Margaret Hayden MEDOWELL

MEDOWELL, HAYDEN, CASKEY

Posted By: Char Hixon (email)
Date: 10/9/2009 at 20:28:35

MARGARET HAYDEN MEDOWELL, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, May 28, 1814. When she was a child but five years of age her parents, Miles Hayden and Sarah Caskey Hayden, moved to Orange township, Richland (now Ashland) county, Ohio, and settled on a farm April 19, 1819. The family consisted of five sons and two daughters, James, George, John, Morgan, Ellzey, Nancy and Margaret. John and Ellzey are still living. Margaret Hayden married Henry Medowell June 15, 1837, and with her husband and father came to Johnson county, Iowa, and settled in Big Grove township upon a farm in June, 1842, her mother having gone to her reward April 9,1834, while the family lived in Ohio, and her father closed his earthly career January 25, 1849, and was buried near Solon in this county. And now, after nearly forty-five years of blissful married life the subject of this sketch, on the 5th day of May, 1882, departed this life and her noble spirit winged its everlasting flight to the God who gave it, leaving a kind and indulgent husband, a faithful and dutiful son, and a large circle of friends and relatives to mourn her departure. Her son, Arthur Medowell, the present popular and efficient auditor of Johnson county, has lost the best friend he ever had, the husband a true and devoted wife, and the friends and relatives a kind and affectionate friend. Her life was adorned with the Christian graces of love, purity and truth, her heart was always warm with a mother's love, with sympathy for the afflicted, herself a child of suffering. She patiently waited death's messenger to close a well-spent life surrounded by kind and loving friends who did all in their power to soothe the fevered brow and alleviate her suffering. We can only say to the bereaved ones, "That into each life some rain must fall, some day be dark and dreary, but never mind, behind the cloud there is a silver lining," and your resignation should be in the spirit expressed by the poet, when he says:
"Strike thou, the master,
We thy keys, the anthems of thy destinies,
Our hearts shall breath the old refrain --
Thy will be done."
Reference: History of Johnson County, Iowa, 1836 to 1882, pages 963-964