Matriarch’s diary is catalyst for history podcast

NORTH ENGLISH — “Hello, my name is Jacki Garringer McDermott, and we are recording live from the English Valleys History Center in North English, Iowa.”

So begins the podcast on the English Valleys History Center, Inc. Facebook page every Saturday. McDermott reads from the diary of her great-great-aunt Mary Elizabeth Claypool Wade and uses the diary entries as a springboard to talk about the people and events of North English’s past.

“I always said she was the matriarch of our family,” said McDermott, because she was the aunt the children leaned on after their mother died.

McDermott grew up in North English and graduated from North English High School. “I started work at a very young age at the cafés downtown.” She remembers a lot about the town and its people.

McDermott earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from William Penn University in Oskaloosa.

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Eleven years ago McDermott became city clerk in Belle Plaine. Though she hasn’t lived in North English since 1981, she has kept up connections, and she’s attended events at the English Valleys’s History Center.

“One of the things that had interested me a lot was North English history,” said McDermott. As a young adult, she used to read old newspaper articles on microfiche.

McDermott learned a lot of North English history from that, she said.

McDermott’s parents came from two large families on either side of North English. “So I’m related to a lot of people,” she said.

While researching her family, McDermott came across the diaries of Mary Elizabeth Claypool Wade at the EV History Center. They were donated by Wade’s granddaughter, Hazel Cobb, and her husband, Glenn.

The 1946 journal is small. Wade used a fountain pen to write in the book. Wade notes when she got a new pen because the old one was smudging.

Wade wrote in a large ledger in 1950 and in larger ledgers in 1954 and 1955.

After that, Wade wrote on loose paper, said McDermott. She’ll have to organize those before she begins reading them to her audience.

Wade lived in a little house on East Oak Street where the storage shed is now, within view of the front window of the EV History Center, McDermott said.

One of Wade’s sons lived down the block. Wade lived with the second son, and the third son also lived in town.

“A lot of people around town stopped to visit with her,” said McDermott. Women dropped by to visit and to sew. They brought fruit because Wade canned and made preserves.

Wade recorded those visits. “She’s just going on and on about everybody by their first names,” said McDermott.

Born in 1874, Wade was the youngest of her family so she was the bridge from our general back to the pioneers, said McDermott. And she was a big historian herself.

Wade died in 1959.

“I was like four years old when she died,” said McDermott. “I didn’t know her, but she knew me.” Wade made booties for McDermott when she was born.

“These diaries were here, and I didn’t know what to do with them,” said McDermott. She started making copies of them, but that was a lot of work.

Then McDermott started indexing the, making identifying notes about the people Wade mentioned by first name only.

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McDermott told Dave Jackson, president of history center, that she’d like to go live on YouTube, read the diaries and explain who Wade is talking about in each diary entry.

Jackson suggested she broadcast from The History Center.

McDermott got a light ring for her phone and records the podcasts on that device. The History Center is helping with technology. The Center would like to get a computer to record the podcast so McDermott can share photos via computer rather than holding them up to the phone in front of her.

Jacob Glandon, a freelance filmmaker from the English Valleys area, gave McDermott some tips, and she watches friends who have podcasts.

The podcasts are no longer live, said McDermott, but she has them online soon after recording them every Saturday on the Jacki Garringer McDermott English Valleys History YouTube channel and on the English Valleys History Center Facebook page.

“And the response has been overwhelming,” said McDermott. She’s had more than 1,000 views on Facebook since the podcast began Nov. 2.

“I do have regulars,” McDermott said. She’s enjoying the notoriety.

For each podcast, McDermott types out what Wade wrote over a week or two and follows that with an explanation of what and who Wade is talking about.

“It’s a process where, after I’ve read the paragraph, I research the paragraph.”

McDermott finds information and photos at ancestry.com and Find a Grave. She searches census records and Iowa County newspapers which have been digitized.

McDermott gets a lot of information from the books “Our First 150 Years” by Scott Romine and “Won’t you Take Me to Hinkletown,” by Jackson.

Jackson finds photos for McDermott as she plans each podcast.

“We have the EV graduates [Facebook] page, said McDermott. ”Scott shares the videos there.“

McDermott shares the videos on her Facebook page, and the Keokuk County Historical Society shares the videos on its page.

“I’m learning so much myself because this is getting everyone in the history,” said McDermott. People from all over the United States share photos of their ties to North English.

“It’s making my own memory come alive too,” said McDermott.

“We were self contained communities at the time,” said McDermott. “We were close to each other.”

Carl Hogendorn, newspaper editor of the North English Record used to talk about sense of community, said McDermott.

Hogendorn gave free North English Record newspaper to servicemen when they went to war in the 1940s, said McDermott, and they were still writing to him in the 1970s.

“He set a very wonderful tone of history and belonging for this town,” said McDermott.

“We’re proud of our heritage and of our traditions.”