Edith Mettlin Sprague (1867-1946)

METTLIN, SPRAGUE, ANDRE, VAN DENOVER, ALLISON, KRAFT, HAZLETT, BORLAND, CLARK, FINCH

Posted By: Dorothy Gosse (email)
Date: 6/20/2008 at 11:38:25

Edith Celestia Mettlin, daughter of James and Hannah Andre Mettlin was born on a farm four miles east of Oelwein June 6, 1867. She died May 29th, lacking just one week of seventy-nine years.

She grew to womanhood upon this farm, receiving her early education in the little country school near by, later attending what was then known as the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls and returning to teach in the little school where her own education began. She also taught for several years near Ida Grove.

When her mother became ill, she gave up school work and returned home to care for her. After her death she remained to keep the home for her father and two younger brothers and a sister.

On November 13th, 1895 she was united in marriage with Sidney C. Sprague.

One year after their marriage, the bought the home of her girlhood and made it their home. Eight children came to be a part of this home: Mrs. Harold Van Denover, Ralph A. Sprague, Mrs. George Allison and Dorothy Sprague, all of Oelwein; Mrs. Peter Kraft of Stanley; Jack M. Sprague of Bellingham, Washington and Howard W. Sprague of Worcester, Massachusetts. One daughter, Grace, died in 1916 at the age of fourteen.

Although their family was large, their hearts were large too and there was always a room and a welcome in the home for an aged father, sisters or brothers, nephews or nieces who were without a home.

In 1919 they left the farm and established a new home in Oelwein and here last November, with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren about them, they observed their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

For several years Mrs. Sprague has been confined to her home, yet she remained active to a degree, never complaining, always interested in her family and friends and the events of their lives.

Besides her husband, the four daughters and three sons who mourn her passing, she leaves fifteen grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. One sister, Mrs. S. K. Hazlett and one brother, Charlie Mettlin, both of Oelwein, also survive her.

Funeral services were held at the First Presbyterian Church on Sunday afternoon at two-thirty o'clock in charge of the pastor, Rev. L. W. Hauter. The casket bearers were three grandsons, Gailen Sprague, Randal and James VanDenover and the husbands of three granddaughters, Harry Borland, Merle Clark and Charles Finch. Burial in the Otsego cemetery.

Oelwein Daily Register - 4 June 1946