Alberta Dowler
1866-1940
Born: Madison County, Iowa
Died: Truro, Madison County, Iowa
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="4"><strong> #7</strong></font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font size="4"><strong> </strong></font><font size="2" style="font-size: 9pt"><strong>Fletcher & Alberta</strong></font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="CENTER"><br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="CENTER"><font size="4"><strong>Alberta Dowler Porter</strong></font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; padding-: 0.01in; padding-right: 0.06in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; padding-: 0.06in; border-width: 1px; border-color: #000000; border-style: solid"> <strong>Born: March 25, 1866 Location: Walnut Township, Madison County, Iowa</strong></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; padding-: 0.01in; padding-right: 0.06in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; padding-: 0.06in; border-width: 1px; border-color: #000000; border-style: solid"> <strong>Married: October 14, 1889 Location: Winterset</strong></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; padding-: 0.01in; padding-right: 0.06in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; padding-: 0.06in; border-width: 1px; border-color: #000000; border-style: solid"> <strong>Died: November 12, 1940 Parents: Joseph and Martha Dowler</strong></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; padding-: 0.01in; padding-right: 0.06in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; padding-: 0.06in; border-width: 1px; border-color: #000000; border-style: solid"> <strong>Age: 74 years Occupation: Teacher, dressmaker, hotel cook/operator</strong></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; padding-: 0.01in; padding-right: 0.06in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; padding-: 0.06in; border-width: 1px; border-color: #000000; border-style: solid"> <strong>Buried: St. Charles Cem. SW corner Children: Nina, Josephine, Boyd, Lucie</strong></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; padding-: 0.01in; padding-right: 0.06in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; padding-: 0.06in; border-width: 1px; border-color: #000000; border-style: solid"> <strong>Heritage: Siblings: 12</strong></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; padding-: 0.01in; padding-right: 0.06in; padding-bottom: 0.01in; padding-: 0.06in; border-width: 1px; border-color: #000000; border-style: solid"> <br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="CENTER"><br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Alberta Dowler, also known as Bert, was born on March 25<sup>th</sup>, 1866, near Winterset to Joseph and Martha Dowler. Her parents and their nine children had just moved to Iowa from Pennsylvania by horse and wagon in the months prior to her birth. The family made their home in South Township near Truro and St. Charles. Her father was 47 years old and her mother was 39 at the time. Records indicate that her parents belonged to the Presbyterian church, but “at the early age of 17 she gave her heart to the Quaker Faith, later affiliating with the Methodist Church at Truro. (see obituary).Alberta attended Ackworth Academy and procured a teaching certificate from Madison County in 1833, and from Polk County in 1884 and 1885. She taught for short time. Additionally, she operated a dress-making and millinery shop in Ackworth, Iowa. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">In 1889, she married Fletcher Porter, a farmer from the Truro area. Fletcher drove her to Winterset in a buggy drawn by black horses where they were married in Squire Hardy’s office. The dress she had made herself was of purple velvet with hand-painted pansies on it. She and Fletcher lived with Fletcher’s parents for five years. At that time, they moved out and rented farmland on their own in both Madison and Warren counties. In 1900 they were able to purchase a farm where they lived and were blessed with the birth of four children: Nina, Josephine, Boyd, and Lucie. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">When Fletcher traded the farm for the livery barn and a house in Truro in 1907, the story is that Alberta was so heart-broken that she hardly spoke to Fletcher for months. She had loved the farm, but eventually she adjusted to living in town. In 1919, she and Fletcher purchased the hotel in Truro next to their home. They rented their house in Truro and lived in the hotel using the ladies lounge as a living room for the family. Nina, Josephine, and Boyd were grown, but daughter Lucie was just sixteen. Fletcher kept up the eight guest rooms and continued to run the dray and livery. Alberta cooked meals for the guests, residents, and dinner guests and ran the hotel. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Grandson Carl, son of Nina and Otto Beeler, remembered happy times visiting his grandparents at their hotel and spending weeks with them in the summer. He lovingly described his grandmother Alberta as a tireless worker and a truly Christian woman. She would come to Sunday school in the morning and then jog up the alley to the hotel to prepare Sunday dinner. Always giving to the poor, she was devoutly religious. She loved nature, and Carl remembered spending a special afternoon walking in the pasture with her picking gooseberries and millet to make sassophras tea. She was kind and loving, never scolding anyone; the exception was when husband Fletcher was too domineering-then she could really put him in his place! </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Alberta eventually joined the Truro Methodist Church and was an active member. She and Fletcher continued to operate the hotel for many years. The couple celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 1939, and then a year later she died unexpectedly. She is buried with Fletcher in the southwest corner of the St. Charles cemetery.</p>