Martha Ellen (Wallace) Sawhill (1916)
ATICHISON, RAMSAY, SAWHILL, WALLACE
Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 2/15/2011 at 08:20:43
The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, December 13, 1916
Page 1Death of MRS. MARTHA SAWHILL
Mrs. Martha Wallace Sawhill, daughter of Robert and Rebecca Ramsay Wallace, died on Sunday, Dec. 10th, at her home in Jackson township, after two days illness, at the age of 73 years. She was born Dec. 1, 1843 in Brook county, Virginia. She was the wife of the late Rev. James Sawhill, a well known preacher of this county.
Rev. Sawhill came from Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1864 from the Associate Presbyterian Seminary. His early ministry was spent in mission work in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. As a home missionary he visited Winterset, coming by rail to Iowa City, then by stage to Des Moines, and on foot to this town about 1856.
His marriage to Miss Wallace occurred in 1866. She was a native of what is now West Virginia; moving to Ohio in 1851, then to Benton county, Iowa in 1857.
In 1876, the family moved to this county, he accepting the pastorate of the Union (now Pitzer) U.P. Church, remaining as such for fourteen years. His health failed in 1891 and he retired to farm life, dying March 27, 1904.
The Sawhills represent the oldest type of church life, the kind that toiled, sacrificed and triumphed over the struggles and obstacles attendant upon church life in a country parish. Due to the tenacity and loyalty of this pioneer minister and his wife, is the continued growth and prosperity of Union church. The value of their optimism in the face of great discouragements can never be fully measured.
Four children survive: John C. and Wallace of this county; Rollstin of Seattle and Mrs. Thomas Atichison of Iroquois, South Dakota.
________________________The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, December 20, 1916
Page 5, Column 1Mortuary
Mrs. Martha Sawhill
Martha Ellen Wallace, daughter of Robert and Rebecca Ramsay Wallace, was born Dec., 1, 1843, in Brook county, Virginia; being the youngest but one in a family of eleven children. When eight years of age, she removed with the family to Adams county, Ohio, and six years later came to Benton county, Iowa, where a brother and a sister still reside. She well remembered many incidents of their trip west, as they came a considerable part of the distance by boat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
Soon after reaching Iowa, when still at the age of 14, she commenced teaching in the public schools and continued in that work until her marriage on the 21st of February, 1866 to Rev. James Sawhill, pastor of the United Presbyterian church at Cascade, Iowa, After ten years residence at Cascade, Rev. Jas. Sawhill having been called to the pastorate of the United Presbyterian church, known as Pitzer, the family removed to this community, which has been, the home of the deceased for a little over forty years.
She was preceded in death by her husband, who died March 27, 1904; also by three children, who died in infancy. Three sons, one daughter, 13 grandchildren, a brother and a sister remain and mourn their loss.
She not only retained an active interest in the social and religious welfare of the community, but also of the work and workers in the denomination of which she was a life-long member
She bore her affliction patiently and cheerfully and passed to her reward Dec. 10, 1916, aged seventy three years and nine days.
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