The letters were written to Ruth Johnson, of Fort Dodge, by her relatives in Mason City between 1912 and 1921.

Now they are going back to Mason City.

On Tuesday, the letters were transferred from the Webster County Historical Society to the River City Society for Historic Preservation in Mason City. The Mason City organization owns and operates the Stockman House, a home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright that was built in 1908. Ruth Johnson’s maiden name was Stockman and she once lived in that house.

Fort Dodge historian Roger Natte said the local historical society has had the letters since the 1970s. But because the letters describe everyday life in Mason City, they don’t really fit in the scope of the local historical society, he added.

“Things ought to be back home,” he said.

Those letters went back home Tuesday after Natte and Lori Gascho, an amateur archivist for the Webster County Historical Society, presented them to Colleen Last and Jennifer Sliwinksi, members of the Library and Archives Committee of the River City Society for Historic Preservation.

According to Natte, Ruth Stockman married Edward Johnson, a Fort Dodge attorney who mainly represented railroads. He said there was apparently no connection between Edward Johnson and the current Johnson Law Firm in Fort Dodge.

The Johnsons bought property in Fort Dodge and created a short street called Johnson Place. Their home was at 5 Johnson Place. There, they raised two daughters and a son. Daughter Eleanor Prentiss was a movie actress whom Natte said was once called “the most beautiful face in Hollywood.” Daughter Olive Covey was a leader in the American Red Cross during World War II, he said. And son Wallace Johnson, was a businessman; inventor; mayor of Berkley, California; and briefly a candidate for vice president of the United States.

Natte said the Johnson family sold the house in the 1970s to Rich and Martha Bailie. The Bailies found the letters in the attic and gave them to Natte.

The effort to get the letters back to Mason City began when Gascho toured the Stockman House recently.

She recalled that the tour guide showed her Ruth Stockman’s bedroom and she asked about the woman’s life. The tour guide replied that Ruth Stockman married an attorney and moved to Fort Dodge. Then Gascho realized exactly who Ruth Stockman was.

“I thought, oh, yeah, we have all the letters,” she said.

“It is serendipity that we have the originals,” she added.

Those originals, in which Ruth Johnson’s relatives filled her in on everything going on in Mason City, are now back in that community.