Margery (McLain) Jackson (1925)

JACKSON, MCLAIN, BREAKENRIDGE

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart (email)
Date: 3/23/2007 at 21:46:41

Winterset Madisonian, Winterset, Iowa
September 16, 1925

Called By Death

Pneumonia Runs Deadly Course in Three Days, Ending Life of Lovely Young Woman. Entire Community Ceases Labors to Gather at Bier of Mrs. W. G. Jackson.

This week has brought a great sorrow to the community in the death of Mrs. W. G. Jackson at about eight-thirty Wednesday morning as the result of a swift attack of pneumonia. The original trouble, uremic poisoning, which attended the coming of the baby on Tuesday morning last week, had been checked, but left the patient greatly weakened and unable to resist the onslaught of the more dangerous malady.

Almost before the physicians knew of the condition, one lung became hopelessly congested, the other involved, and the patient was dying for want of oxygen. Hourly she failed Tuesday, the death pallor creeping where life and youth had bloomed but a week before. Medical knowledge was futile in such a crisis, and in the evening it was known that nothing but a miracle could save the fair sufferer. A few moments of consciousness were granted her Wednesday morning when she seemed to be aware of the presence of well loved faces near her. A few moments later the feeble spark of life flickered out, and she who was Margery Jackson had fared forth on the great solitary adventure that waits beyond the veil of the future.

It is hard for those who cherished her to realize that she is gone, that life must go on without her. She seemed too young, too necessary to the happiness of others, her personality too vivid to be crushed by the dark unknown which is death. The coming months and years are hard to face because of dear memories of her that spring from the past. The lesson of renunciation must be learned and learned anew until time blunts the edge of sorrow and brings a vision of the glorious meeting in eternity.

The sympathy of the community goes out to the stricken husband and parents, the brothers and sisters and the baby who will some day come to love his beautiful girl mother as well as if she had been spared. Yes, we miss her and sorrow with the loved ones as best we can, knowing that sympathy is all we can give. Solace can come only from the great heart of God who cherishes His children even as the mortal mother her sleeping, helpless babe.

Funeral services were held this (Friday) afternoon at the Friends Church, where people in number far beyond the capacity of the building gathered to pay the last tribute of (missing information) ….sociation with her up to the time less than a year ago when she gave up her school work to assume a greater responsibility.

Came the high tide of her life on June 25, 1924, when Margery gave her life into the keeping of Wallace G. Jackson, of Earlham. A marriage truly Heaven-blessed, with Nature smiling a benediction on the eve of a perfect day. On the 8th of September the home was enriched by the coming of an infant son William Lee Jackson, and the cup of joy was brimfull.

What are we that we should be permitted to fathom the purposes of Almighty Providence which bestows only to take away, exalts us only to set our mortal plans at naught? The shadow of a supreme sacrifice hovered over the little mother even as her eyes lit with the first divine yearning for her baby. Love could not hold her nor the foremost medical skill that was rallied to her bedside. She died on the morning of September 16, at the Grinnell Hospital. Her strength drained by a subtle and undefined disease, she was unequal to an encounter with pneumonia and sank rapidly Tuesday. During her brief moments of consciousness on the last day, her mind turned to those she loved and she planned for the future of her precious baby.

Death claimed no victory over this brave soldier of life. When hope passed and she knew she must soon leave the home and loved ones that were her all, no doubt or dread assailed her faith. Heaven is nearer and more intimate because she is there, and over beyond the years, the few dreary years that lie ahead are the glory of her whimsical smile and beckoning arms.

Early in her youth Margery began to take an interest in spiritual things, and as a young girl joined the Methodist Church at Brooklyn and remained a devoted member until her removal to Earlham. She then transferred her membership to the Friends Church here. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star at Brooklyn and took a deep interest in woman’s Christian activities (unreadable word) in the local schools. She was sponsor for the Girls Reserve and leaves to her young friends a fine heritage of service and Christian leadership.

She leaves to mourn her loss her husband W. G. Jackson, of Earlham and the baby William Lee, whose upbringing she dedicated to the grandparents Mr. and Mrs. William Jackson, her parents Mr. and Mrs. W. J. McLain, of Brooklyn and four brothers and sisters, Mrs. R. W. Breakenridge, Miss Miriam McLain, Marvin and Maynard McLain, all of Brooklyn. These and a host of other relatives and friends are left in sorrow by the untimely bereavement.

(Missing information) relatives, friends and organizations.

The service was conducted by Rev. S. H. Williams and Dr. Chas. O. Whitely, Yearly Meeting Supt., of Des Moines. The sermon was delivered by the latter, who brought a message of consolation from the text II Cor: 4:18, “For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The speaker paid a splendid tribute to Mrs. Jackson and to motherhood, stating that within three months he had been called to the sorrowful mission of laying away three young women similarly sacrificed for their first born.

Interment was in Earlham Cemetery, many journeying to the silent city on the hillside where rest the glorified dead.

The following biography of Mrs. Jackson’s life was read at this service.

On the 8th of January, 1899 a baby daughter came to bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. McLain near Brooklyn, Iowa, and they named her Margery Ruth. The years sped on, golden links in the chain of memory and the child of yesterday bloomed into glorious womanhood. Reared in the simple and wholesome environment of an Iowa country home, she enjoyed also the more complete educational advantages graduating from the Brooklyn High School in 1918 and from Grinnell College in 1922.

Adopting teaching as her career chance brought her to Earlham in the fall of 1922 and she devoted the next two years of her life to service in the faculty of the local high school. First acquaintance ripened into enduring friendship and the little school teacher with the sunny smile was accepted into the hearts of all whose lives touched hers. To know her was to love her.