DeFrance, Mary Moyer (1836-1926)

DEFRANCE, MOYER, KIMMEL, OLMSTEAD, VANCE, HAMMITT

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 11/1/2023 at 15:21:16

Daily Freeman Journal
Webster City, Iowa
Monday, February 1, 1926

Mrs. Mary DeFrance was born Dec. 12, 1836 at Blooming Grove, in Tioga county, Penn. Here she grew to young womanhood, and on June 9, 1851, near Solisburg, was married to D.C. DeFrance.

Some two years after their marriage, they migrated to Illinois, where they remained for about two years, and then moved to Tama county, Iowa, about 1855. For a little more than a decade, Tama county was their home, and then, in September, 1869, the deceased, with her husband and family, moved to Hamilton county. For more than half a century the deceased, with her husband, ordered their home in frugality and sobriety, and reared their children in the integrity of honesty and toil. She was of that dependable pioneer stock which brought wealth of home and industry to this great and growing state. Happy and content, ever hopeful, and full of courage, patient in endeavor and long suffering in trial.

She was a Christian. She became a believer in, and obedient unto Christ while she was yet young in life. She was faithful to her Lord in the house of worship and faithful to Him in her home. Her faith did not lapse with the coming of care, not did it grow dim with the advance of the years. To the close of her long life she was trustful and full of hope, and when her days seemed to have been fulfilled, she spoke of her desire to depart and be with her Lord. Surely, a legacy rarer than gold has been bequeathed to those who remain of the family, and her children can rise up and call her blessed.

She passed away at the home of her son, C.J. DeFrance, 633 Merritt street, Jan. 27, 1926 at the ripe age of 89 years, one month and 15 days.

Mrs. DeFrance was the mother of twelve children, two sons and one daughter having preceded her in death. The husband also passed away from this earthly life Feb. 5, 1916.

The remaining children are: J.F. DeFrance, Spencer; W.J. of Dodge Center, Minn.; C.J. of Webster City; G.S. of Long Beach, Calif.; S.I. of Reeds Point, Mont.; C.H. of Barrett, Minn.; Mrs. Lucinda Kimmel, Webster City; Mrs. Emma Olmstead, Glendale, Calif., and Mrs. Mattie Vance, Fort Dodge.

She was also the grandmother of thirty, the great grandmother of fifty-four and the great, great grandmother of three.

Besides these there are also three brothers and one sister who remain to mourn the departure of this devoted Christian sister: C.J. Moyer, near Long Beach, Calif.; H.K. Moyer, Albinn, Nebr.; J.S.P. Moyer, Lincoln, Nebr., and Mrs. Harriett Hammitt, Lake View.

After a life so long and fruitful of good works and so full of faith and patience and love, she has gone to inherit the reward and the crown of righteousness which she has had promised her, and her benediction rests upon these loved ones, nor can it be more beautifully and appropriately expressed than in the language of Tennyson:

Sunset and evening star,
and one clear call for me,
and may there be no moaning at the bar
when I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
too full for sound and foam,
when that which drew from out the boundies deep
turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell
and after that the dark,
and may there be no sadness of farewell
when I embark.

For though from out our bourne of time and place
the floods may hear me far,
I hope to meet my Pilot face to face
when I have crossed the bar.

Services were held at the Church of Christ in Webster City at 1 o'clock Friday, Jan. 20, and the body laid to rest in the Graceland cemetery.

-Contributed