MULLAN, America 1817-1902

MULLAN, DAVISON, VIRDEN, WILLIAMSON

Posted By: Black Hawk Volunteer
Date: 7/19/2016 at 23:59:37

America Mullan

OBITUARY--

MRS. AMERICA MULLAN
IN FULLNESS OF THE YEARS

Mrs. America Mullan Passes Away at Pomeroy, Aged 85. Pioneer of Waterloo, Settling Here in Summer of 1846. Body to be Brought Back Tomorrow for Interment.

Mrs. America Mullan, mother of Hon. C. W. Mullan, attorney general of Iowa, who, with her husband was the first settler in the present limits of the City of Waterloo, passed away at 3:50 yesterday afternoon, after a short illness of pneumonia, at the home of a son, Marion Mullan, at Pomeroy. She was 85 years old the 24th of last October.

Three weeks ago Mrs. Mullan left for a visit to her sons, three of whom, besides C . W., reside in this state. She first went to Fort Dodge to visit J.W., then to Sioux City to visit H.C. While making the journey from there to Pomeroy last Monday deceased was taken ill on the train with a severe pain in her side. She was so ill when she reached Pomeroy that she had to be carried to her son’s residence. She gradually grew worse, the pneumonia, which had set in, affecting her heart, and she passed away at the hour indicated.

The body will arrive here tomorrow evening. The attorney general will reach here tomorrow morning and until that time no definite arrangements will be made for the funeral.

Mrs. Mullan was the mother of seven children, six of whom survive. One died in infancy. The survivors are Hon. C. W. Mullan of Waterloo, J. W. of Fort Dodge, an Illinois Central passenger engineer; H. C. of Sioux City, a passenger conductor on the Illinois Central; W. H. of Aberdeen, S.D., a postal clerk; Marion of Pomeroy, a jeweler, and Mrs. Lizzie Davison, who has made her home with her mother in the house at the top of the hill on the Cedar Falls road, just northwest of the city, where the family pitched their tent when they arrived in this section June 24, 1846, more than half a century ago. Besides the relatives mentioned in the foregoing, decedent leaves three brothers and two sisters. The brothers are Oscar Virden, living in Waterloo township, James Virden, living in the western part of the state, and Frank Virden, living somewhere in the west. The sisters are Mrs. Martha Bunting of Rock Valley, Ia., and Mrs. Nelson Fancher of Chicago.

There is clustered about such a life as Mrs. Mullan lived such a train of important circumstances that only the heads of chapters, as it were, can be touched in an article like this. Her life, spent as it was, from the tender years of childhood, in pioneering, was rich in the wealth of circumstances that compose the unfolding years.

AMERICA VIRDEN was the daughter of a hardy family whose name has clinging to it only honor, sturdiness of character and indomitable energy. Her father was William Virden, a farmer who was for quite a time a resident of Kentucky. Her mother was Martha Williamson, a woman of strong character embodying to a wonderful degree the graces that ennoble [sic] womanhood. America was the eldest daughter and the second child of these two. She was born Oct. 24, 1817, in Tompkinville [sic], Ky., and when eight years of age her parents, with their large family, moved to Wayne Co., Ill. That was in 1825, before the first locomotive on the American continent was conceived, and the only means of travel w ere by crude craft on the water and "prairie schooners" on the land. The trip from Kentucky at that time to the frontier in Illinois was so impressive in its nature that decedent never forgot it, though she was but a child when it was undertaken.

After remaining a few years in Illinois enough people migrated to Wayne county to make possible the opening of a school. This was the first school that Mrs. Mullan ever attended. The house was built of logs, the seats were slabs without backs and the other furniture and appurtenances were within keeping the pioneer life. The school was three miles away to and from which Mrs. Mullan walked each day regardless of weather. Present day students in the public schools will be surprised to learn that the "school master" rang his bell at 8 o’clock in the morning, which was the hour for everybody to be in his place and at his books, and there was no intermission until noon. at 2 in the afternoon school took up again and lasted until 6 in the evening.

The school grew in numbers as the country settled up and it was not long until the Methodist church, which closely follows the establishing of school houses, opened services there. A society was formed and meetings were held regularly. Mrs. Mullan, at the age of 4, in 1831, joined this Methodist church, and she was a consistent and faithful member of that denomination up to the time of her death, a period of 71 long years.

On March 24, 1842, decedent was married in Wayne county to Charles Mullan. The husband, in the early days of their married life, taught school, while the wife became expert in the handiwork necessary in those days to the proper conduct of a household of one’s own. She carded the wool, spun it into thread and wove it into cloth for the garments they wore. The lady used to tell with animation how the pride and pleasure of those days were among her most cherished memories. There used to be a keen rivalry among the women of the neighborhood as to who could spin the best, make the best web of cloth or weave into it the most dainty and fanciful designs.

There came a time when Mr. and Mrs. Mullan received news of the opening of that part of Black Hawk county in which Waterloo now lies for settlement. Such cheering reports came to them of its fertility and healthful climate that they determined to seek a new home for themselves and children and accordingly in May, 1846, the family gathered all their worldly possessions in a covered wagon, bid adieu, as they supposed to parents and near and dear ones for the last time, and set out for the land of promise.

