MATILDA KRAMER VAUGHN
MATILDA KRAMER WAS BORN IN UNION COUNTY, PA, APRIL 3, 1838, AND DEPARTED THIS LIFE AT TEN O’CLOCK FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 10, 1924, AGE 86 YEARS, SIX MONTHS AND SEVEN DAYS. SHE WAS LEFT AN ORPHAN IN EARLY CHILDHOOD AND WAS RAISED TO YOUNG WOMANHOOD BY ANOTHER FAMILY. SHE WENT TO FAIRFIELD, OH IN 1865 AND WAS MARRIED TO EDWARD VAUGHN, A CIVIL WAR VETERAN, AT NEWARK, OH, MARCH 8, 1866. TO THIS UNION WERE BORN THREE CHILDREN, LIZZIE MAY, DYING IN INFANCY, DORA A. OF BENTON, AND FLORENCE M. SWAYER, OF MOUNT AYR, BY WHOM SHE IS SURVIVED, AND TEN GRANDCHILDREN AND ONE GREAT GRANDCHILD. SHE WITH HER HUSBAND AND TWO CHILDREN CAME TO RINGGOLD COUNTY, IOWA ON OCTOBER 10, 1882, JUST 42 YEARS TO THE DATE OF HER DEATH. SHE HAD LIVED IN THE VICINITY OF BENTON ALL OF THIS TIME. HER HUSBAND DIED FEBRUARY 20, 1899. SINCE THEN SHE LIVED WITH HER SON AND FAMILY. SHE UNITED WITH THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT HEBRON, OH, IN EARLY LIFE, MOVING HER MEMBERSHIP TO DELPHOS WHEN COMING TO IOWA. SHE LOVED TO ATTEND CHURCH UNITL INFIRMITIES OF OLD AGE CAME UPON HER. WHE WAS A TRUE CHRISTIAN WOMAN IN DEED AND ACT. GRAMDMA, AS SHE WAS CALLED, HAS BEEN A SUFFERER FOR SEVERAL YEARS AND FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS WAS MOSTLY CONFINED TO HER BED. SHE OFTEN TALKED OF DEATH AND WAS READY TO GO, YET SHE WAS CHEERFUL WHEN NOT SUFFERING, ALWAYS GLAD TO SEE HER FRIENDS AND ESPECIALLY HAPPY WHEN SURROUNDED BY HER GRANDCHILDREN, ALWAYS PRAISING THEM FOR LITTLE DEEDS OF KINDNESS. HER DAUGHTER AND DAUGHTER-IN-LAW NURSED HER TENDERLY TILL THE END. GRANDMA LIVED THE SIMPLE INDUSTRIOUS LIFE, WORKED HARD AND HAS GONE TO HER REWARD. BLESSED BE HER MEMORY. THE FUNERAL SERVICES WERE HELD SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT 2:30 O’CLOCK FROM THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AT BENTON, CONDUCTED BY REV. J.D. DILLE, A LONG-TIME FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, ASSISTED BY REV. ROSS WILLIAMS, OF MOUNT AYR. A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE, FRIENDS AND OLD NEIGHBORS OF THE DECEASED AND FAMILY, WERE PRESENT AND THE REMAINS WERE LAID TENDERLY AWAY IN THE BEAUTIFUL BENTON CEMETERY ABOUT WHICH SHE TALKED SO MUCH.