Martha Evarts Tracy Bingham 1836-1919

BINGHAM, TRACY, LUCCOCK, FRAZIER, BANKER

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 9/13/2010 at 23:49:44

An Aged Pioneer Died on Monday in Western State
Mrs. Martha Bingham Passed Away at Home of Daughter
Emmet County Resident
Body Being Brought to This City for Burial – Highly Respected Lady

Estherville and the surrounding community was deeply grieved last Monday to learn of the death of Mrs. Martha Bingham, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. C. R. Frazier, at Seattle, Washington. The immediate cause of her death was hardening of the arteries. Mrs. Bingham went west some months ago to visit at the home of her daughter and for the benefit of her health. About a year and a half ago she suffered a fall in this city, going home from church, breaking her hip. Her recovery was slow, due to her advanced years, and she went to the daughter’s home thinking it would be of benefit to her. Reports from the west were encouraging and it was a shock to our people to learn of her death.

The body is being brought to this city for burial and will arrive tomorrow morning or afternoon. Funeral services will probably be held Friday afternoon, although this is not a known fact at this time. Her son, L. L. Bingham, left for St. Paul this morning to meet the body.

Mrs. Bingham was eighty-two years of age at the time of her death. Many of those years were spent in Emmet county, she being numbered among the early pioneers of this state. She was admired and respected by all who knew her and her death causes universal sorrow throughout the county. We will have an extended obituary next week. (Estherville Democrat, Estherville, IA, January 29, 1919)

The Passing of A Noble Woman
In the Death of Mrs. Bingham Estherville Loses One of Her Most Beloved Citizens

On a rugged, stony farm in Hartford, Vermont, among the foothills of the Green Mountains, Martha Everts Tracy was born, December 29, 1836. This was her home for sixteen years, until her father, Deacon Samuel Tracy, decided to abandon the beautiful but somewhat barren hills of New England and transplant his family to the fertile acres of Grant County, Wisconsin.

Here Martha Tracy attended school, graduating from the Platteville Academy in 1855. Here, too, she first met Lemuel R. Bingham, fresh from four years of industry and adventure in the newly found California gold fields. They were married in 1857, on her twenty-first birthday, and for fifty years they lived a busy, frugal, useful life together, first on a farm in Blake’s Prairie, Wisconsin, later in business in Irvington, Nebraska, and in Swan Lake, Emmet County, Iowa, where they settled in1880. Ever since 1888 the home has been in Estherville, although since her husband’s death in 1908, much of Mrs. Bingham’s time has been spent elsewhere in the homes of her children. She was visiting her daughter in Seattle at the time of her sudden death from Arteriosclerosis on January 27th last. Except for an attack two weeks previously she was in excellent health and spirits, up to the very last moment, actively interested in persons and events and eagerly sharing in many Red Cross, Missionary and other good works.

Mrs. Bingham leaves a brother, Prof. S. M. Tracy, of Biloxi, Mississippi, a government expert on grasses and forage plants, eminent throughout the southern and western states for his service to scientific agriculture. Her children who were all present at the funeral services here on January 30th, are Martha Emma, wife of the Rev. George N. Luccock, D.D., a pioneer minister of Emmet County, now pastor of the College Church at Wooster, Ohio; Mary Tracy, wife of the Rev. Willis G. Banker, D.D., now a resident of Tahlequah Oklahoma; L. Alice, wife of Supt. Charles R. Frazier, of Seattle, Washington, Director of Vocational Education for the State of Washington; the Hon. Lewis L. Bingham, a Cement Products manufacturer, here in Estherville; and Lieutenant Colonel Walter V. Bingham of the Army personnel Branch, the Adjutant General’s Department, Washington, D.C. Another daughter, Susan Adelaide, and a son, Samuel, had gone before, many years ago. The living members of the family include thirteen grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Mrs. Bingham was a wonderful mother. Her capacity for sympathy, wise counsel, strong affection and deep personal solicitude extended far beyond the circle of her own family. Wherever she went she made new acquaintances, who then became fast friends. At the age of seventy-one she left her home to live for two years in New York with her youngest son who was then an instructor in Columbia University. Although past the age when most people readily form new contacts and develop fresh interests, she made her way into the heart and life of the University community and found there many among both students and faculty who sought the inspiration and guidance of her companionship. Later the same unusual capacity for interest in people and their activities was evident in the impress she left on groups of young and old at Dartmouth College, at Wooster College, and at the Washington State University in Seattle.

