Mrs. Wm. G. Albright 1822 - 1916

ALBRIGHT, BLACKHAWK, WHITE, KNAPPS

Posted By: STurner (email)
Date: 5/25/2021 at 19:04:50

The Daily Gate City - Keokuk, Iowa
TUESDAY, JAN. 4 1916
Page five

PIONEER WOMAN OF COUNTY DIES

Mrs. William G. Albright Passed Away at Her Home Saturday, After Short Illness.

Ft. Madison Democrat; Mrs. Wm. G. Albright is dead, having passed away at 8:00 o'clock in the evening of Saturday, January 1, 1916, after a few days' illness with the grippe. A wonderful life is ended, its last score of years a typification of old age in its greatest beauty and perfection. Though in her ninety-fourth year, when the earthly end came, she was in full possession of her mental faculties and she had enjoyed good health generally, although each successive year of late had found her, naturally, a little weaker physically. Sunday, prior to her death, she attended church as usual. When her life is referred to as wonderful, the word is used advisedly. Just think of it; it encompassed the opening of civilized life in the Upper Mississippi river valley. Born in 1822, she came, when five years old, with her parents to the Mississippi river, they settling on the Illinois shore at Appanoose, just above opposite Fort Madison, she living there until the autumn of 1841, when she was married to Wm. G. Albright and came to Fort Madison where her home has been ever since. Eighty-eight years did she see of the development of this vast central part of our country. The renowned Indian Chief Blackhawk was a frequent visitor at her father's house and had petted her as a child. Her father, Edward White, ran one of the first ferries, and the first steam ferry on the upper Mississippi river (from Appanoose to Fort Madison.) There are thousands of Iowa people whose parents or grand parents were brought into the "Beautiful Land" by her father's boats. She lived at Appanoose when the Knapps started the town of Fort Madison, and from the time of her marriage she and hers have been identified with its growth.