The 1900 Kossuth County, Iowa census shows my mother-in-law's first cousins Laura and Grace GROVER. I need further information on their whereabouts since that time. Also information on their two younger sisters who, according to my mother-in-law, were adopted out to a doctor.

The Portland Township census shows:

Laura L. GROVER b. May 1890 in IL (but it was actually either OK or KS) living with her cousin Luther FAIRBANK b. Nov 1866 in IO. Also living there were his wife Louisa b. Sep 1869 in IO and two Laborers, Walter FOSTER and John TRUNKHILL.

Grace GROVER b. Oct 1887 in OK (but it was actually KS) living near by with another cousin, Grant FAIRBANK b. June 1864 in WI and his wife Clara b. 1872 in IO. Also living there was a laborer, Leroy FICTH.

Sindicy (can't make out the name) GROVER b. Apr 1897 in OK is living just a little further down the road as a boarder with Randolph JOIN b. July 1841 in Switzerland. Also living there are his son Charles b. Oct 1866 in IO; two daughters Emma b. Feb 1871 in IO and Eva L. b. Nov 1872 in IO; and two laborers, Amy ?? and David SAIVERT.

There is another GROVER family near by­William E. GROVER b. jan 1874 in IO, wife Bettie b. Dec. 1873 in WI, daughter Zada b. Nov 1898 in IO and son Harold b. Feb 1900 in IO. Also living there were a servant Mae TAYLOR and a laborer James DUNN.

According to the family story: Winnie M. Phelps b. 1870 in MO, the eldest daughter of Isom Phelps and Malinda Jane Douglass, was married in KS to John H. Grover b. 1864 in IL. They came to Oklahoma Territory in the 1889 land run for the unassigned lands with her family. They show up on 1890 Oklahoma Territory census with three daughters (Grace, Eva, and Laura) in Payne County. Winnie died in 1899 and is buried in Marena Cemetery west of Stillwater, Payne Co., OK with her parents.

The story has it that Eva was retarded and also died about the same time as Winnie. John couldn't raise all four of the surviving girls and asked the family's permission to adopt the two youngest ones out to a doctor who wanted them. He continued to raise Grace and Laura. I have photos of John together with Grace and Laura as young women taken in Algona, IO.

The child (Sindicy) is most likely the youngest of the daughters and I found no 1900 IOWA census listing that I could identify as the other. Up to this time I had no knowledge of whether the adoptive family was in Oklahoma or Iowa, but it appears all the children went to Iowa.

Any information relative to these individuals and/or their relationship to John, Grace, Laura and the two other sisters would be helpful. I have access to 1910 Iowa census, but no soundex or index and haven't found them by scrolling through. These individuals tie into the PHELPS family and I would like to follow them for submission to the PHELPS Connection and their on-going project to extend family lines after PHELPS & SEVRIN'S, Phelps Family in America, left off in 1898.