Bessie Clouser Gildersleeve, Gilbert Centenarian
by Helen D. Gunderson, Gazette Editor
August 1, 2004

Bessie Clouser Gildersleeve was the grand marshal for the Gilbert parade as part of the town’s 125^th anniversary celebration on July 30-31, 2004. The parade began at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday at the high school, moved west along Mathews Drive, then headed north on Main Street. Bessie lives on a farm north of Gilbert with her daughter Millie Rice. Bessie's other daughter, Ruth Shickell, lives in Ames.

Bessie is the oldest living graduate of the Gilbert schools. She and her parents moved from Illinois to the Gilbert area when she was three years old. She graduated in 1921. Her senior yearbook says that she was active in the Clio Crescent Literary Society, debate, the class play, glee club, and basketball. She was a running center when the girls' basketball rules divided the game into three courts and the players could not cross from one section of the floor into another. The game consisted of two forwards, two guards, a center who remained stationary, and a center who could run.

Bessie attended Iowa State Teachers’ College in Cedar Falls for 12 weeks then began teaching at the Smalley School six miles west of Gilbert. She had 26 students at the country school and earned $35 per month. Then she taught at the Old Wilderness School five miles southwest of Nevada where she had seven students and earned $55 a month. She had to pay for her room and board at both places

Because a married woman was not allowed to keep a teaching job in those days, Bessie and John Gildersleeve went to Indianola on January 3, 1923, to be married by the justice of the peace. Bessie claimed that the weather was as "cold as the Dickens at 16 degrees below zero." They traveled with Daisy and Henry Clouser of Gilbert in their Ford automobile. Interestingly, Daisy was Bessie’s mother’s sister, and Henry was Bessie’s father’s brother. Daisy and Henry’s 12-year-old daughter, Helen, also went on the wedding trip. No one else in Gilbert knew of Bessie and John’s plans to marry. Bessie said, "We made Helen promise not to tell anyone about the trip, and even though she was only 12, she never told a soul."

When they returned, Bessie lived with her parents and continued to teach until May when she got Scarlet Fever. She didn’t have a bad case of the disease, but it was serious enough that she was quarantined at home. John was a farm boy, who lived across the section from Bessie, and had been a freshman at Gilbert high when Bessie was a senior. Bessie and John moved to the Gildersleeve farm in 1924 after his parents moved off the farm. Bessie and John were married for 72 years. The affable, story-telling farmer died in 1994. Bessie continues to live on the family homeplace.

In an interview with the Gilbert Gazette conducted in February 2004, Bessie talked about the complexities of travel in the 1920s. "When I taught school, I rode the train every weekend. I was five miles southwest of Nevada so I walked or caught a ride to Nevada. Then I caught a five o’clock bus to Ames. Then I stayed in Ames and caught the 7:30 train and came to Gilbert. John would meet me with a horse and take me to my folks’ home. Sometimes we rode horseback and sometimes we had a buggy to ride in."

She shared other fascinating memories. For instance, she spoke about life during the Depression. "In thirties we had absolutely nothing, so we shut off telephones and put our car in the garage because we didn’t have money. Kerosene was eight cents a gallon, and we didn’t have eight cents to buy kerosene."

She also recalled the era when Gilbert had a lumber yard, train depot, two grocery stores, two hardware stores, and two barber shops and the west side of Main Street was filled with buildings that had businesses both upstairs and downstairs.

Bessie was an active farmer, homemaker, and church worker. She and her daughters belong to the Gilbert Evangelical Free Church. She and John had a cabin near the Skunk River where they welcomed family and friends for all-day outings in the country. The couple visited every state in the union except Delaware over a 16-year period of time. They traveled with another couple and had a fold down camper they could sleep in. Bessie also toured the Holy Lands with Millie.

When asked during the interview if John worked in the home, Bessie laughed and said, "Oh no, he was busy. And don’t ask if he ever took care of a kid. Men back in those days never did, that was a woman’s job — to do that and everything else."

When asked what advice she had for people of today, she promptly said, "Throw away the credit cards and don’t go into debt too much — but a little is OK."

These days Bessie reads large print books; plays card games such as Pitch, Hi-Lo Jack, and Kings Corners with Millie; visits with friends and family who stop by the farm; speaks her mind freely; and naps a lot. She has 15 grand-children; 25 great grand-children; 27 great great grand-children; and 18 great, great, great grand-children. Her son Lloyd died at the age of 48 in 1978.

For the parade, Bessie rode in a 1949 Buick Riviera Roadmaster owned and driven by a neighboring farmer, Gene Upstill. He said the car is unique because, in 1949, Buick was the first company to come out with a hard top car, meaning that there was no door post. Also, 1949 was the year that Buick introduced portholes.

Bessie's family originally thought she would ride in a new Cadillac owned and driven by Ruth. However, Millie, told Gene, in reference to her mom, "We have an old gem here, and we need an old gem of a car for her to ride in."

The interview conducted with Bessie in February 2004 is available on a CD at the Ames Public Library and on the Gazette.