Lamb, Olive Jane – 1827-1910

CUMMINGS, KENNEDY, LAMB, MAYTAG, YOUNGBURG

Posted By: Diana Wagner
Date: 7/13/2021 at 21:35:31

Mrs. Olive J. Lamb Died Sunday
A life given to the service of her home and friends was ended Sunday morning at 6:30 o’clock, when Mrs. Olive J. Lamb, the pioneer woman of Newton and probably the pioneer woman of Jasper county, died at her home on North Olive street.
Mrs. Lamb was born September 4, 1827, and had celebrated her 83rd birthday anniversary. She had been, as were many of the early pioneer women of a strong constitution but for a number of years her health has been failing and for a year she has been almost helpless. Most of the time for the past two months she was confined to her bed, but last week and even Saturday seemed as well as usual.
There was no suffering for her at the last. The housekeeper had raised her up and as a candle is snuffed out Mrs. Lamb quietly, without a single struggle, drew her last breath and died in her arms.
Mrs. Lamb was born in Kentucky. When a young child her parents moved to Hendricks, Indiana. It was there, in her fifteenth year, she married Caleb Lamb. Seven years later, in the year 1849, they came to Iowa and settled in Newton.
With their three boys, John, Jesse and Henry, they lived in what is now the west part of the Agnew Marble shop.
This was a new country and they knew the real hardships and the joys of frontier life. Many in Newton have listened for hours to the interesting stories she could tell of those early years in Newton, long before the civil war, and she would always end by saying “Yes, we had hardships and privations in those days but we did have such good times.”
Mr. Lamb followed the carpenter trade in those early years. In 1866 he built the house in Lamb’s grove on North Olive street. This had since been the family home. In the home at the time of her death was the son, Jesse, the housekeeper, the physician and Miss Fanny Lister.
Mrs. Lamb leaves besides the son in the home, three grandchildren, Albert Lamb, of Council Bluffs, and Mrs. Nellie Lamb-Cummings, of South Tacoma, Wash., and Henry Lamb.
There are also eight great grandchildren, Ethel, Rex and Coy, in the Cummings home and Mollie, Jennie, John, Olive and Margaret, children of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Lamb.
In Mrs. Lamb’s death all of a large family of children, five girls and seven boys, are gone but one, Thomas Kennedy, of West McDonald street.
She is survived by two nieces, Mrs. Maude Kennedy-Youngburg, of Couer d’Alene, Idaho, and Mrs. Ora Kennedy-Maytag, of this city. After the death of their parents both girls lived with their aunt and she was a mother to them.
For many years Mrs. Lamb was a faithful member of the Baptist church but in later years she attended the Christian church and it was her request that Rev. E. F. Leake, the local pastor, should preach her funeral sermon.
Since Mr. Lamb’s death, thirteen years ago this fall, Mrs. Lamb and her son have lived together. She has cared for the home as best she could and spent her time reading magazines and papers and always greeting warmly the old friends and neighbors when they called.
She was a member of Chapter 100, O.E.S., and when she could go always attended the regular meetings of the chapter and the banquets. At the latter no one enjoyed the good social times or was happier than “Auntie” Lamb.
The funeral will be held from her late residence Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock.
Source: The Newton (IA) Journal; Wednesday, November 9, 1910