PHILIP J. WOLFE (1898–1979)

Philip James Wolfe was born on July 23, 1898, near Lost Nation, Clinton County, Iowa. He was the son of Maurice Buckley Wolfe, a farmer in Lost Nation, and Sarah A. McAndrews. Wolfe had four brothers: Raymond Bernard (b. 1896), John Joseph (b. 1901), Melvin Maurice (b. 1904), and James Emmet (b. 1909).

Wolfe attended three years of public high school, probably in Lost Nation. He registered for the draft on September 12, 1918, and his card describes him as short and of medium build with gray eyes and brown hair.

The 1910 federal census and the census of 1920 both list the family as farming in Sharon Township, Clinton County, with the help of a domestic servant, Charlotte “Lottie” Keyes. The earlier census also indicates that a laborer, Mike Dorty, lived on the farm.

On February 12, 1930, at Saint Joseph’s Church in DeWitt, Iowa, Wolfe married Alice Mildred Gribbon (b. 1906), a DeWitt school teacher. (Her mother, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Gribbon, was a native of County Down, Ireland.) The couple had no children. They farmed south of Lost Nation.

In an essay written in 1975, Philip Wolfe’s nephew, Thomas Wolfe, wrote:

Over the years, Phil has pursued vigorously the task of convincing his nephews of the joys and material benefits he claims to be an integral part of husbandry, the tilling of the soil. Mildred has the distinction, among other things, of being a member of the longest, continual, single bridge club in this part of the world.

The 1940 federal census lists the Wolfes as living in Grant Township, Clinton County, in a home valued at $1,200. They attended Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in Lost Nation.

Phil Wolfe died on August 6, 1979, in Lost Nation, and Mildred Wolfe on August 23, 1990, at the Kahl Home in Davenport, Iowa. They are buried together at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Lost Nation.