Bridget Callery

Bridget Josephine (Bid) Callery

Married May 20, 1898 in Storm Lake to Benjamin Franklin Skeels. Ben is buried in Storm Lake, Iowa. He died 26 Feb 1960, Bid died 14 Dec 1951 and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Des Moines, Polk co, Iowa.

Ben and Bid adopted Dorothy Margaret Skeels, born 27 June 1914. Margaret's birth name was Aluetta Lowden. She was adopted from the Outwama Orphanage. Margaret's married names were Berkland and Smith.
Ben Skeels was a blacksmith and Sheriff of Buena Vista county from 1911 t0 1917.

from the notes of Margaret Butters, Des Moines, Iowa, July 1990 to my mother Lauretta Callery Evans

Per grandaughter Delores Edwards "Grandma was the nicest person I ever knew. She would come to our house and work for us and make us blankets. We were very poor. Grandmother told how she was going to join the convent and before she took her vow her sister "Nellie" sent her a black skirt with money sewn into the hem. Grandma took the money and left the convent. After that her parents had nothing to do with her. " Delores states that her grandmother never spoke of her family except to tell stories about her childhood. Josephine Bridget died in Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa. As the family stood crying at her beside she told them not to cry as the "angeles were all around and ready to take me home." She died with a smile on her face said Deloras. This was stated to Laura Schnabel 9/13/2011