BUTTON, Eva 1859-1945

BUTTON, JENKS

Posted By: Diane Scott (email)
Date: 10/12/2010 at 11:26:06

Eva Button
January 8, 1859 – March 13, 1945

#1:

Evelyn Button, always called Eva, born January 8, 1859 at Ripon, Wisconsin. She was the youngest child of Osmond Monroe and Evaline Mercy Jenks Button.

In 1860 her father went overland to California, and her mother took the five children back to the old home at Brokenstraw, Chautauqua County, N. Y.

In 1864 the family were reunited and resided for two years near Ripon, Wis., moving from there to a new farm six miles northeast of Osage, Iowa. She received her early education in the rural school on a corner of her fathers farm and at the age of 14, during the winter of ’73-’74 began attending the Cedar Valley Seminary.

In January 1875, while again attending the CVS. She was converted during union revival meetings held in the Methodist church. She united with the Baptist Church at Osage, Iowa, in April 1877 being baptized by Rev. Wilson Whitney. After completing her work at C.V.S. she attended Des Moines University where she graduated in the class of 1886. Soon after which she was called home to care for her mother who died at Osage in 1887.

From November 1889 to June 1890 she attended the Baptist Missionary Training School of Chicago. She spent the next year working with Miss Johanna P. Moore in Baton Rouge, La., after which she returned to B.M.T.S and graduated in 1891. In the meantime Miss Moore had transferred her work to Little Rock, Ark., where Miss Button joined her.

Miss Button organized and successfully carried on the first classes in domestic science for Negro girls, she also carried Bible study classes for children in which work she was especially adept. She suffered from malaria during all her stay in the South. In an effort to overcome this difficulty she spent the year '94-’95 assisting her brother, A. R. Button on his large missionary field at Armour, South, Dakota.

Miss Button returned to her work with Miss Moore, this time located at Nashville, Tennessee. Here she carried on work among Negro girls and children until malaria again conquered and her doctor refused the necessary health permit to work anywhere in the southland.

After a short rest at her home in Osage the Women’s Home Mission Society sent her to work among the Indians in the vicinity of Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Due to her own ill health and her father’s advancing age, she returned to Osage, Iowa in 1900 where she and her father lived together and made a home for several nieces and nephews who attended C.V.S.

During these years she did splendid work as Supt. of the Primary Dept. of the Baptist S.S. and faithfully and lovingly cared for her father until his death May 5, 1910.

From September 1910 to Nov. 1911 she and a niece, Bessie Button, lived on adjoining homesteads in Harding Co., South Dakota. She was then engaged jointly by the W.B.M.S. and the South Dakota Convention as missionary-at-large and served churches at Owanka, Conde, Armor, Timber Lake, Isabel, Bradley, Loyalton, Howard and Fruitdale, all in South Dakota.

During these years the State Supt. said of her, “When I have a field so hard no man will tackle it, I send Miss Button and somehow she gets the job done.”

The summer of 1929 she became a member of her brother’s household at Loyalton, South Dakota where she assisted him in the pastoral work and relieved his frail wife of much of the household cares. Again she gave loving care to this beloved sister-in-law Abbie and brother Albert until their deaths.

In November 1932 Miss Button became a resident of the Northwest Bapt. Home at Winnebago, Minn. Here she continued to radiate sunshine as throughout her life with all her contacts.
After three years or more of serious illness it became necessary to remove her to the State Hospital at St. Peter, Minn., where she passed away Monday, March 13, 1945.

Services were held in Winnebago at the Mortuary, 1:30, and burial followed at Osage, Iowa.
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#2:

Minnesota Death Records:
Name: Eva Button
Death Date: March 13, 1945
Death County: Nicollet
State File Number: 009442
Certificate Number: 00942
Certificate Year: 1945
Record Number: 973768

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#3: Photo c/o Diane M. Scott.

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