In 2016 I came into
possession of a file box containing old financial records that
had been passed down from my grandmother, Isabelle Condon, to my
father, Bill Condon. The documents are records of some Kleckner
and Condon financial transactions in the years between 1900 and
1950.
This page contains links to scanned images of the documents for
the Condon family from 1948 to 1950. The documents are arranged
chronologically in order to follow the financial activities.
Prior to Mary Kleckner's death in 1947 Red and
Isabelle had been living with her in the house on the south side
of the road in the western part of New Haven. After her death
they bought land slightly to the east and on the north side of
the road in New Haven on which to build a new house. The
legal location of this property is the SE1/4 SW1/4 Section 20,
Township 98 North, Range 15 West. This is parcel number 12-20-376-006
in the Mitchell County Assessor's records online.
This first document is a mortgage for $4,500 obtained from
Edmund and Nina Burke. Edmund, known as 'Doc' was a doctor
practicing in Waterloo, Iowa, and Nina was Red's sister. The
mortgage was signed on March 26, 1948 and was to be repaid a
year later. 1948 First mortgage 1 1948 First mortgage 2 1948 First mortgage 3 A month later, on April 26, 1948, a Warranty Deed
was issued for the land in sec. 20, T. 98 N., R. 15 W. The deed
transferred the land from Nellie and Julius Brunner, who lived
in the house just to the west of this parcel of land. Julius ran
the creamery, which was located straight south of his home,
directly south of the Mary Kleckner property on the south side
of the road. The land was transferred for the sum of 'One
($1.00) and Other Valuable considerations, Dollars'. 1948 Warranty Deed 1 1948 Warranty Deed 2 Another month later, on May 29, 1948, a second mortgage
was obtained by Red and Isabelle from Nina and Doc. This one was
for $1,000 and was to be paid back at the same time as the
previous mortgage of March 26. 1948 Second mortgage 1 1948 Second mortgage 2 1948 Second mortgage 3 A year later,
on March 31, 1949, two Satisfaction of Mortgage documents were
signed by Nina and Doc, for the $4,500 and $1,000 loans. 1949 Satisfaction of Mortgage 1 1949 Satisfaction of Mortgage 2 Just after the first two mortgages were paid off, two
more mortgages were taken out by Red and Isabelle, the first on
April 9, 1949. This first one was obtained from the Home Savings
and Loan Association of Osage, and was for $4,000. Monthly
payments began in May, 1949 for $40.00 per month. 1949 First mortgage 1 1949 First mortgage 2 1949 First mortgage 3 1949 First mortgage 4 The second mortgage in 1949 was again from Nina and Doc,
this time for $2,000. This loan was made on April 14, 1949 and was
to be paid back after March 31, 1950. The mortgage documents are
both marked Paid. 1949 Second mortgage 1 1949 Second mortgage 2 1949 Second mortgage 3 A temporary receipt for $50 from the Home Savings &
Loan is the only payment receipt in the saved materials. It's not
known if this was for a payment on the mortgage or reflects a
deposit in an account at the Savings and Loan. 1949 receipt A copy of Red's Iowa income tax return for 1950 is also
among the saved documents. According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics the average income in the U.S. in 1950 was $4,237. Just
over 53 percent of families had incomes of less than $5,000 and 25
percent had incomes less than $3,000. The median family income was
$3,216, not much more than that of Red's family.
In 1950 the median home price was $7,354, which in
inflation-adjusted dollars (2017) is $77,191. The cost of Red and
Isabelle's house is thought to have been between $9,000 and
$10,000 (between $94,500 and $105,000 in 2017 dollars). Red's
income of $3,009 in 1950 is $31,584 in 2017 dollars.