The Sad Tale of Dwight Neff

I've been working on my Ancestry tree since I got access to Fold 3 and Newspapers.com, reviewing names from the past and opening documents I've not been able to get to previously. I've found some fascinating information in the stories of our ancestors. I've always been intrigued by this fella, Dwight Neff, and the fact that he disappears from our history at a young age. I wish I still had the opportunity to question my grandparents and older aunts and uncles to get their first hand account of the memories they had. But since that chance has passed, I'll have to go on what I know. This boy shows up in pictures with his jaunty attitude and dapper outfit and grabs my attention. So what happened?

The story starts with his mother, Stella Mae Icke, who is the oldest sister of my paternal grandmother, Rachel. She was born in 1895 in Missouri, the daughter of John Cheatum and Louisa Douaberry Caroline. Her family, the Hoyles, moved from her birthplace in Illinois to Ness City, Kansas. At some point she met John and they were married in Iowa. The Icke's had moved to Missouri, where Stell and severl of her siblings were born, and eventually ended up in Oklahoma Territory. There she married Joe Neff in 1915 at the age of 19. They had several children, Stella Marie (Dolly) in 1916, Bessie Evelyn in 1918, Margaret Naomi in 1920 all born in OKlahoma before they moved to Colorado where little Joe was born in 1922. Sadly, he died at three months but shortly after along came Dwight Edward in 1924. The family then moved to New Mexico.

At less than a year old in 1925, poor Dwight's mom died there in New Mexico, and he was left to be raised by his dad Joe, along with the other children. the oldest being nine. Surely it was a difficult time for the family and it appears that Joe moved back to Oklahoma to be closer to Stella's family for support. Stella's father, John, had died in 1914, before her marriage, and in 1919 Stella's mom, Louisa, married Elijah "Lige" Snider who had lost his wife in 1917. He was a one-legged man but in a picture around 1935 he appears to still have them both. I always wondered what happened to that leg. So Joe brought the family back and the Sniders became a large part of their life.

Tragedy seemed to follow though as on the last day of March, 1929, Dwight's dad Joe passed when Dwight was just five. Joe died intestate (without a will) and so Louisa filed the paperwork with the court on April 15 and were granted custody. Well, it doesn't end there.

Louisa became sick, apparently a cancer of some type, and tried everything to get healed, even traveling to the Baker Institute, an early attempt at a cancer hospital, in Muscatine, Iowa. The treatment was unsuccessful and on a bright sunny December day in 1936, she was buried surrounded by family. Lige now had the grandkids and times were tough so he petitioned the court to grant him more money from Joe's estate to help with expenses. They granted him $15 to care for Margaret and Dwight. Bessie, apparently, had moved out by that time. Our sad story comes to an end on March 30, 1938, almost two years to the day after his dad's death, Dwight succombed to pneumonia at ths home of his aunt and uncle, Coy and Bessie Phillips, in Mooreland.

A short and difficult lifetime closes. But hopefully this story will keep HIS story alive for another generation. Lige Snider passed on July 3, 1943, at the age of 83 but Dwight's siblings lived on to long lives with children and grandchildren. Bessie married Coy Phillips and had five children, living out their lives in Oklahoma. Margaret married Dave Windecker and also lived out a good long life in Oklahoma. These are the people of my past. Through good times and bad, they lived and died, every much alive as you and I are today. Will anyone remember our story?

Photos from top: Dwight Edward Neff; Stella (Icke) Neff; Joe Neff, Sr; Lige and Louisa Snider with Rachel's children. I believe Dwight is standing center; Dwight's Obituary; Joe and children; Court documents.