Close to 200 descendents of Jonas Duea, an emigrant leader in the establishment of Roland during the mid 1800s, are gathering in Roland to celebrate the sesquicentennial of Jonas Duea's settlement in Iowa and to unite generations of the Duea family, many of whom who have never met.
Two of Jonas Duea's great-grandchildren, Jim Duea of Ames and his cousin Sanford Duea of rural Nevada, are members of the reunion's planning committee. The reunion planning has been in the works for over a year with word of mouth, e-mails, telephone calls and regular mail all being utilized to get the word out about it. The response has been very positive with the expected number of attendees going from 140 to anywhere from 180 to 200.
Because of the size of the reunion, with descendents coming from as far away as California, Mississippi and Idaho, Jim and Sanford feel their reunion holds something much more special than just a family gathering for those who attend.
"What makes this unique is that the family has come together to commemorate the event and reacquaint ourselves," said Jim Duea. Another unusual aspect of the reunion that happened by pure coincidence is that it will be held 95 years to the day of Jonas Duea's funeral and burial.
The reunion is being held July 16 and 17 in and around the Roland area. An informal gathering on July 16, where many will meet for the first time, will consist of a golf outing, a tour of Roland and a picnic. The next day the reunion will hold church services at Salem Lutheran Church in Roland, a church that Jonas Duea helped establish, followed by a trip to Jonas Duea's grave site in the Roland Cemetery, complete with a horse and buggy for an added authentic feel of how Jonas Duea's funeral may have looked 95 years ago.
The organization and research for this reunion has led to some new realizations for Jim and Sanford Duea about Jonas Duea. They both had heard the stories about their great-grandfather, but their research revealed much more. "(Jonas's) accomplishments were much greater then we had originally thought ... and all well-documented," said Jim Duea.
Jonas Duea was a Norwegian emigrant, an Iowa pioneer, Civil War veteran, prairie farmer, the first postmaster of Roland, businessman and civic leader.
Jonas Duea came to settle Roland as part of an advance scouting party from Illinois who were looking to buy land. In 1855, the group bought 480 acres in Story County's Howard Township, which looked suitable for settlement and farming. They purchased the land for $1.25 an acre from the United States government and returned to Illinois to bring their families back the following spring. It was on the land that the group settled that town of Roland eventually grew out of, thanks to the strong community leadership of Jonas Duea and his involvement all the way up to the incorporation of the town.
Jim and Sanford also saw that Jonas' legacy was still being carried today through his descendents. Said Jim Duea, "Previous generations all looked up to Jonas," and that respect continues to be passed down in the form of Jonas' interests.
Sanford Duea cites that Jonas's four points of interest involved church, education (Jonas Duea was president of the Roland School Board), business and agricultural. "His interests have taken off in our family," said Jim Duea, evidenced by Jim and Sanford Duea's own line of work. Jim Duea works as an educator in Iowa State University's agricultural school, and Sanford Duea carried on the family's interest in farming.
While there are many families with similar stories and roots to early Iowa immigrants, Jim Duea feels that his family is one of the few that actually uses such an important anniversary and person from so early in their family history as the opportunity to hold a reunion and celebrate their roots. Rather then a genealogy that is on paper, Jim Duea says, the reunion will allow for "a genealogy that is human."
The reunion may be the first of its kind in the long history of the Duea family, but for it to happen again future generations would need to preserve the message of the reunion's originators. Said Jim Duea, "We hope that it will continue, not so much to recognize Jonas ... but to keep the family together."
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