NELLIE CASPER,

CASPER, GAMMELL, CRAWFORD, MERCER, MCCAUGHAN, LULL

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart (email)
Date: 2/18/2006 at 16:21:07

NELLIE CASPER , 102, Dies
County's Oldest Resident

Winterset Madisonian
June 27, 1979

Madison County's oldest known resident, 102-year-old Mrs. Nellie Casper, died at noon Tuesday, June 26,1979, at Madison County Memorial Hospital.

Born on August 9, 1876 in Muscatine, she was the daughter of Scottish immigrant parents. In 1908 she moved with her parents, William and Helen Crawford Gammell, to Madison County.

She was married to John W. Casper in 1914, and they lived in Union Township about a half mile north of what is now the county quarry until 1949. In that year they moved to a homestead just west of Highway 169 at Three Mile Corner in Douglas Township.

On her 100th birthday in 1976, Mrs. Casper received a note of congratulations from then President and Mrs. Gerald Ford. In addition, Winterset Mayor Bernard Morrissey at that time signed a proclamation honoring her as a Century Citizen.

Mrs. Casper was a member of the First Christian Church in Winterset.

She was preceded in death by her husband John, her parents and six brothers. Surviving are a son, Robert Casper, Sr. of Winterset; a stepson, Dwight Casper of Winterset; two daughters, Pearl Mercer of Charleston, W.Va., and Harriet McCaughan of Tacoma, Wash.; a stepdaughter, Beulah Lull of Winterset; seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services are pending with Collins Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.