The Topeka Daily Capital
Monday
March 1, 1920
The funeral of Mrs. Isabel D. DAKE, who died Saturday, will be held this morning at 10 o'clock form the North Topeka Baptist church.
Burial in Rochester cemetery.
Julia Miranda Sargent was born to Wisconsin pioneers, Sylvester W and Sarah Isabelle (Graves) Sargent in Brandon WI on Dec 28 1857. She was fifth of their 10 children. She met and married John Tuttle. They had four children during their expeditions to the next frontiers.
Julia traveled by wagon with John to the Dakota Territories with her young sons. Her daughter was born while they were in Red Cliff. They began farming and Julia had her hands full on the winter prairie homestead. Spring brought a quick thaw and the rivers filled to almost 5 miles across. The church in Fargo still had water stains 100 years later on the top steps out front.
We are not sure just how or why, but John and Julia packed up what they could save as well as their three children. They headed back to Wisconsin and family to start out again. Julia had another child after they arrived in Fond du Lac. John tried to find a farm and another start in Iowa but met with many others heading to the next Western frontier.
1900 found John and Julia with a farm in the Larimer County area. John and his sons worked the land and put in sugar beets when the new Fort Collins factory was build in 1907. He invested and was able to have a home in 'town' so his children could attend school. By the time of the "Dust Bowl", John had a large farm on the edge of the county line. This land took a beating then as did John when the stock market fell. All was lost, including the farms of his sons. The land west belonged to his daughter and son-in-law. John and Julia found they had to move in with this couple and their children.
Son, Walter moved to California with his first wife. Son Roy, his wife and youngest daughter died in the flu epidemic of 1918, leaving their son and daughter in care of family. John and Julia had taken their grand daughter, Edith to live with them. When they had to move in with their daughter, Ethel (wife of Frank McCafferty) Edith went to live with her Uncle Walter and his second wife, Ruth.
John and Julia's son, Art had married Bessie Fritz and had a young son who had contracted rheumatic fever, resulting in heart problems. Art had been farming near his father but that farm was also lost. Art moved to a remote house North West of Fort Collins. Art went off to work for the WPA, leaving the care of his wife and son, weekdays, to relatives.
Julia was an expert seamstress, making fashionable dresses with no pattern to follow. She supported their family during the biggest crisis and hardest times. She was a petite woman with dark curly hair and sweet, loving, disposition. As time went on, John succumbed to the stress of their situation and gradually fell to ill health. Julia cared for him with great patience and love. They moved in the last year of their lives to California to be with their son Walter in a more favorable climate.
It was not long before John died. Julia followed shortly after. Both were shipped back to Fort Collins to be buried in the Tuttle plot under the great stone John purchased when his first grandson died. Frankie McCafferty was kicked by a horse and died of injuries at 7 years of age. His baby sister (stillborn and unnamed) was buried further west and lies beside Julia's sisters and their husband in Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins.
The Tuttle lot has John and Julia surrounded by: their son, Roy; his wife, Lura and baby Louise; Art Sr. and his wife Bessie; little Frankie McCafferty and the 'great' Tuttle stone.
Julia's legacy lives on. She taught her daughter-in-law to sew....who in turn taught her son and grand daughter also to sew. Art Delbert Jr. kept himself from boredom during his year of confinement by making quilts. Art also made a Colorado Centennial costume for his young daughter. When they were young, Bessie also taught her grand daughter helping her make all the dresses for a wedding. She also taught her great grand daughter to sew and they made a summer wardrobe when Bessie was in her late 80s. Each of her grandchildren and several of Bessie's great grandchildren have quilts made by Bessie containing pieces of their great great grandmother Julia's material.
OBITUARY FOR JOHN TUTTLE
(From Ft. Collins Express Courier May 16, 1930)
(date is obviously incorrect - he died in Jul)
John Tuttle, 73, formerly a farmer near Fort Collins, died at his home in Santa Cruz, California, Tuesday morning, according to word received here by friends and relatives. The body will be brought her for burial, the funeral services to be held at 2:30 o’clock Saturday afternoon from the Balmer Funeral Home. Interment will take place at Grandview Cemetery.
Having been a native of Wisconsin, he was born at Ripon, Wisconsin September 6, 1857. John Tuttle received his education in the schools of Ripon, and married Miss Julia Sargent there in 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle came to Fort Collins in the early part of 1900 and for twenty-five years he was a resident in and near here, for many years owning a farm eight miles east of this city. Sometime ago Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle moved to Santa Cruz.
The deceased is survived by his wife and 3 children: Walter of Santa Cruz, Arthur of Wellington, and Mrs. Frank McCafferty of Washington, D. C. Two brothers and one sister are living at Ripon: Norman Tuttle, Dell Tuttle and Miss Louise Tuttle.
Elma Sargant was born to Sylvester and Isabelle (Graves) Sears in the pioneer village of Pine River Wisconsin on March 21 1864. She grew up the middle child of 10 children. She was born on the tail of the Civil War and in the frontier where her father and his friends had decided to settle. She helped with the farm and chores even when winters were bitter in Wisconsin. She was very close to her older sister, Julia and her younger sisters, Katie and Matilda
Elma married Lorrin Whitting Sears on August 10 1898 in Brandon Wisconsin. Their son Alfred Whitting Sears was born Oct. 9 1899 in Lead South Dakota. The couple with their small son moved to Colorado near where her sister, Julia had settled with her husband and family. There, Elma died on Feb 12 1906, leaving her husband to raise their young son.
Her sister, "Tillie" had become a teacher and had moved to Milwaukee. She moved to California and married her sister's widower in 1920 and filled in as 'mother' to Elma's son, Alfred. She out lived both and died in California in 1954. She is buried in the same area as Elma and Lorrin in Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins Colorado. By her grave, her sister, Julia's stillborn grand daughter is also buried.