Blake, Elizabeth A. (Cook) 1834-1921

COOK, BLAKE, SLOAN, BARNES

Posted By: Monica
Date: 4/12/2012 at 21:40:23

I am not related and have no further info. The source is an old scrapbook belonging to Clara "Jones" McCartney, obituaries are glued in a book, not many with dates on them.

October 1921
PIONEER MOTHER BURIED
Elizabeth A. Cook was born July 28th, 1834 at Galena, JoDavies county, Illinois. Her girlhood days were spent with her parents on a farm a few miles south of Galena. At the early age of 14 years she united with the Baptist church called "Long Hollow Church" and was a charter member of the same. In 1853 she came to Iowa with a married sister and her husband who settled a few miles east of Strawberry Point.

She was also a charter member of the First Baptist Church of Strawberry Point. In 1854 she united in marriage with Peter Blake. To them four children were born; William H. Blake of Crookston, Minn., Clara A. Sloan of Delaware, Iowa, George Peter, who died in infancy, and Fred J. Blake of Fort Dodge, Iowa. Later in life she united with the Universalist Church of which her husband was a member, while he lived, and who passed away to the higher life and is now waiting to welcome the beloved ones left behind. Mr. and Mrs. Blake lived continuously in Strawberry Point and vicinity since their marriage up to his death which occured Feb. 2, 1888.

Since her husband's death, Mrs. Blake made her home in Strawberry Point, until about two years ago, when the infirmities of age required her to seek the kindly ministrations of her daughter, Mrs. Sloan and her granddaughter, Mrs. Barnes, in their homes at Delaware and Delhi. She was one of the few surviving pioneers of Strawberry Point and vicinity, coming here in the fifities, three score and ten years ago. She has been permitted to witness wonderful progress in our county, state and nation during these years. She endured all the privations of pioneer life with fortitude, and fulfilled her duties and responsibilities with cheerfullness. She was endowed to a marked ???(paper tore) with a kindly genial nature and had the happy faculty of imparting a spirit of geniality and contentment to those with whom she came in contact, and her ways were always the ways of pleasantness. She never hesitated to relieve the sick and distressed when called on to the utmost of her endeavors. Aside from the nuture and training of her three children, who reached maturity, she reared a grand-daughter from early childhood, Mrs. Myrtle Barnes, on the death of her mother and gave her all the care and devotion that a mother could have bestowed.
For several years passed, Mrs. Blake was afflicted with blindness, but bore her affliction with cheerful fortitude.

On Friday morning, October 21, 1921, at the home of her daughter in Delaware, Iowa, surrounded by her loved ones, her spirit peacefully took its flight at the age of eighty-seven years. A devoted mother, a true friend, and a noble Christian women has gone to her reward.

The funeral was held Monday afternoon at the Methodist church at Strawberry Point, Rev. Kirby, pastor of the church, officiating. Interment was made in the beautiful Strawberry Point cemetery, and beside the body of her beloved husband.