MARGARET SUSAN LEGG GLEASON

MARGARET SUSAN LEGG WAS BORN AT GREENCASTLE, INDIANA, MARCH 18, 1837. SHE DIED NEAR MOUNT AYR, IOWA, AUGUST 5, 1918, AT THE AGE OF 81 YEARS, FOUR MONTHS AND 18 DAYS.

SHE MOVED WITH HER PARENTS AT A VERY EARLY AGE TO ILLINOIS, WHERE THEY SETTLED AT KANKAKEE. HERE SHE SPENT HER GIRLHOOD. ON JANUARY 5, 1857, SHE WAS MARRIED TO MR. D. R. GLEASON AT KANKAKEE. THEY SET UP THEIR HOME THERE AND REMAINED FOR TWENTY-TWO YEARS. THEN IN 1879 THEY CAME TO IOWA AND SECURED A FARM NEAR BENTON. THIS WAS THEIR HOME UNTIL THE DEATH OF THE HUSBAND, WHICH OCCURRED IN 1901.

AFTER HER HUSBAND’S DEATH MRS. GLEASON MADE HER HOME WITH HER CHILDREN, PRINCIPALLY WITH HER DAUGHTER, MRS. BEALL. SHE WAS IN KANSAS AT THE HOME OF HER SON, C.D. GLEASON, WHEN A PARALTYIC STROKE CAME UPON HER. SHE WAS AN INDEFATIGABLE RED CROSS KNITTER AND HER EXERTIONS ALONG THIS LINE ARE GIVEN BY THE DOCTOR AS A CAUSE FOR HER ILLNESS. ALL THAT COULD BE DONE FOR HER RECOVERY WAS PROMPTLY DONE. SHE WAS BROUGHT BACK TO MOUNT AYR AND AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF ILLNESS SHE DIED AT THE BEALL HOME.

EIGHT CHILDREN REMAIN TO MOURN THE LOSS OF THEIR MOTHER. FOUR OF THEM LIVE AT MOUNT AYR; ELIVIN O. GLEASON, MRS. ATTIE SCHLAPIA, MRS. FLORA BEALL AND FRANK E. GLEASON. OF THE OTHERS, DR. W. L. GLEASON RESIDES AT FAIRVIEW, OK.; C.D. GLEASON IS AT MOUND CITY, KS.; S.E. GLEASON AT JOPLIN, MO. AND MRS. MAGGIE HUFFMAN. ANOTHER DAUGHTER DIED SEVERAL YEARS AGO.

MRS. GLEASON UNITED WITH THE METHODIST CHURCH IN CHILDHOOD. WHEN SHE MOVED TO BENTON SHE TRANSFERRED HER MEMBERSHIP TO THAT PLACE AND HAS BEEN A FAITHFUL AND WORTHY MEMBER EVER SINCE. SHE WAS ALSO A GOOD NEIGHBOR, FRIEND TO ALL IN NEED, A LOVING AND THOUGHTFUL MOTHER, A GOOD WOMAN.

FUNERAL SERVICES WERE HELD AT HER CHURCH IN BENTON ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, CONDUCTED BY FRANK BEAN, OF MOUNT AYR, AND DENNIS DILLE OF BENTON, A LIFELONG FRIEND. INTERMENT WAS AT BENTON CEMETERY.