Mrs. Mary Sears McHenry

SEARS, MCHENRY

Posted By: Rebecca Foster (email)
Date: 8/20/2015 at 19:14:14

FOREMOST WOMAN CALLED BY DEATH

Denison Mourns the Demise of Mrs. W. A. McHenry, Past National President of W.R.C.

FUNERAL SERVICES ON MONDAY

Business Houses Close and Patriotic Orders Join With Friends in Tribute to Beloved Woman.

The death of Mrs. W. A. McHenry occurred at the summer home, of the family on the shores of the beautiful Lake Okoboji on Friday, July 26th. Her death was not expected as for some days she had been failing under successive strokes of paralysis. Even her last days, however, were filled with peace and happiness, for she suffered no physical pains and all her wants were administered to her by the loving hands of her husband and her sons and daughters.
For seven years she had been an invalid, having suffered a paralytic stroke from which she never fully recovered. But these years, too, were happy ones for on every side she was surrounded by loving hearts and hands, her intellect undimmed, her faith unfaltering and her courage undismayed.

Her friends noted with sorrow upon her return this year from California that lier health appeared much broken and they were not unprepared for the news of her illness and death which later came from Okoboji. Nevertheless, the shock of grief was great, for never has there been a woman in this community more dearly and more justly loved.

The remains were brought to the Denison home on Saturday evening and on Monday, between the morning hours of 10:30 and 12, the body laid in state, guarded by the color bearers of John A. Logan Corps of the Women's Relief Corps.

Services were held at the home and at the cemetery on Monday afternoon and the spacious home and grounds were filled with sorrowing and affectionate friends, while masses of flowers at tested further the universal esteem in which her memory was held.

At the service Mr. J. W. Miller of the Christian Science church read selections from scripture made by Mrs. McHenry herself for use on a similar occasion. Miss Lillian Garrison rendered with wonderful sweetness the beautiful solo, "Shepherd, Show Me How to Go." Rev. J. Jas. De Pree closed the service at the home with well-chosen words of love and consolation. Members of the W. A. McHenry Camp of the Sons of Veterans acted as the pall bearers and members of John A. Logan Post Grand Army of the Republic, were honorary pall bearers. A large number of friends joined the cortege on its way to Oakland cemetery, where interment was made. At the cemetery, the services were in charge of the ladies of the Women's Relief Corps.

Mrs. Georgia Wade McClellan, for so many years the closest associate of Mrs. McHenry in Relief Corps work, paid eloquent and touching tribute to her more than friend. Mrs. McClellan represented the national organization. Mrs. Sarah Fox, department president for Iowa, spoke feelingly for the state organization, and Mrs. J.B. Romans bespoke the grief and affection of the local corps and the beautiful ritual of the order was read by Mrs. N. Cavett and Mrs. R. Shaw Van. The ladies joined in singing that hymn of comfort, "Nearer My God to Thee," and with solemn words of benediction, given by Rev. De Pree, all that remained to earth was consigned to final rest.

Mary Sears McHenry, daughter of David G. and Olive Sears, was born at Sandisfield, Berkshire county, Mass., Dec. 30, 1834, and departed this life July 26, 1912, age 77 years, 6 months, 26 days.

She lived with her parents at Hartford, Conn., and New York City and went with them, later, to a new home on the farm near Rockford, 111., completing her school work at Rockford Seminary. It was here that she met Mr. McHenry, a young man employed by her father. Their courtship was interrupted by the call for volunteers.

In the stress of patriotism the plans of youth and love fell into abeyance and the young man enlisted for three years of service while to the young woman fell the even harder part of waiting and watching and longing for the war to cease. After three years in the army Mr. McHenry's period of enlistment ended and it was planned that he should return to Illinois and that a happy wedding should reward the soldier's return.

But the call to re-enlist was strong having set his hand to the plow Mr. McHenry could not turn back until the work was done. He re-enlisted, but fortunately and unexpectedly obtained a furlough and it was then, on Jan. 28, 1864, that the quiet wedding took place at the Rockford home. The furlough was , but for thirty days and the soldier must soon return. Mr. Morris McHenry, then treasurer of Crawford county, visited his brother and his bride, and knowing her clerical ability and excellent handwriting, he proposed that she come to Crawford county to act as deputy treasurer and recorder.

This offer was accepted and Mrs. McHenry became a citizen of our county while her husband went back to fight the battles of the republic. The war was soon over, however, and the soldier boy returned to happy reunion and the young people began a lifetime of happiness and success and prosperity. To them five children were born: Sears McHenry, Olive McHenry, who died in infancy, Jennie McHenry-Seemann, Abbie McHenry, who has been her mother's most constant companion and comrade for many years, and George McHenry. These, with the husband and seven grandchildren, all living in Denison, comprise the immediate family of the deceased.
During the earlier years of her Denison life Mrs. McHenry was busy with the affairs of home. Her children were growing up about her and she gave them constant and most loving care. She found time, however, to make her home a center of hospitality and good cheer and to enter with zeal into the church and social life of our little town.

