Page 70 - Armstrong Bloodline - ebook_Neat

Rolla operated a Dray Line in Steele and was Deputy Sheriff about 1912 and later. He also served as a night
watchman in later years. His familiar figure was often seen meeting the night busses and seeing travelers
safely home. His wife Amanda had a garden and was known for her beautiful flowers. She also raised chickens
and pigs, quilted, tatted, made literally hundreds of crochet items, and played the piano for the Presbyterian
Sunday School.

After selling their home here, they moved to Rapid City, South Dakota where their youngest daughter Leah E.
Kleppin resided. Their other daughter Esther (Mrs. Steve Kidd) lived in Mandan, ND at that time.

Rolla died on 11/19/1952, after a 9-month illness following a cerebral hemorrhage. After that, Amanda spent
the summer living in a trailer next to her daughter’s house in Rapid City, and the winters visiting the various
relatives and friends in California. She was an avid Yankee's baseball fan and loved to watch wrestling on
television. She had a stroke in 1963 and died about three months later on 9/1/1963.

References of interest for Rolla:
239
Letter from Leah E. (Armstrong) Kleppin to Harlan A. and Mary Lou Depew, April 1963
240
Excerpts from an email dated April 20 1998 from Glenda Kleppin
241
Narrative Printed in the Program For the Steele Diamond Jubilee 1881 - 1956
242
Armstrong/Duncan Marriage Announcement
243
Rolla Armstrong, night watchman; newspaper article
244
Rolla Armstrong Farewell Reception, Steele ND
245
Leah Amanda Duncan Armstrong’s address books
246
Leah Amanda Duncan Armstrong’s Date Books
247
Glenda Kleppin email, memories of her mother, Leah E. Armstrong Kleppin
248
A WWII letter to Rolla and Amanda from their grandson, Charles Kidd

3. George Francis (Frank) Armstrong - See Chapter 8.
4. Mary E. (Mamie) Armstrong

As with her two older brothers, Mary was born in Vermillion,
Clay County, Dakota Territory. She is the youngest of her
siblings and was born on August 24, 1876. She was only a year
and a half old when her mother died. At some time between
the time of her mother’s death and 1880, she went to live
with her Aunt Ellen and Uncle Trumbull Goold in Illinois. In
Nov. 1880 her Aunt Ellen died of cancer and she rejoined her
father; this time in Iowa. Her father remarried the following
year, and she attended school there until the end of March
1885.

In 1884 her father died and Uncle Rolla Armstrong in Chelsea, Mamie (Armstrong) Fletcher in front of her house in
MI was named as her guardian. After she left Iowa, it appears Tampa, FL – with Leah & Glenda Kleppin(?)
she spent some time with her great aunt and stepmother Catherine Cotton in South Dakota. Her aunt and uncle -
Olive and Trumbull Goold – had also moved to South Dakota by this time, so it is also possible she visited with them
as well before moving on to join her sister Lillian with Uncle Rolla and his family in Chelsea, MI.

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