Julia Brown Dunham(1841-1905)

BROWN, DUNHAM

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 4/16/2008 at 21:46:10

Jackson Sentinel, June 22, 1905

DUNHAM-
Julia Brown Dunham, born in Little Falls, N. Y., Nov. 4th, 1841. Came to Maquoketa in 1848 with her widowed mother and aunt, driving their own horse from Chicago. She was married to Louis H. Dunham, June 13, 1872, in Little Falls, N. Y. Died at the home of Robert Fleming of Des Moines, June 16th, 1905

A noble woman is dead. None could have been taken from the community who will be more missed, more tenderly remembered by those who loved her in life. We, who have been intimately associated with her from childhood find it hard to embody her character in words. Her’s was an unresting activity of mind and body, a wonderfully well ordered, retentive memory, high development of mental strength, generosity in giving of self and substance, a hospitality full and oh! So gracious and a constancy in friendship that showed as white and spotless as an angel’s wing. The home that she longed for so many years to have builded was, when accomplished, an expression of herself, symmetrical, artistic , almost human in its expressiveness. Above the wide opening of a fireplace in the reception hall she had this sentiment carved, “Old wood to burn, old books to read, old friends to trust.” This was our Julia. Constancy never doubted, trust never betrayed, a great kind heart, pulsing with sympathy and the desire to serve. She felt a great tenderness for the aged and for the young. In the care of an invalid husband, hers was a hovering watchfulness as solicitous as a mother’s for her child, and became a necessity to him as light and air. Her frail little body seemed proof against the long nervous and physical activity. In this heart trial her unselfishness became luminous. Every interest, every philanthropy sustained its full stature in her heart. She was a great moral and intellectual force in the community. Unflagging in temperance work, an advocate, though not an aggressive one, of equal suffrage, active in the upbuilding and strengthening of our now fine public library, and in literary club work. Dear little woman! Great loving heart! Yours the silence and the solved mystery: the sweet sleep of the tired worker, ours the sharp sense of loss, the wishing for you. Yet to us you shall not be dead. You will be to us a memory of something constant, pure, uplifting, a memory of fragrance, color, touch, sound, sweetness, the symphony etherealized and made spiritual.

We are glad that you lived.
Sleep, sleep and rest.
M. A.

The remains were brought to Maquoketa Monday and through the courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Thomas, placed in the beautiful home on Pleasant street, which Mr. and Mrs. Dunham built and resided in for a few brief years. Here the largely attended funeral took place at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Rev. M. Dana and Rev. S. F. Millikin officiating. The body was laid to rest in a vault beside her husband in Mt. Hope Cemetery.