MUTCH, Mary 1859-1948

MUTCH, MORRISON

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/8/2016 at 07:41:42

Mrs. Mary Mutch, Longest Grundy Resident, Dies

Lived In Grundy County Continually for 87 Yrs.; Came Here The Year Before The Civil War

Death at her home in Grundy Center at 9:30 Monday evening of Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Mutch took from us a Grundy county pioneer who had resided in Grundy Center and the nearby community longer than any other person. She was 88 years and two months old at the time of her death. For a few months more than 87 of those years she resided in Grundy county.

She came to the county with her family the year that Abraham Lincoln was elected president for the first time, when houses were few and far between in the county, and when Cedar Falls was the nearest railroad station.

She lived through the most memorable period in the county's history which included four wars. She remembered her history well and there were few who had absorbed and remembered so much of Grundy county's history as she.

Town Named For Her Father
Mrs. Mutch was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Morrison. She was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, Nov. 14, 1859. When she was three months old she came with her parents to Waterloo where they resided eight months. At the end of that time the family came to Grundy county and located on a farm a half-mile west of Morrison. When the Rock Island railroad came through, the town of Morrison was laid out on part of the Morrison farm and it was named for Mrs. Mutch's father.

Mrs. Mutch grew up on a farm near Morrison. In 1880 she and Peter Mutch were married. For a number of years her husband was in the grain business, after which they moved on a farm a short distance north of Morrison. In 1900 they purchased a farm a mile east of Grundy Center which for many years carried the name of "the Mutch Farm." In 1909 the Mutch family left the farm and moved to Grundy Center which became their permanent home. Mr. Mutch died in 1912.

During the many years that Mrs. Mutch resided in Grundy Center she was active in church and social work. She was a member of the Methodist church, the Alpha Harmony Sunday School class and the W.S.C.S., a member of Ruth Chapter Order of the Eastern Star, Woman's Relief Corps, and the King's Daughters.

Her immediate family consists of four daughters: Ada, at home; Mrs. Lida Filkins, Iowa City; Mrs. Russell Gray, Rockford, Ill.; Mrs. A. H. Dulmes, Klemme; two sons, Will of Grundy Center, and Jeff who died in 1909. There are 4 grandchildren: Harold Mutch, Dr. Tom Gray, Mrs. Donnabelle Hall and Dick Dulmes; also four great-grandchildren. Two sisters survive, Mrs. Kate Weir and Mrs. John McWhirter of Spencer, Ia.; two sisters-in-law, Mrs. Ida Morrison of Grundy Center and Mrs. Rose Morrison of Los Angeles.

Funeral Services Wednesday
Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at the Coffman & Ferree Funeral Home in Grundy Center. The services were conducted by Rev. Merton Green, pastor of the Grundy Center Methodist church. Burial was in the family lot by the side of her husband in the Grundy Center cemetery.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 15 January 1948, pg 1, 12