Click here for the John Martin Family home page. 3rd Generation - Jasper VanNess 

Jasper VanNess, the fifth child of Moses and Lucinda (Martin) VanNess, was born in Fremont County, Iowa, probably in the latter part of 1856.  That is, he is shown as a 4-year-old in the 1860 census and as 13-year-old in the 1870 census, but he is not listed in his parents’ household in the 1856 Iowa State census, even though all of these censuses were hypothetically collected in the month of June.  Hence, He probably was born sometime after the first of June 1856, and his parents in 1860 reported the age that he was about to become, rather than his actual age as of June 1.

His family moved down to Nodaway County, Missouri, when he was about 10 years old, and he is shown living there with them in the 1870 census.  The 1880 census shows him (as “Jasper Venesse”) living with his sister R. J. (Rachel) York and her family in Adair County, Iowa.

I have not found Jasper in the 1900 census.  The next record I have of his whereabouts is a notice in the Stillwater, Oklahoma, Gazette of 22 December 1904, saying that there was an unclaimed letter waiting for him at the Stillwater post office.  That may indicate that he had just moved to Stillwater around then, as it was common practice for people new to a community to have their mail sent to “General Delivery” until they could establish a specific address.

Stillwater is the county seat of Payne County, Oklahoma, and it appears that Jasper spent most of the next 40 years there.  He, or a man by the same name, is shown there in the 1910, 1930, and 1940 censuses.  The ages given are wrong in the 1910 and 1930 censuses, but both show him to have been born in Iowa with both of his parents born in Ohio, so I think this is the correct Jasper VanNess.  The 1940 census seems to have the correct age (84) but the wrong place of birth (Illinois).

image of Jasper's obituary

Obituary from The Stillwater News-
Press
(Stillwater, OK), 3 December
1944, Sunday, page 8.)

The 1910 census showed Jasper serving as a hired hand in the household of George Gambill in Perkins Township, but the two later censuses both showed him living at the County Poor Farm.  That is consistent with the information from Jasper’s obituary, shown at right, that he had been at the “County home” since 1927.

As that obituary also shows, Jasper died at the County home on 2 December 1944 and was buried at Fairlawn Cemetery.

Jasper apparently never married.  All census records show him to be single, and no wife is mentioned in his obituary.

If you can suggest any corrections to the information above or provide any further details about Jasper, please contact me at the address shown in the image below:

P L Martin C O at G mail dot com

Thanks,      
     —Pete Martin

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