MEESTER, Meentje 1842-1925

MEESTER

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 3/20/2015 at 08:48:35

Pleasant Valley Woman Dead

Mrs. Dan Meester, 87 Years Old, Dies Last Sunday

Mrs. Dan Meester died at her home in Pleasant Valley township about eleven o'clock Sunday evening. Infirmities due to old age were the cause of her death. She was not able to leave her bed on Sunday and during the night she slept peacefully away.

Mrs. Meester was one of the oldest women in the county. She was 87 years old on her last birthday. A number of years ago she suffered a stroke of paralysis and since that time she failed gradually.

Funeral services are being held this afternoon at the Siemsen church in Pleasant Valley township. Interment will be made in the cemetery there.

Mrs. Meester was born in Germany. She came to this county with her family about fifty years ago and during all of that time she resided on the farm in Pleasant Valley township. The family lived at Baileyville, Ill., a short time before they came to Grundy county.

Mrs. Meester was the mother of four children. Three of these and the aged husband are still living. The children are John F. and Joe D. Meester and Miss Fanny Meester, who has been making her home with her parents.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 5 February 1925, pg 1

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Obituary

Sunday evening, Feb. 1st, at 10:20, Mrs. Daniel Meester, a pioneer resident of Pleasant Valley township, passed away at her home near Fern.

Three years ago she suffered a paralytic stroke from which she never fully recovered, and three days before her death her condition became worse, so that her death was not unexpected.

She went to sleep at four o'clock Sunday morning and death claimed her at the time mentioned above. She was the last surviving member of a family of seven children.

Mrs. Meester was born in Ostfriesland, Germany, April 6, 1842, and came to America at the age of twenty-five, settling near Freeport, Ill., where she was married in the fall of the same year to Daniel Meester.

Two years later they came to Iowa and settled on the farm in Pleasant Valley township, where they resided continually until the spring of 1907 when the youngest son began farming for himself and Mr. and Mrs. Meester moved onto the place one-half mile from the old homestead and which has since been their home, thus, practically speaking, the entire fifty-five years were spent on one place.

Mrs. Meester was of sunny and cheerful disposition, and her christian teachings in her daily home life has left its mark indelibly with her children.

Twenty-four years ago one of the daughters, Mrs. Henry Klunder, died, and left an infant daughter, who was taken into the home of the grandparents and loved and cared for as one of their own. This granddaughter has proven herself a great hep and comfort to them in their declining years.

Mrs. Meester was laid to rest in the cemetery adjoining the Siemsen church in Pleasant Valley township, Rev. Siemsen speaking words of comfort and hope to the bereaved family.

Nine children were born to this union, three of whom survive to mourn their loss, besides the aged husband and nine grandchildren. The children are John F., Joe D., and Fannie, who is at home.

Those from a distance in attendance at the funeral were Mrs. C. O. Wilhelms, Mrs. Ernest Myer and Henry Wubbena, all of Illinois, and John Wubbena, of Sibley, Iowa.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 12 February 1925, pg 5