Bovina, Iowa

Aerial Map of Bovina, Iowa

Bovina was a hamlet about two miles east of the Schrier family farm in Buckingham township, Tama County, Iowa.

When I was growing up on the farm in the 1950s and 1960s, I never heard that name – “Bovina” – and indeed only discovered it after maps and Tama County history books became available online. There is a grouping of about four houses and farms at this site (see aerial photo from Google maps at right).

When I was growing up Barney and Regina Beenken’s farm was part of that group, and the Drapers lived across the road from them. Alec Green lived in a house just a bit north of them, at the intersection of what is now known as 110th Street and R Avenue.

J. R. Caldwell’s  “A History of Tama County, Iowa, Volume 1”, on page 113, elaborates about the post office: “An office was established at the north side of Buckingham [Township] called Bovina, Charles Blanchard, postmaster, and was discontinued in 1873”.

I’ve done a bit more research about Bovina, and you can find that on the Bovina Page in the Places part of this website, or you can also download a two page document on Bovina which I researched and wrote.

Posted by Bill Schrier

Blessing Parish

With this post, I’m inaugurating a new portion of the website – “Places“.

Certainly our Genealogy is defined by our ancestors and descendants – the people of our families.   But it is also defined by the places where we grew up, live and where our ancestors came from.     I’ll try to talk about some of these special places in blog posts and on this website.

The first one of these is Blessing Church near Hudson Iowa.  It is a Roman Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, and Schriers have been members since the early 1900s.   The parish was founded in 1875 and closed in 2006, but the Church building still stands and the cemetery is active, with John Schrier as sexton.

Amazingly, the name “Blessing” has no special religious significance.  The formal name of the parish is “Immaculate Conception – Blessing”, named for James Blessington, who founded the small village which once surrounded the Church.

Much more information is in the Places article on Blessing here, and in an article published about the history of the parish, which is in the Documents section or you can view it by clicking on the Church image above.

by Bill Schrier