Mrs. EDWIN R. (Mathilda M. Pechia) LIVINGOOD 1864-1944

PECHIA, LIVINGOOD, WINTER, MOOSE, LAWSON, MILLER, SMITH, EWING

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 4/28/2005 at 19:58:20

Mrs. EDWIN R. (Mathilda M. Pechia) LIVINGOOD

Nine children, 57 grandchildren and 53 great- grandchildren survive Mrs. E. R. Livingood who passed away Tuesday evening of last week at a Waukon hospital following a brief illness. She was 79 years old. The funeral service was held at the Schutte Funeral Home in this city Friday afternoon with the Rev. Lehr H. Newhouse officiating. Interment was in the Smith cemetery in Post township.

Mrs. Livingood was born on December 9, 1864, near Myron as Mathilda Pechia. Her parents were French-Canadians who came to this community among the first settlers and with the exception of two years spent on a farm in Emmett county, she had spent her entire lifetime here.

On October 21, 1883, she was married to E. R. Livingood of the Myron community and the couple [illegible] housekeeping on the farm [illegible] owned in the family at Myron. For a number of years, in the 1890's, she and her husband also conducted a general store at Myron, then a flourishing and prosperous community. At that time her husband was postmaster at Myron for four years.

Ten children were born to this union, nine of whom are still living, Willard S. Livingood, Earl R. Livingood, Mrs. Nellie Winter and Lynn M. Livingood, all of Postville, Charles B. Livingood of Detroit Lakes, Minn., Mrs. Stella Moose of Monona, Mrs. Abbie Winter of Waterville, Cecil Livingood of Castalia, and Mrs. Caroline Lawson of Waukon. The eldest daughter, Mrs. Maud Eleanor Miller, passed away in 1917. Mr. Livingood passed away November 4, 1942.

-note: Mathilda's father, Joseph Pechia was French-Canadian but her mother, Martha Anna Smith was not, and Martha was a daughter of Reuben Smith, of the Old Stone House fame near Waukon, Iowa. Mathilda's husband was Edwin Renaldo Livingood, son of Greenbury Jackson and Abigail Blossom (Ewing) Livingood.

- contributed by Mary Durr