“Matilda was a midwife,” so goes the family story, “and delivered a lot of babies in the county.” Despite a lack of definitive documentation, and almost certain lack of opportunity for any formal training, this nevertheless seems plausible. Matilda J. (Hammond) Thoma (1859-1947) of Clayton County, Iowa birthed five children of her own, and it does not seem unlikely that she might have assisted at the births of others in her close-knit community. She had numerous nieces and nephews whose births she might have supported, and she may even have served as midwife at the births of some of her own grandchildren. Indeed, it was her granddaughter Ina Fischer, born in 1907, who recalled nearly eighty years later that Matilda had been a midwife, and a 1920 newspaper announcement indicated that another granddaughter, Jacqueline Chaney, was in fact born at Matilda’s home.

_{Matilda (Hammond) Thoma and Franque (Friend) Curtis photograph, circa 1922, Clayton County, Iowa; digital image 2023, privately held by Melanie Frick, 2023.}

Here, in one of only two photographs known to exist of Matilda, she poses with granddaughter Franque Friend. Matilda would have been in her early sixties at the time that this photograph was taken circa 1922; her hair, loosely coiled into a bun atop her head, seems to have gone mostly white. She wears a somewhat rumpled striped dress with buttons up the front and a wide collar in a contrasting fabric; this was not a studio portrait, but a casual snapshot apparently taken at home. Matilda appears to sit on a sofa near a window, a potted plant beside her, and striped wallpaper is visible in the background. She offers a small smile to the camera. Young Franque, perhaps ten years old here, stands next to her grandmother, grinning beneath the broad brim of a straw hat with a fringe of dark hair just peeking out. She wears a white dress with scalloped cuffs, a bow at the collar, and a leather belt.

Matilda, the daughter of Hiram H. Hammond (1813-1896) and Eva Margaret Stoehr (1831-1906), spent more than sixty-five years in Clayton County, Iowa, where she was born and later married Frederick Thoma (1857-1925). Four of their five children lived to adulthood; the youngest sadly died in a diphtheria outbreak at the age of ten. Following her husband’s death, Matilda eventually relocated, first to Texas with her daughter Roselyn and then to Wisconsin where she lived with her granddaughter Jacqueline. Few other details are known of her life, but what little is known suggests that she was a kind, competent, and maternal individual—just the sort to lend a hand as a midwife.

Copyright © 2023 Melanie Frick. All Rights Reserved.

SOURCES

“Clayton Ridge,” Guttenberg Press, 25 March 1920; digital image, A Digital Archive of Guttenberg Public Library (http://www.guttenberg.advantage-preservation.com : accessed 25 Jun 2023).

Fern (Thoma) Adam, conversation with Brian Adam, 01 August 1984; notes in author’s files. Fern was the granddaughter of Fred and Matilda (Hammond) Thoma and had recently spoken with her cousin Ina (Fischer) Roloff regarding their grandparents; Ina recalled that “Matilda was a midwife and delivered a lot of babies in the county.”

“Fred Thoma,” Guttenberg [Iowa] Press, 29 January 1925; digital image, A Digital Archive of Guttenberg Public Library (http://www.guttenberg.advantage-preservation.com : accessed 25 Jun 2023).

“Last Rites for Matilda Thoma,” Garnavillo [Iowa] Tribune, 28 August 1947; digital image, A Digital Archive of Guttenberg Public Library (http://www.guttenberg.advantage-preservation.com : accessed 25 Jun 2023).