Later the work of the W. C. T. U. attracted her earnest efforts in behalf of temperance. She was one of the building committee of the McKim Memorial hall and gave to this work and, later, to its management a great deal of time and effort. Always interested with her husband in the work of the patriotic orders, she attended the national reunion at Denver, at which the great order of the Women's Relief Corps was organized. She soon became a prominent factor in this organization. She was one of the organizers and charter members of the John A. Logan Corps of Denison and 1887 Denison was electrified to learn that she had been elected as department president of the order in this state.

Denison soon became the center of the Iowa organization and such was the success and prestige of her administration that in 1890 the national body in its convention at Boston elected her as national president and placed her at the head of the largest fraternal order in America. In this most important post she further showed her worth, her untiring devotion and her great executive ability and her name will ever be one of the bright, particular stars upon the roster of that organization which has for its objects the inculcation of patriotism, the relief of the soldier in distress and the maintenance of the highest standard of American citizenship. The honor received by Mrs. McHenry was the highest ever received by a Denison woman, and she may well be numbered as one of the greatest women Iowa has given to the nation.

The beautiful thing about it was that no honors, no outside duties, no foreign interests turned her aside from the sweet and tender duties of the home. Throughout her life she was the same simple, unostentatious, sincere, loving and lovable friend. Neither wealth nor position could affect the innate, fundamental goodness of her heart, and for her there was always the dear democracy of the pioneer. She was a devout and earnest Christian and she had all the comforts and consolations which a Christian life affords. Her last hours were beautiful ones, and her death, like her life, was ideal. Her loved ones have the thought of the dearest and the sweetest memories to console them. Her intellect was undimrned, she enjoyed each moment with her family. All of them were with her to the end and each one has stored some tender memory of loving, mother words. Her life was a continued blessing to all who came within her influence and love and her death was no less a benediction. Shortly after S o'clock Friday morning she fell asleep from which she never wakened, passing to her reward at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

GOD'S HARVEST TIME.

"First the blade, then the ear. then the full grain in the ear." Very many of us have lost a friend in the death of Mrs. Mary Sears McHenry. From the day of her arrival as a soldier's bride during the dark days of the war, through the years of her maturity and through those later days when time had sapped her strength, yes, even until the peaceful, happy end. she was a sweet, a helpful and a constant influence in Denison.

She was one of the rare women who combine force of intellect and executive ability with tender, gracious womanhood, and who speak more forcibly than all the agitators in all the world of the strength of woman's nature and the depths of a mother's love.

In those good old days when Denison was all one family, when everyone went by their first names, when every home and every heart was open to every neighbor's call, Mrs. McHenry soon became "Aunt Mary," not only to her relatives, but to a host of loving friends. Those of us to whom it was given to know here in her prime, know that for years she was one of the foremost women of our city. And what a devoted, self-sacrificing little band those pioneer women were planning for temperance, for charity, but not for a moment forgetting the claims of home and children.

There is something sublime, and something pathetic in the way they combated the evils of this sin-worn world. Frail were their hands, but their hearts were strong, and while they failed as countless saints have failed, to drive sin from its strong holds they left a lasting impress upon the community, and, while we are bad enough, no one knows how much worse we might have been, were it not for their unfailing prayers and the examples of purity and righteous ness which they gave.

Among these women, who may well be reverently counted as builders of our city, Mrs. McHenry took an active and a leading part. There was no movement for the moral uplift, for patriotism, for Christ, that did not receive her strenuous and intelligent support. Surely if good deeds are accounted unto righteousness, she earned a rich reward.

And how was her life rewarded? It would seem that her life history gave abundant answer to those who claim that, on earth, vice gains the prize while virtue fs ill paid. What better heaven can a woman want than to look with love into eyes wherein the lovelight shines for her? What dearer paradise than to retain through all the years the love of friends, the deep-hearted affection of her husband, and to see reflected in her sons and daughters the high ideals for which she strove?

"The mind is its own place, and of itself, Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

Mrs. McHenry made of earth a heaven and peopled it with kindly thoughts and her voice filled hearts with music as of an angel choir, and her deeds were brighter than a seraph's wing.

And now the gracious, loving God has claimed her for His own. We know the kindred souls she has always met in glad reunion—the Marthas and the Marys of the world who lend to the innumerable host a glory all their own.

Why should we mourn for her? In death, in life, she well personified those golden words, "Slewed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." We share in the grief and the loneliness which her departure from the daily round of life brings to her loved ones, yet we know that it is selfish grief and that it is not for her, but for ourselves, we mourn.

Source: The Denison Review, Denison, Crawford, IA., 31 Jul 1912.