Martha Bingham was a wide reader and a persistent student. Denied of a complete college education because of the enforced frugality of her early home circumstances, as well as the narrow conceptions of woman’s education then prevailing, she sought to make good the lack through systematic reading. This program she adhered to throughout her entire life, in spite of the time-consuming duties of a busy mother. She was on of the first to carry through the four-year Chautauqua course of study and thereafter for more than thirty years she continued the annual Chautauqua course of reading as one of the means for systematizing her use of time. In her later years she read current fiction copiously and rapidly, but she never let it interfere with her program of more solid and substantial reading.

Nothing better illustrates her rare flexibility of interests than the spirit with which at the age of seventy-five she took up the Camp Fire Girls movement with its healthy emphasis on outdoor recreation, and for five years served as Guardian of an Estherville Camp Fire Circle. She relinquished this leadership only after an accidental fall which resulted in a broken hip.

Outside of family responsibilities, devotion to the work and life of the church was Mrs. Bingham’s deepest concern. From early young womanhood a long succession of Sunday School classes, literary circles and Missionary and Aid Societies had the inspiration of her leadership. The cheery hospitality of her home was always at the service of home missionaries, church organizations, visiting ministers and groups of friends. In more than one place of residence she came to be known jocularly as the assistant pastor, or the “seventh member of the session.” The tenth of her income was regularly set aside for the Lord’s work, and her mite box was the frequent recipient of additional “thank offerings.”

Martha Bingham seemed to be temperamentally incapable of pettiness. She was always encouraging and commending people for what they did, instead of referring to their errors or shortcomings. When everyone else was criticizing, she invariably managed to find an extenuating feature to comment on or something to praise. She was positive, not negative; helpful, not critical; and a persistent optimist.

It was a combination of traits such as these that made her universally beloved, and that drew to the funeral services held in the First Presbyterian Church last Thursday so large an audience of friends. The simple exercises were conducted by the pastor. Dr. Gilbert Voorhies. Dr. Wm. M. Evans of Coe College, for many years a pastor of this church, gave an appreciation of Mrs. Bingham’s useful years and sweet influence. The prayer was offered by Dr. G. N. Luccock. The interment amid the restful beauty of Oak Hill Cemetery marked the close of a beautiful, gracious life. R.E.M. (Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, February 5, 1919)

Beloved Pioneer Was Laid to Rest Last Thursday
All Estherville Mourns for Mrs. Martha Bingham
Her Friends Pay Respects
Died at Daughter’s Home in Seattle, Washington, on January 27th

The earthly career of Mother Bingham was brought to a close in this city last Thursday afternoon when the last sad rites were said over the still form. “Earth’s labors are o’er” for her, but the results of her life shall continue to live on and on in the hearts of the people of Estherville. “Mother” Bingham, as she was lovingly called by all who knew her, lived her life for others. She gave her all to the up-bringing of her children and those children stand today a living monument to her name respected and honored by all who know them. It is lives such as she lived that make the world a better place in which to live and the influence of this life has accomplished wonders in the lies of others.

Martha Everts Tracy was born in Hartford, Vermont, on December 29, 1836. When sixteen years of age the family moved to a farm near Bloomington, Wisconsin. Here she received her education at the Platteville academy. She was married in 1857 to L. R. Bingham, and continued to live in Wisconsin for twenty years. Then they moved to Irvington, Nebraska, where they lived until 1880. They then came to this county and made their home at Swan Lake. Eight years later they moved to Estherville, which has since been her home. In 1907 this couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, and it was a day of rejoicing in Estherville. They knew the trials of pioneer life and those trials drew the two lives closer together as the years passed. The husband died in 1908.

Mrs. Bingham leaves to mourn her loss, five children. Mrs. G. N. Luccock, of Wooster, Ohio; Mrs. C. R. Frazier, of Seattle, Washington, at whose home she passed away; Mrs. W. G. Banker, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma; Lieut. Col. W. V. Bingham, of Washington, D.C., and L. L. Bingham, of this city. Funeral services were held at the Presbyterian church last Thursday afternoon and a large crowd of friends and neighbors gathered to pay their last respects. Estherville mourns the loss of this grand lady. We realize our great loss and yet we know she is happy in that great beyond with Him she loved to serve so well. And while the heart is bowed in sorrow we can still smile, for we know she would not have it otherwise.

Following is a beautiful tribute to “Mother Bingham” written by Rev. W. N. Evans, D.D., former pastor of the Presbyterian church in this city. It is so beautiful and in accordance with her life that we give [unreadable] (Estherville Democrat, Estherville, IA, February 5, 1919)