PIERSON, Cynthia Ella (Wiatt)

PIERSON, FELT, NESBITT, HAROVER, HARBOR, KLINE, STONEBRAKER, PARKER, TAYLOR, JORDAN, FICKEL, WILSON, LISLE, PAUL, WIATT, BYRD, CLARK, DITTUS, HOUSER, WIEGMAN, PIERSON, FELT, NESBITT, HAROVER, HARBOR, KLINE

Posted By: Jeffrey L Wiatt (email)
Date: 4/22/2006 at 16:59:33

The Malvern Leader
19 October 1939

WELL KNOWN PIONEER OF MILLS COUNTY PASSES AWAY

Mrs. R. Pierson Dies at Wesley Chapel Home

Death took another pioneer resident of Mills county Saturday when Mrs. Robert H. Pierson passed away at her home west of Henderson. She was born in Mills county in 1856 and made her home here continuously.

Funeral services, which were held Monday at the Wesley Chapel church, were well attended by long-time friends and neighbors. They were conducted by the pastor, Rev. R. V. Felt, and the former pastor, Rev. K. E. Nesbitt. Rev. Nesbitt, in his sermon, spoke fittingly of the value of a life of service such as had been Mrs. Pierson's.

Serving as pall bearers were G. T. Harover, A. J. Harbor, Dr. D. M. Kline, S. G. Stonebraker, Clinton Parker, Chas. Taylor and Guy F. Jordan. Music was furnished by Mr. and Mrs. Ward Fickel, Mrs. George Wilson and Harvey Lisle who were accompanied by Mrs. Ida Paul.

The following life sketch was read at the services:

"On Dec. 14, 1856, on a farm a few miles northwest of Malvern in Mills county, a baby was born to William G. and Cynthia E. Wiatt who was later to become known as Cynthia Ella.

"She was the ninth child of a family consisting of seven girls and five boys, and as those early pioneer families had a great deal to do, at a very early age she was taught the necessity of hard work and in all the intervening years she never lost the idea - that to be happy one must of necessity be also busy. So it naturally follows that after her fall some five years ago, the result of which rendered her unable to be about and assist with the work around the home, her greatest disappointment seemed to be her inability to be doing something useful.

"On Dec. 19, 1875, she was united in marriage to Robert H. Pierson, a young man who had come to this county from Kentucky after serving his country as a soldier in the Civil war. To this union was born three children, Daisy Pearl, Edna Joy and Robert Ray.

"Immediately after their marriage they moved to the farm which has ever since been her home. She was preceded in death by her husband who passed away Jan. 10, 1923.

"At an early age she joined the Methodist Protestant church at East Liberty but later transferred her membership to the Methodist Episcopal church at Wesley Chapel to which church she remained faithful until her death which occurred at her home Saturday morning, Oct. 14, 1939, at the age of almost 83 years.
"She leaves to mourn her passing one sister, Mrs. Alta May Bird, of Omaha; her three children, Mrs. John R. Clark, Mrs. Claude E. Wilson and Robert Ray Pierson, all of Henderson; four granddaughters, Mrs. B. F. Dittus and Mrs. B. E. Houser, Malvern, Mrs. Leon Wiegman, Morrisville, N. Y., Joyce Pierson, Henderson; four great grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends.

"In the art of home-making and hospitality she excelled and she often told of how those early pioneer ministers in their journey from one charge to another would spend the night in the Pierson home where the latch string was always out and where they would discuss topics of interest both to the political and religious life of the country and community.

"She loved her home and family and the chief interest of her later years seemed to center in the happiness of her grandchildren and great grandchildren and fond indeed will be their recollection of grandmother.

"She was a great reader and after the accident which confined her to her wheel chair she got a great deal of enjoyment from reading but soon her eyesight began to fail to the extent that she was unable to do her own reading so her daughter Edna with whom she was making her home helped to overcome this handicap to some extent by reading a great deal to her.

"Her hours of loneliness were also greatly brightened by the very frequent visits of her beloved pastor and his wife, Rev. K. E. Nesbitt, and she was also deeply appreciative of the many acts of kindness and remembrance from the Ladies' Aid Society and many other true friends of the community.

"Little do we realize the pleasure and comfort a few flowers or a kind word can bring to one who is deprived of the blessings of health or the ability to see and enjoy the beauties of nature.
"Thus the Book of Life is closed on one of God's own but long will linger the loving memory of kind deeds, cheerfulness and the true, honest living of a life of more than three-quarters of a century spent entirely in one community.