CONGER, Tacy (BARR) 1797-1881

CONGER, BARR

Posted By: Jane Adams (email)
Date: 2/25/2004 at 15:41:30

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Jan. 12, 1882, 3-4.

DEATH OF MRS. CONGER.

At her home near County Line, Dec. 25th, 1881, of paralysis, occurred the death of Mrs. Tacey (sic - Tacy) CONGER, aged eighty-four years, four months, and fourteen days. In the death of the subject of this sketch Jefferson County loses another of its pioneers, so many of whom have departed within the past few years.

Mrs. CONGER’s maiden name was Tacey (sic - Tacy) BARR. She was born in Philadelphia in 1797, and lived there until 1816, when she was married to Zacharia S. CONGER, a young man of Norristown (sic - Morristown?), N.J., who had been honorably discharged at Philadelphia after service in the recent war of 1812. Mr. CONGER was five years her senior. The young couple were married on the third of July, and the following day they turned their faces westward. They journeyed until they reached Indiana. Here they stopped in what is now Dearborn County, until 1842, when they removed to this state, arriving soon after the Indian treaty was made permitting white settlers in this part of the county. The fall of 1845 brought a sad bereavement to Mrs. CONGER in the death of her husband. This event occurring before the land sales, it devolved upon Mrs. CONGER herself to make the purchase of a claim, which she did with means left at hers disposal, securing a tract of land in the eastern edge of Wapello County. In the fall of 1860 she met with another bereavement in the death of three sons, all occurring within a period of three months.

During the latter years of Mrs. CONGER’s life she was much afflicted with ill health..... She is survived by two sons, one Benjamin, living here, the other Enoch, living in Oregon. The funeral occurred December 26th, when her husband’s remains were disinterred from the pioneer’s grave, where they had rested for thirty-six years, and the remains of both were interred in the Dunn graveyard, in Des Moines township, where lie their sons and other members of the family.

Transcribed from Jefferson County Records, Vol. 2, pg. 310, Fairfield City Library, Fairfield, Iowa.