Miller, Martha E. Atwood – 1833-1911

ATWOOD, DUNN, JACKSON, MILLER, OXLEY, TAYLOR, TIMPE, WILSON

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 9/25/2016 at 18:53:22

Funeral Held Sunday at Son’s Home
Brief and simple funeral services for the late Mrs. Martha E. Miller were held at the home of Dr. B. A. Miller Sunday at 2 o’clock in charge of Rev. W. H. Perdew, pastor of the 1st M.E. church of this city, in which Mrs. Miller was long an active member. The singing by a male quartette was most beautiful and appropriate. Favorite passages of scripture were read and the beauty, the simplicity and high Christian character of the deceased were pointed out by reference to the things she liked the most – she did in in life. Mrs. Miller was a noble, Christian woman, fond of those things which are right and holy in life and doing the kind of work even to the last which ministered to the pleasure and comfort of others. She was a queen among mothers, giving her life to her children and by both good example and precept bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of God.
A telegram brought the sad news to Dr. B. A. and Harry Miller that their aged and beloved mother had passed away Tuesday, January 3, 1911, at her home in Payette, Idaho. White the message was a cruel shock to the sons and a host of kindred and friends it was not wholly unexpected as they had known that the good mother had been critically ill for several days, suffering from recurrence of croup attacks, to which she had been subject for many years, together with complications incident to advanced age.
Martha E. Atwood was born March 16, 1833 in Watertown, Conn. She was married to Lauriston L. Miller August 9, 1862 in Girard, Ohio. They came to Jasper county in July 1868, and settled on a farm in Palo Alto township, residing there for twenty years, when they purchased a home in Newton, where Mr. Miller died in 1898.
Two years ago, Mrs. Miller, with her youngest daughter, Miss Nellie, moved to Payette, Idaho, to be near another daughter, Mrs. H. H. Timpe, who had already located thee.
While Miss Nellie was engaged in teaching Mrs. Miller made a home for her, the two having been inseparable since the death of husband and father.
Mother Miller is survived by five children: Harry L. and Dr. B. A. of Newton, Mrs. J. W. Oxley of Cogswell, North Dakota; Mrs. H. Timpe and Miss Nellie, of Payette, Idaho. Mrs. Frank Dunn, the oldest daughter, died in 1888. She also leaves three sisters, Mrs. Edward Taylor, of this city; Mrs. J. E. Jackson, living south of Newton, and Mrs. Nancy Wilson, of Niles, Ohio. She was a sister of the late Capt. M. W. Atwood, who died a few years ago.
Mrs. Miller has been in active church work for 60 years, serving as steward, trustee and quarterly conference secretary, and being closely identified with all branches of church work, not having missed Sunday School, save for sickness, during fifteen months past, thereby earning a gold button for prompt and continuous service. She was one of the charter members of the M. E. church in Wild Cat Grove, served as superintendent and Sunday school teacher until she removed to Newton. During the Civil War she took an active part in the sanitary commission work, making flags and sending supplies and relief to the front. She was also president of the W.R.C. in Newton.
Mrs. Miller was a devoted Christian woman of the old fashioned type, loving the church and its doctrines with all the fervor of her intensely religious nature.
Source: Newton Daily News; Tuesday, January 10, 1911, page 1, col. 5-6