Twins Recall Separation at Birth 85 Years Ago

CEDAR RAPIDS - As Del Block and Dale Siems grew up in Franklin County, they were well aware of the family resemblance. They just thought, as cousins, genetics had played a trick on them.

"We each grew up about ten miles from Hampton," says Dale who now lives in Charles City. "I was north at Sheffield and he was east at Geneva. People would see me and they'd say, ‘Hi, Del.' They'd see him and say, ‘Hi, Dale.'"

Only as they grew older did they learn the truth. Del and Dale were identical twins, separated at birth.

"We think we have a unique story," laughs Del, 85, who has lived in Cedar Rapids since 1978. "There's so much to talk about our past, you're not going to be able to take it all in."

The story begins Aug. 12, 1926, when the boys were born as the sixth (Dale) and seventh (Del) children of Ella and August Siems in Hansell, east of Hampton. As an itinerant mechanic and carpenter, August struggled to keep food on the table.

Ella's brother, Conrad Block, however, was a prosperous farmer. He and his wife, Jennie, had hoped to raise a family. But, with no children at the time and to alleviate the pressure on August, they took one of the twins home. That just happened to be Del.

"They thought they were being good samaritans, but they never took me back," Del says.

He pauses for a moment to consider the consequences.

"They could have taken Dale," he says, "but they took me."

And so, as the families grew and moved - the Siems family to Sheffield and the Blocks to a farm near Geneva - Del and Dale grew up as cousins.

"Everybody that knows me, my friends, go bananas when I tell them my parents were my aunt and uncle; my aunt and uncle were my parents," Del says.

"Last time we were together, about a month ago, we talked about that," says Dale by telephone from Charles City. "Wouldn't that have been something if they had taken me?

"There's no animosity," Dale says. "Everybody was hurting. We were all in the same boat. Times were tough."

But, would that have made a difference in their lives? At one time a University of Minnesota professor proposed doing a case study examining the genetics and environmental impact on these twins separated at birth. But, in this case, it might not have proved anything. Both Dale, who grew up sleeping on straw mattresses and eating "horseradish leaves and oatmeal," and Del, who grew up wanting for little and eating "butter, eggs and real cream on his oatmeal," became successful.

Dale wound up in Charles City in 1953 with $24 in his pocket and soon began a career that built Sherman Nursery into one of the Midwest's largest suppliers of trees and plants for independently owned and operating gardening centers. And Del retired in 1987 as General Commercial Manager for Alliant Energy in Cedar Rapids after a 41-year career that included stints in Marshalltown, Sibley and Spirit Lake.

Del likes to tell the story about his own children - he and his wife, Dee, had three. "When they'd see Dale," he laughs, "they'd go hide. They couldn't believe there was another guy who looked just like their dad."

In their youth, the brothers saw each other at family gatherings and even played against each other in school basketball games. The Blocks had five children to go along with Del. The Siems also had five more children, for a total of 12, even though doctors told Ella she shouldn't have any more after the twins.

At one point, the brothers say, their mother seemed upset that her brother had taken Del.

"She had enough kids to worry about without worrying about one more," Dale says.

As World War II arrived the brothers joined the service - Del the Navy and Dale the Army.

It wasn't until 1948, two months before their 22nd birthdays, that Del realized his last name was Siems. He had proposed to his wife and retrieved his birth certificate. Not until then was his last name legally changed to Block, even though he and Dale Siems would forever be brothers - twins separated at birth.

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