Feb 1912 in Washta, Cherokee Co., Iowa, died on 1 Aug 1990 in Cedar Rapids, Linn, Iowa, USA and was buried in Graceland Cemetery, Knoxville, Iowa, Block 10, Lot 2.)