The journey required four weeks. The distance was 500 miles. They arrived in Black Hawk county, June 24, 1846, pitching a tent on the hill where the home of deceased now stands and where she lived constantly all the years since then. This hill, in the picturesque beauty of the wilderness, was so pretty and attractive that they determined to make the place their home. There were but two other families then living in the county, the nearest three mile distant. Therese were James Virden, brother of Mrs. Mullan, who had preceded her a year, and Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Hanna. The Indians had not been removed to the recently opened reservation and, regretting they had ceded the land to the government, were smitten and half inclined to be hostile. The young men of the tribe urged open hostilities and counseled the killing of the few white "intruders," but the older men kept them in check, else who knows, but the early pages of the history of Black Hawk county might be red with blood."

The first winter was one of exceptional severity to the hardy pioneers. The nearest trading post and postoffice was hat Marion, Linn county, 60 miles distant. Mr. Mullan, in the early fall, made a trip to that point for breadstuffs and provisions for the winter, and almost his last cent of money was used in making the necessary purchases. But the cold began early and hung on late in the spring. In the dead of winter the flour got low, and other articles of food were becoming depleted. The neighbors were I the same condition and the only escape from starving was for Mr. Mullan again to visit Marion and buy provisions. The making of the trip through the deep snow through a trackless territory had its horrors, but these paled into significance compared to the dangers besetting the little family while the husband and father was absent. There were two small children then, Charles, jr., and Lizzie. For three weeks the mother and these were alone in the little cabin with Indians besetting them night after night. When darkness came the mother would wrap her little ones in blankets and with a prayer for their safety would place them in their beds, while she remained awake, watchful and silent, with the loaded rifle in easy reach. The self-imposed vigil, prompted by mother love was kept until the lady was almost exhausted. It is easy to imagine that no home-coming could have been fraught with greater joy and thanksgiving than the one that marked the return of Mr. Mullan, not only in the protection that he himself afforded, but in the replenishing of the larder, which had dwindled to hulled corn and milk and these almost gone.

Two days after the family came, or in 1848, a young Methodist minister, Rev. Collins, visited this part of Iowa was the first to hold religious services in the county. His chapel was the Mullan home. He came on horseback from Linn county and though having the general location of the Mullan home in his mind as being near the junction of the Black Hawk with the Cedar, he wandered about for hours one dark night and only reached his destination after being almost famished with hunger and exhausted with fatigue. In 1849 a church society was organized for the Methodists by a Rev. Mr. Johnson, who was working in the interest of the Home Missionary society. This was the first nucleus and beginning of the present First M. E. Church. It was organized with five members, composed of Mr. and Mrs. Hanna, Mr. and Mrs. William Virden and Mrs. Mullan. So Mrs. Mullan’s membership in this church has dated from 1849, or 53 years a member of the same church society.

In 1852 the tide of immigration began to move to this part of Iowa and the county was settled rapidly. Among the others who came to the new goodly land were Mrs. Mullan’s father and mother and brothers and sisters, in 1852, to whom she had said goodbye six years before, expecting it would be the last time she would ever see them again. This meeting was fraught with an outpouring of affection on the part of all concerned that made all rejoice. The father died and was buried here a few years later.

About 1852 the first mail route was established through the county, and Mr. Mullan, senior, was appointed postmaster. The office was in his home. The first ripe made by the carrier did not yield largely in the volume of mail matter. One lone letter composed the contents of the mail bag. Settlers were so few that the volume of business of the postoffice was not large either. The postal case was an old tin pan that had outlived its usefulness for other purposes, and this was placed near the door where the patrons of the office could "go through" the mail and take out what was addressed to them.

.... Her life was simple. She loved the natural. To her the studied forms of society did not appeal. She felt within herself and family a self-sustaining strength for mind and heart. In her all of the graces of Christian faith were sweetly blended. Her life was a daily example of Christianity. In as simplest, truest, and noblest sense. She was endowed with a rare mind. Even in the latter days of her life after she had passed more than four score years her mind was quick, forceful. Altogether she seemed to reach out and comprehend the many forces of progress about her. She was attached to the home of her earlier days and loved to be on that favored spot where so many years ago she came in the prime of womanhood and established her life home. She was genuine. She was real. In all her ways she evinced a gentleness that is only possible with strong characters. She was kind and loving. She loved to do for others. [Continued on Page Seven.]

Source: Waterloo Daily Courier: Friday Evening, November 21, 1902: Whole No. 8735, FRONT PAGE

Note: Pomeroy, Iowa is in Calhoun, County, Iowa. This article contains pictures of both Charles Mullan and America Virden Mullan. Charles Mullan, Sr. was a very handsome man. Much of the information contained in this obituary appears in a book published about the Pioneers of Waterloo, Black Hawk County, IA.

Note: Assuming that her birth date is correct, this would make William H. Virden the eldest child [[Civil War]] and America Virden Mullan the second-born child. William H. and first wife Rebecca came to Waterloo prior to Charles and America Virden Mullan, although not by much, along with James Virden, another brother, who was single when he arrived in Waterloo. His age in the 1850 U.S. Census, District No. 11, Black Hawk County, IA, taken on Sept. 23, 1850, is listed as 29, born in KY. His correct birth year should be about 1816. William Virden and Martha Williamson were married 1815 in Lexington, KY; Lexington, KY in Fayette County.