Miriam Baird Ayers 1835-1919

AYERS, BAIRD, SPAYD, SPADE, BRADLEY

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 6/25/2015 at 20:28:54

Mrs. Ayers is Dead
Lived Here 49 Years
Came to Kossuth from Wisconsin in 1871; Lived Here Till Death
To Be Buried Today After Funeral Services At Home
In early Days Lived Life Common to Pioneer Women of Time – Goes to Her Death Calm and Unafraid
Mrs. Miriam Ayers, 48 years a Kossuth county citizen, died at 1:15 Sunday morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Kezeih Bradley. Funeral services will be held this afternoon at 3 o’clock, the Rev. W.J. Todd officiating, and burial will be made in Riverview cemetery.

Mrs. Ayers was in her 83rd year at death; almost her 84th, for had she lived till tomorrow, she would have been 84 years old.

Mrs. Ayers’ surname was Baird, and she was the second child of James and Mildred Baird. She was born October 10, 1835, on a farm alongside the Delaware river in Northampton county, Pa. Here she grew to young womanhood.

To Kossuth 49 Years Ago
In 1853 Miss Baird was united in marriage to Leonard Ayers. In the following year they moved to a farm near Three Rivers, Mich., where they lived till 1871. There four of their five children were born.

In 1871 the Ayers family moved to this county, Mr. Ayers having purchased land in Cresco township. On this farm the family lived for 11 years, and here the fifth child Irwin, was born.

In 1882 the family moved to a farm Mr. Ayers bought at the top of the Chubb hill, south of town. On this farm, in 1900, Mr. Ayers died. The next year Mrs. Ayers moved to Algona and lived here from that time till her death.

In December, 1916, Mrs. Ayers was rendered helpless by a stroke of paralysis. It was several months before she regained sufficient strength to be up and about the house daily. On Wednesday evening of last week she was taken sick with her final illness and gradually grew weaker from that time till the end.

Two Children Survive
Of the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ayers, one, Irwin, died in infancy. Clark and Perry also preceded their mother to the grave by several years, each one dying at the age of 40. Two children, Mrs. Bradley and Mrs. L.W. Spayd, the latter of Oxford, Pa., survive. There are 13 living grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

“If a successful life may be measured by obstacles overcome,” says an obituary note read by Mr. Todd, “if such a life may be measured by work honestly and faithfully done, and by thoughtfulness and kindness where others were concerned, then Mrs. Ayers fulfilled well her obligations to her fellow human beings and her Creator. Hers was never a life of ease; on the contrary; it was a life of work, the life of a noble pioneer woman.

Ready to Meet Creator
“Mrs. Ayers was always cheerful, ever ready with a joke, and this happy quality endeared her not only to her family but to anyone else she knew. Those who knew her best loved her most. Until she herself was stricken down, one of her greatest sources of pleasure was the doing of acts of kindness towards others less happy in health or fortune.

“When Mrs. Ayers realized that her end was near she was ready and willing to go, and so met her Creator calmly and unafraid.” (Kossuth County Advance, Algona, IA, October 9, 1919 / Upper Des Moines Republican, Algona, IA, October 8, 1919)