LAPHAM, Ella (Ranche) 1857-1943

LAPHAM, RANCHE, SMITH

Posted By: Diane M Scott (email)
Date: 6/10/2011 at 08:57:37

Ella A (Ranche) Lapham 1857-1943

#1:
PIONEER OSAGE RESIDENT DIES
MRS. JAY LAPHAM WAS
ACTIVE CHURCH LEADER

Charles City – burial was at Osage Thursday afternoon at 2 o’clock, for Mrs. Jay A. Lapham, 85, mother of Supt. P. C. Lapham of Charles City, who died in Cleveland, Ohio, Monday. Funeral services were held at the Millard Fairhill Funeral Home in Cleveland, Tuesday afternoon.

Mrs. Lapham had been making her home with her daughter, Miss Joyce E. Lapham, assistant principal of Roosevelt High School in Cleveland.

Mrs. Lapham was born Ella Ranche in Old Bradford, near Nashua, November 8, 1857. As a little girl she attended the Little Brown Church in the Vale, which her father had helped to construct, and her name is engraved on the bronze tablet in the church as 1 of the early members.

On April 8, 1881, she married Jay A. Lapham. Four children were born to that union, Burnett, who died at the age of 17; Miss Joyce E. Lapham; Supt. P. C. Lapham of Charles City; and Judson, who died at the age of 4.

Their early home was at Pella, where Mr. Lapham was director of religious education for the Iowa Baptist convention. Her husband preceded her in death April 4, 1932. During the final years of her life she lived with her daughter in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mrs. Lapham was always very active in church and Sunday school work. She was superintendent of the junior departments of the Osage Baptist Sunday school and of the First Baptist church Sunday school of Des Moines.

From 1915 to 1921, she was president of the Woman’s Baptist Missionary Society of Iowa.

In 1921 she became the treasurer of the Baptist Girls Missionary Educational fund which she had promoted. When she resigned from that position in 1934, 42 girls had been helped through college and missionary training from the fund and had become active either in missionary work or in Christian Endeavor.

Her interest in missions was started by the Woman’s Missionary work of the Little Brown Church in the Vale. She has told of making the stones in the meadows by the church her missionary field. She never lost her interest in missions. She was also active in community work. She was president both of the Shakespearean club and of P. E. Q. in Osage.

[MASON CITY GLOBE GAZETTE, Thursday, September 30, 1943]
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#2:

Ella (Ranche) Lapham was born November 8, 1857, the daughter of John Ranche and Elizabeth (Smith) Ranche. She married Jay Lapham, the son of Charles and Olivia Lapham.
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NOTES:

There is another, similar obituary for her in the Mitchell County Press-News for October 7, 1943.

The listing for Osage cemetery shows:
LAPHAM, ELLA A. (buried) 30 SEP 1943