Mrs. FREDERIC LARRABEE (Dora Pinney) WILLIAMS 1856-1953

MEAKIN, PINNEY, WILLIAMS, LINDSAY, KYES, GRAY, MASON, GARRET, LARRABEE

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 3/26/2007 at 21:23:53

Dora (Pinney) Williams

Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at the Community Presbyterian Church for Mrs. Fred L. Williams, who passed away at her home on Saturday, January 3. Rev. Walter T. Martin, pastor of The Community Presbyterian Church, was in charge of the final rites. Burial was in the family lot in the Postville cemetery.

Dora Pinney was born in Monroe, Wisconsin, on July 4, 1856, the second daughter of Captain Oscar F. and Eliza Meakin Pinney. One of her early memories was of the journey she made with her mother to Racine where her father was drilling his company, the Fifth Wisconsin Battery, prior to its entrance into combat in the Civil War. Her father, six weeks after receiving his commission as major, was shot in the Battle of Murfreesboro, and was laid to rest in Monroe where the G. A. R. Post bears his name.

Mrs. Pinney [Dora's mother] moved to Fond du Lac, her old family home, and there her daughter [Dora] lived until her marriage. At 14 she became a member of the First Presbyterian Church. She attended and in 1873 was graduated from Miss Merrill's School for Girls and later taught in the German and English Academy of Fond du Lac.

On January 10, 1883, she married Frederic Larrabee Williams and came to reside on Grand Meadow farm south of Postville. To this union were born ten children, four of who preceded her in death, Hugh and Katherine as infants, and Joseph Radford [Williams] and Hewitt Larrabee [Williams] as young men, the one as a senior at Iowa State College, the other in the First World War in France where he lies buried in the American Cemetery of Romagne.

In 1921 the family moved from the farm into Postville and there Mrs. Williams has resided continuously except for occasional winters with her daughters in California and the trip to France as a guest of the United States on a tour given to Gold Stars Mothers whose sons were buried there.

Mr. Williams predeceased her December 1, 1935. Mrs. Williams was a charter member of the Postville Monday Club, of Chapter FT, P. E. O., and of Unit 518 of the American Legion Auxiliary. She was a member of the Congregational Church and later of the Community Presbyterian Church.

She passed away at her home in Postville January 3, 1953.

Six children survive her: Lester Williams of Lewiston, Michigan; Rachel, Mrs. Robert Lindsay, of Postville; Virginia, Mrs. W. S. Kyes, of San Diego, California; Richard Williams of Phoenix, Arizona; Victor Williams of Coggon; and Amy, Mrs. J. P. Gray, of Detroit. Four grandchildren also survive her: Frank Gates Williams of Winterset; Frances Anne Williams, Mrs. Grafton Mason, of Chicago; Virginia Williams Gray, Mrs. Richard Garrett, of Dearborn, Michigan; and Miss Dorothy Williams of Phoenix, Arizona. There are also three great grandchildren: Robert Arno Williams and John Allan Williams of Winterset, and Anne Louise Mason of Chicago.

Postville Herald newspaper clipping from my mother's obituary collection. Submitter has no further information.