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| Cherokee
County Families
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Memories and Stories | |
| Richard D. Cleaves From My Past: Cherokee, Iowa to New York City 1909 to 1933 |
| Editors’ Introduction Dick Cleaves relished telling stories of his adventures of when he was a young man. Knowing that the next generations would not be able to hear them firsthand, in 1983 and 1984 he used a cassette tape deck to record 120 minutes of memories of his early life for his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and friends. The accounts date from growing up in the small town of Cherokee, Iowa with his parents – Jane Delaplane Cleaves and Dr. Prentiss Cleaves – and his brother Prentiss Bowden Cleaves. As memories from the early 20th century, these stories could be of interest to those who also have family and personal links to Cherokee, Iowa. The stories begin with the 1910 sighting of Halley’s comet and conclude with how Dick returned to New York from Puerto Rico on a cruise ship as a stowaway in March 1933 – in order to begin his job as secretary to Congressman Guy Gillette, who also came from Cherokee. In April/May 2020, Dick’s son Peter Cleaves used the Audacity app to convert Dick’s recordings from the cassette to a Mp3 document. He then transcribed the verbal account onto a Word document. Helped by his brother Richard, he added photographs, documents, news articles and links to other sources – aiming to make Dick’s verbal account more graphically representative of the times. Peter and Richard also inserted editorial comments to clarify some of Dick’s memories, which might have faded somewhat after decades. Peter then reviewed the transcription listening to the tape once again to correct any sections that were erroneously transcribed. The Cleaves sons are willing to share the voice transmission with those interested in a first-person audio account of Dick’s early life. The text below is a nearly exact transcription of Dick’s verbal accounts, but in more of a chronological order than on the tape. As a transcription, the syntax and punctuation are not the same as would appear in a carefully edited draft. The stories, however, are easy to follow, and they are enhanced by the photos and images. We would be interested in clarifying some questions that arose from listening to the original tape. Cherokee residents or researcher might be able to tell us the dates when the Dr. Cleaves family lived at 730 West Main Street, and whether there are any newspaper ads or photos of the Delaplane Shoe Store that could improve the image in the memoir. The final section of this document includes the obituary of Dick’s father Dr. Prentiss Bowden Cleaves, an insert on Guy Gillette and Dick, and a eulogy to Dick from the memorial service after his death. This document does not include Dick’s adventurous bike trip with two friends in October and November 1936 from Laredo, Texas to Mexico City. That account is published in an Amazon/Kindle book entitled A Mexico Escape 1936: Biking the Pan American Highway (edition 2020). Nor does it include his other writings about living on a Martinique beach, his early efforts as an entrepreneur, living in Washington, DC while working for Guy Gillette, and his trade mission to Brazil during WWII. These are available on request. Dick’s surviving sons Peter (b.1943) and Richard (b.1951) hope that those who knew Dick – and those who did not – will enjoy reading and hearing Dick’s first-person accounts of life in Cherokee in the first third of the 20th century. The editors express their deep gratitude to Cindy Lee, who provided magnificent support in making this memoir available to residents and students of Cherokee, Iowa. Peter
Shurtleff Cleaves
Richard Prentiss Cleaves
pscleaves@gmail.com richardpcleaves@aol.com Created: September 2020
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