Stevens, Florence (Mero) 1853 - 1922

STEVENS, MERO, NEATH, MCWILLIAMS, ALBERT, STOCKTON, DENNIS, DEMO, COOPER

Posted By: Ann Stockton Meyer (email)
Date: 7/10/2013 at 10:53:03

Florence Mero, beloved wife of Daniel F. Stevens, was born Feb. 10, 1853. For a long time her health has not been good, but she was not thought to be seriously ill until about a week before her death she sustained a fall due to heart trouble. She had made it a practice to visit each of her children once a year. It was while visiting her son's home in Milwaukee that the end came. She was a good mother and a real home-maker. A great part of her time was spent in caring for the sick, in fact she regarded caring for the sick as having a large place in her life-work.

She was a member of the Methodist church, having joined when first coming to this part of the country to live. She was a member of the Women's Relief Corps. Not only her husband, but her father, four uncles and many other relatives served in the war of the '60's. Her father died in the service leaving her mother and a family of young children to be provided for. Many and varied were the experiences of the family for many years in the "battle for bread". In a short autobiography which Mrs. Stevens recently wrote she portrays very vividly the hardships of pioneer life - sleeping under a wagon box during a rainy night in the open prairie while settling on a claim, loosing the crops for four successive years by the grasshoppers, being snow in without flour or meat in the house, are some of the experiences recorded.

She was united in marriage at the age of fifteen years to Daniel F. Stevens at Mifflin, Iowa county, Wis., May 3, 1868. They shared the joys and sorrows of home together until March 8, 1912, when her husband was taken away. To this union were born eleven children, four of whom preceded her in death. Wayne of Milton Junction, Wis., died in 1918; Ellen Neath, Primghar, Iowa died in 1921; Mary and Archie in infancy. She is survived by four sons and three daughters: Joseph F. of Waterloo; Perry D. of Minneapolis; Edith McWilliams of Waukon; Anna Albert of Primghar; Daniel A. of Wauwatoosa, Wis.; John E. and Eliza Stockton of Waukon. Also 30 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Also three brothers, Dee Mero, Appleton, Minn.; Russel Mero, Kalispell, Montana; Fred Mero, Racetrack, Mon.; two sisters, Mrs. Josephine Dennis, Madison, Wis.; Mrs. Elizabeth Demo, Mason City; one half sister, Mrs. Anna Cooper, Dorchester, and by a score of dear friends. To know her was to love her.

She lived most of her life in Waukon and made her permanent home here since the death of her husband. She passed away at 6 o'clock a. m. Nov. 25, without a struggle, being perfectly resigned and prepared. The funeral was held last Wednesday afternoon, services at the M. E. church, conducted by Rev. Butler, and burial in Oakland cemetery.