Orswell, Abby 1811-1882

ORSWELL, HEDLEY, PRAY, HOBBS

Posted By: Geo Clinton (email)
Date: 6/14/2016 at 14:24:20

Storm Lake Pilot - Apr 13, 1882 - Died on Tuesday March 28th, 1882 at the residence of her son, Geo B Orswell in Aurelia, Mrs Abby Orswell, aged 72 years.

Funeral services were held at the church in Aurelia March 31st and on the afternoon train of the same day the remains were brought to this place and interred in the family lot in our beautiful cemetery.

Mrs Orswell, whose maiden name was Hedley was born in 1811 in Portsmouth, RI, where she continually resided until 1868 at which time she, her husband, and two unmarried daughters removed to Madison County, Iowa where one of her sons had previously located.

In the year 1870 the family removed to this county settling on a farm 3 miles west of Alta.

The deceased was married in her native Iowa to Israel Orswell in 1836 and who died August 1871. Six children were born to them: three sons and three daughters, all of whom still survive.

The two oldest children, a son and daughter, the latter the wife of A.C. Pray, Esq, still reside in Rhode Island; the two sons are now residents of Mitchell, D.T. [Dakota Territory], Geo B having removed there since his mothers death. The other two daughters, one the wife of Mr S.W. Hobbs, the other unmarried, are residents of Storm Lake.

Mrs Orswell had reached beyond three score and ten and she sinks into the grave surrounded by the bright halo of a true and upright life, rich in treasures of good deeds and kindly actions. At her birth and in her early girlhood been the great machine whose power conveyed her remains from the place of death to that of burial was unknown and unthought of. The telegraph and sewing machine and the hundreds of other inventions now so common were not then evolved from the mind of man.

Born on the shores of the Atlantic, she has seen civilization and populate marching westward and westward toward the setting sun. The nation has grown from a small population to over 50 millions of people. And now she lies down to rest in the ever ready arms of mother earth, a tenant of the universal grave, crowned with a wealth of years and honors. Loved in life, loved in death and loved in memory, her children go on treading life's pathway until they shall meet "Mother in Heaven".