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| Esther Heacock |
The young couple, “Wils” and Fanny Heacock, were happy and grateful when Esther was born in their little Kingsley, Iowa, home on February 26, 1904, enlarging the family circle and giving two year old sister Dorothy and four year old Richard someone else to be with and love. Kingsley was a small rural village a few miles east of Sioux City. Father, “Wils”, was the “miller’s son” Mother said that she married. On West Fork Creek nearby he worked with his father and uncle in a three story grain mill run by water power. When in gear the huge water wheel made three stories of machinery rumble as the two large mill stones ground grain. Esther’s parents married after father returned from his solo trip to the 1898 gold rush in the Canadian Klondike. Mother was the daughter of Ianthus Knowles, owner of the Kingsley Hardware Store. Father played the cornet and organized bands on the side for food money in our early years. Mother, Fanny, taught school after graduation. Father grew up in the Quaker tradition; mother the Congregational. We three children were baptized in the little Congregational Church on a corner.
Esther spent three birthdays on a Minnesota farm near Ruthton. Farm income was small, so father organized and conducted bands in Rock River, Holland and Ruthton for $5.00 a night at each place. Mary’s birth on May 6, 1908 made Esther an “older sister” four years of age. Mother organized a non-denominational Sunday School in the little school house a half mile at the bottom of our hill, and was superintendent until we moved. Esther remembered chickens and foxes; prairie fires; winter snow banked to the eaves on two sides of our two story home; long freight trains winding through hills in the distance; and the wonder of growing animals and field crops. There was family love “in sickness and in health” undergirded by a sense of God’s love for us.
We then moved to West Branch, Iowa, where father was born and raised. It was a Quaker community, but we joined the Presbyterian Church, partly because minister, Rev. Montgomery and his family were so friendly. We had good times together. Father had the feed store there. He started another band. I wish that I could remember when Esther began piano lessons. She became a good pianist in my estimation.
A better business opportunity took us to Marion, Iowa. We stayed with the Presbyterian Church. Father organized a Sunday School orchestra and a town band in addition to owning and managing the feed store. On February 15, 1912 we all celebrated Steven’s birth and admission into the family. In the summer of 1913 the whole family moved to Edinburg, Texas.
We lived in a tent in thick brush in scorching heat, but when Sunday came mother got us all in our Sunday best and walked to the only protestant church in Edinburg; M. E. Church, South. Our parents were more interested in continuity of religious training than denominational loyalty. Esther became the pianist for Sunday School and worship, and the rest of us became involved. We had a delightful family orchestra with Dad playing cornet, Dorothy the violin, Esther the piano, and I the clarinet. While our youngest brother, Joe, was being born, mother and Joe were serenaded by our orchestra playing “Woodland Echoes,” at mother’s suggestion, as I remember. That was July 27, 1919, at the close of World War I.
It was in Edinburg where Esther grew up from a nine year old to an attractive and intelligent young woman with High School and University background, experience in Camp Fire Girls with her own mother as leader, and a rich church life. She taught school, then married a tall basketball center, farmer and rancher, Charles Sterling. The Methodist Epworth League can claim some credit for several excellent marriages!
What a contribution Charles and Esther made in giving the world four splendid daughters and five sons! Harriet and I are proud to be related to Dorothalee, Peggy, Fanny, Ruth, Bruce, Winfield, Scott, John, Peter and their families! Who can measure the influence of a growing family singing hundreds of times at breakfast, “As the sun doth daily rise, brightening all the morning skies. So to Thee with one accord, lift we up our hearts, O Lord?”
Richard K. Heacock
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Note: Richard mentions that the family orchestra played "Woodland Echoes" so I tried to find the song on the web. What I found was Woodland Echoes by James Cargill Guthrie Guthrie -- his poetry and books. Here's a partial example:
From: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175035216400&view=1up&seq=60
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