Margaret Lillis 1842-1907

LILLIS, DEGAN

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 6/23/2016 at 09:46:07

3 January 1908 - The Lowden News

On Monday evening, at eleven o'clock, one hour and one day before the close of the Old Year, Mother Lillis passed away at the age of 65 years and 5 months. She had been suffering with asthma for thirty years, but her final sickness lasted only about four days. No doubt the long standing ailment was instrumental to cause the comparative early decline of the good old lady's vital functions. She did not believe that her end was so near, even to the last, and seeing the sad faces of her children around her bedside, told them there was no cause for their alarm, as she felt no worse than at several times before, and thus she went quietly and peacefully to sleep entering the New Jerusalem instead of the New Year.

Margaret Degan was born in Tipperary, Ireland, on August 1st, 1842. When but five years old she came with her parents to Canada, where they resided in Kingston, Ontario. At that place she was married to M. C. Lillis, in 1862. Three years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lillis and then two oldest children, John and Sarah came to the United States, residing the first six years in New York. Then they came to Davenport, Ia., and a year later took up their home at Long Grove, where they resided five years. The next six years they were residents of Big Rock, then they came to Limerick, Springfield township, and later resided on a farm they owned near Toronto. Soon after Mr. Lillis died, about four years ago, Mrs. Lillis and her two youngest children came here to Lowden. Here they had a house rented, but a few days before Mrs. Lillis' demise she and her daughter, Miss Isabelle, went to stay with John Lillis and family, who also reside in Lowden. So Mother Lillis died at the home of her son John, with most of her children at her side when the end came.

Funeral was held New Year's day, with services in the Catholic church at Toronto and interment in the Catholic cemetery near the place where also were buried the remains of her husband. Rev. Father McNamara of Toronto, who had been Mrs. Lillis' spiritual adviser for many years, preached the funeral service.

Deceased has from childhood on been a faithful member of the Catholic church. We know her as a quiet and pleasant old lady. Her children surviving, namely: four sons and two daughters and ten grandchildren will sadly feel their great loss of such gentle and kind a mother and grandmother, and she will be greatly missed by her other near relatives and friends. Peace be with her ashes.