The C. A. McAdams Family

The C. A. McAdams Family

Our American Roots

by Charles G. Petersen
McAdams Children

Nettie Alice
Family Group

Nettie married Carl Chesley Bigelow in Swea City on the 29th of September in 1896. They started there married life in Nebraska where their first child Leonore was born in 1898. By 1900 they were living in Lamberton in the southwest part of Minnesota. Their first son was born there but he unfortunately died after about 5 weels. A year later Harold Alvin was born there. They moved on to Flasher in Morton County in south central North Dakota where twin girls were born in 1903, Ida and Iva. Ida survived for 6 weeks before she died. They had another daughter, Lelia, in 1907. By 1917 they were living in Winona County, Minnesota over near the Mississippi River, when they had a stillborn son. They lived in Winona area the rest of their life. They had one more son, Cecil, born in 1921. Nettie died in Goodview in Winona County on 21 Aug 1950. Carl died of heart troubles on April 16, 1953 in the Winona Hospital.

Children

Leonore Ellen married Horace Keith in Winona County, Minnesota in 1921. They lived in Winona there entire lives and had 3 children there: Mary about 1923, Charles Harvey born January 19, 1926, and Vernon abotu 1928.

Harold Alvin met his future wife in Winona, Minnesota, but she moved with her parents to Wisconsin. He followed Casmira Elizabeth Wieczorek to Racine, Wisconsin and the married before 1930 as indicated by the 1930 U.S. Census. They had no children and Harold died at a young age, 42, on September 5, 1943.

Iva Beatrice moved to Minneapolis and married Lester C. Mortrud on July 3, 1924. They were divorced in 1928 and she lived as a single person in Minneapolis but eventually moved to Mankato, Minnesota where she died on December 30th in 1992.

Lelia Viola married her first cousin, Edwin Everett Nelson, on August 31, 1935 in Winona, Minnesota. Edwin is the son of Emma Louisa McAdams. They had 4 children, all born in Winona: Lee Walter born 1938, Carol Ann born 1940, Jerry Warren born 1941, and Donald Edwin born 1951. Edwin and Lelia eventually moved to Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Lelia died in St. Paul on December 22, 1979 and is buried in Cannon Falls.

Cecil Carl was born in Stockton, Minnesota which is just a few miles west of the city of Winona. According to his obituary, Cecil was a graduate of Hamline College, now University, in St. Paul, Minnesota where he was also a football player and a champion swimmer. He was in the Navy during World War II and took part in the D-Day invasion of France at Utah Beach. He married Dorothy Ann Paich on the 3rd of March in 1945 in Minneapolis. He completed is Doctorate at Wyoming and in 1953 began a long career teaching in the College of Business at Mankato State College. The college began as a Normal School for teacher education back in 1868. The school morphed into a State Teachers College, to a State College, to a State University during Cecil's time and now is called Minnesota State University, Mankato. Cecil retired in 1991 and lived in Mapleton, just south of Mankato until he died at age 90 on the day after Christmas in 2011. His wife, Dorothy, had died just a few months earlier on March 19. Cecil and Dorothy had 3 childrn: Janine, Mary, and Robert Harold.