Looking Back: The Edward Storms Family

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society

​     Last week I introduced you to Cora and Logan Storms and their descendants. This week I will tell you about Edward E. Storms. Like his older brother Logan, Edward was born in Cass County on March 15, 1871. He was the son of Asa Storms, Sr. and his second wife, Mary E. Stillwell.
     As teenagers, Logan and Edward Storms came to Grain Valley. Edward was only 18 years old when he married Altha Parr on August 18, 1889. They had six children:: Myrtle (Mrs. Everett Snodgrass), 1890-1969; Charles Elmer, 1892-1960; Thomas, 1894-1970; George Ellis, 1898-1962; Marie (Mrs. David Shrout), 1901-1995 and Edith (Mrs. William Tucker), 1904-1996.
     The 1900 U. S. Census listed farming as his occupation. However, by 1910 Edward owned a drugstore and his occupation was that of druggist. He and his family lived in Grain Valley. He must have been fairly successful, because by 1920 the family had moved to the big house on Walnut Street. Edward and Altha were still living there in 1930. Altha passed away in 1940 and while I did not find him listed in the 1940 census, he died in Kansas City at age 81 on June 10, 1952.
     Charles (“Elmer”) worked briefly at the Bank of Grain Valley before moving to Colorado and later Enid, Oklahoma. The remaining children stayed in Missouri. Myrtle married into the Snodgrass  family and her children and grandchild grew up in Grain Valley. Tommy worked in his father’s store and for a time. During the 1930s he ran a restaurant in Harrisonville before returning to Grain Valley. Marie was the mother of Keith Shrout who was the superintendent at Lone Jack in the 1960s.
     Edith married Bill Tucker, a teacher in Grain Valley in the late 1920s. They moved to Freeman, Missouri where Bill eventually became Superintendent of Schools at Midway until his death in 1959. Edith was his school secretary and served the district until her retirement in 1978.
     Finally, George Ellis Storms (1898-1962) followed in his father’s foot steps. After high school he worked at the Bank of Grain Valley before becoming the druggist at Storms Pharmacy. The 1940 US Census listed Ellis as a drug store owner (located on Main Street, north of the Bank of Grain Valley).  He married Grace Johnson on April 12, 1922 and they lived with their daughter, Carol Jean, on Walnut Street.
     I remember Grace and Ellis living in their “new” home on Truman Road. They had purchased a farm and planted lots and lots of peach trees. I had many bowls of peaches and ice cream and several peach pies from Storms Orchard. People came from all over to buy their delicious peaches!
     After Edward’s death his estate was sold. If you live on the south side of Walnut Street stretching to the railroad and between Charlotte Street and Kirby Road, you are living in the Storms Addition. What was once farmland became Storms Addition in 1956. The original houses along Walnut Street were built in 1957 and 58.