Dear Editor,
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I am writing to clarify some of the information that was shared in a letter to the editor in the Oct. 10 issue of the North Missourian concerning the “Slave Mansion.”
My grandparents, Ed (Edward) and Margaret Sigman (not Sigmen) along with their children, Roy – my father, and Ellen – best known as Sissy, shared the “Slave Mansion” with Laurence and Hazel Underwood and their son, Rex. They would have lived there for a few short years in the early 1950s. I believe one family lived downstairs and one upstairs with them sharing the kitchen area. I’m sure my grandparents did not live there past the 1950s. I am also sure neither family was responsible for the tearing down of the house.
I don’t recall how my grandparents came to live in Kidder, but I do know they came from the Kansas City area. I don’t know any of the Underwood family history other than that Rex was born in Brush, CO. I also do not know what brought the Sigmans and Underwoods together to live in that house, but I do know that theirs was a lasting friendship that continued long after they left that home. Rex was the last of the two families to pass away. He died in 2015 from health related issues. According to Rex’s obituary he was preceded in death by a brother Ray.
We have a certificate hanging on the wall of the office in our home that was issued to L.R. Underwood and Ed Sigman by the Caldwell County Rotary Club in 1952. The award was for the production of 108.1 bushels-to-the-acre corn in the KCMO Community Corn Club Contest. Perhaps it is possible that corn was raised on the property where the house was located.
Rhonda Sigman-Lambert, Pattonsburg