L - Lafayette Nathaniel Norman

Lafayette was born in 1868 in Winthrop, Buchanan, Iowa. He was the tenth child of Nicholas Norman and Mary nee Taylor. His parents had come to America as young adults in about 1847. Mary with her family and Nicholas apparently working his passage as crew. According to family lore, they knew each other distantly in Somerset but were not aware of the travel plans each of them had. They met again by chance when Nicholas’ ship was wrecked, and the one Mary’s family were travelling on was part of the rescue.

They married in 1849 in Bloomdale, Wood, Ohio where Mary’s family had gone immediately after arriving in America. Most of their older children were born in Ohio before the family settled in Winthrop.

A couple of years after Nicholas went to America, his brother-in-law followed him to Ohio. Once established about a year later, his wife – Nicholas’ sister – followed with their young children. Clement Warren, Lafayette’s uncle, was drafted in Bloomfield in 1863 and fought in the American Civil War which went from1861-1865. Did Lafayette’s father also fight in the war?

What prompted his parents to name him after the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the War of Independence fought almost a century before he was born. Nicholas was a farmer; did he stay on the farm and not join up to fight in the civil war? Perhaps, naming his sons born during and just after the war was meant to be a symbol of his patriotism. Perhaps Lafayette’s elder brother Grant was named for Ulysses Grant famous for leading the Union Army to victory in the civil war and a citizen of Ohio. I have seen instances in other families of children being named for Lafayette and George Washington, possibly for a similar reason.

Lafayette spent most of his life in Winthrop and Byron Iowa. He married twice; with his first wife Lillian he had two daughters. He was employed by the Post Office and on most censuses gave his occupation as Cashier in a Bank. Lillian died in 1926 aged fifty-eight.

Just a year after her death, Lafayette remarried.  His new wife was seventeen years younger than him, just five years older than his eldest daughter. They had one son born the following year and named Lafayette Nathaniel, like his father. His new bride was also a widow and brought her two children with her into the family. In 1930 they were living at Lake Worth, Palm Beach, Florida, but returned to Winthrop by October 1933 when Lafayette died aged sixty-four.

Kind of cool that having been gifted his father’s name Lafayette Jnr raised his family in Independence, Buchanan, Iowa.

Lafayette’s grandchildren would be fourth cousins to my Dad – fourth cousins once removed to me – that’s not too distant at all in the grand scheme of life. Do you know these people? Are they in your tree? Can you help me fill in some gaps?