ABIGAIL (PARKER) FORREY

PARKER, FORREY, STOOKEY

Posted By: Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert (email)
Date: 7/20/2002 at 17:20:51

Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa
Thursday, February 22, l923

Wilbur, Wash., January 2l: MRS. ABIGAIL FORREY died yesterday at her home after an illness of more than a year, from cancer of the stomach. She was a pioneer of the Big Bend, having come west with her two small children in l880, stopping first at Astoria, Ore., having made the trip from Leon, Iowa, by railroad to San Francisco and from there on the steamship Oregon, to Portland. Six months later, she moved to Yakima, arriving there shortly before the execution of the two Indians who were convicted of the murder of the PARKER family.

In April, l884, MRS. FORREY went to Cheney, later to Spokane and in l889, to the Sherman region about l2 miles north of Wilbur, where she homesteaded l60 acres .

This was the year remembered by Big Bend pioneers as the hardest year since settlement began. Unfavorable weather and scarcity of feed took much of the stock and poultry, but MRS. FORREY and her children succeeded in saving all their animals, which were enough to make farming comparatively easy.

In l899, MRS. FORREY bought property here and has since made this her home. She was one of the oldest residents of Lincoln County and had she lived until June 2, would have been 89.

MRS. FORREY was born at New Castle, Ind., but moved to Leon, Iowa, with her father, JOHN PARKER, in l857. Here she married Judge SAMUEL FORREY, well-known lawyer of Iowa, who died many years ago. Their four children survive. MRS. M.F. STOOKEY, of Leon, Iowa; MISS EDNA FORREY, Wilbur; CLAUDE FORREY, Soap Lake; and OTIS FORREY.

A private funeral will be held Friday.

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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
List Administrator; Decatur County, Iowa GenWeb
"With permission from the Leon Journal Reporter"
July l7, 2002