Harriet "Hattie" Mead Nancolas 1870-1926

NANCOLAS, MEAD, WILLIAMS, SCATTERGOOD

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 11/8/2010 at 21:35:39

Accident Has Fatal Ending
Mrs. C. A. Nancolas Succumbs to Injuries Received
Death Came After Eight Days of Unconsciousness Following Fall Down Stairway Feb. 1st

After lingering for nearly eight days in a totally unconscious condition as a result of a fall which she sustained on the afternoon of Feb. 1st, Mrs. C. A. Nancolas passed away about 10 o’clock Tuesday forenoon at the Hawarden hospital. Her injuries were regarded from the first as of a very serious nature although for several days following the accident it appeared that there may be a chance for her life to be spared, but during the past few days of her life she grew gradually weaker until the hand of death gently touched her and beckoned her spirit on. Her injuries were sustained when she stepped into an open stairway in the work shop of the Hawarden Hardware Co’s store and plunged to the basement. In the fall she received a fracture at the base of the skull and both her arms were broken just above the wrists. She was hurried to the hospital where every possible attention was given her but the grim messenger of death was not to be denied. Her tragic accident and death has cast a pall of sadness over the community and sympathy, deep and abiding, goes out to her grief stricken husband, daughter and other relatives. During the days that she lingered at the hospital between life and death up and down the street and in the homes there was a constant inquiry regarding her welfare and many prayers that she might be spared.

Funeral services will be held at the home at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon. Rev. Edwin Booth, pastor of the associated church, will be in charge. Interment will be made in Grace Hill cemetery.

Hattie A. Mead was born at Nashua, Iowa, Jan. 16, 1870, so had but recently passed her 56th birthday. When in her teens her family moved to Spokane, Wash., but soon returned to Iowa, taking up their residence at Mason City where they had charge of the Slocum House, In 1888 they again moved, locating at Calmer, Iowa, where they directed the activities of the Railway eating house. On Jan. 23, 1889, she was united in marriage to Charles A. Nancolas and a home was established in Mason City. Later they lived for varying periods of time in Oelwein and Estherville, Iowa, and Omaha, Neb. They came to Hawarden in 1915 and have since made their home in this city. Besides her husband, Mrs. Nancolas is survived by their daughter, Mrs. H. F. Williams of Minneapolis. She also leaves a brother, Merton O. Mead of Sarasota, Fla., and a cousin, Mrs. O. A. Scattergood of Duluth, Minn., who was long a member of her household.

Mrs. Nancolas was an unusually active lady and was never too busy to assist in lightening the burdens of a neighbor or friend. Her generous, sympathetic nature asserted itself constantly and she made many lasting friends who will sorely miss her cheery greeting which always radiated good will to everyone. She had been a constant and inseparable companion to her husband during the thirty-seven years of their married life and it is in the home, where he had grown to place so much dependence on her, that her loss will be most keenly felt and home can never mean the same again to the husband who had shared her joys and sorrows for so many years. (Hawarden Independent, Hawarden, IA, February 11, 1926)