Sarah Jane (Dawson) Wilson (1861-1932)

DAWSON, CARVELL, WILSON, KEITH, PEARSON

Posted By: jane austin (email)
Date: 6/12/2021 at 21:05:24

Sarah Jane Wilson died March 4, 1932 at 10:30 p.m. at the age of 71 years, 25 days. Two brothers survive. Will Dawson of Walla Walla, Washington, and A.W. Dawson of Orange Park, Florida; her husband, L.F. Wilson, and daughter, Cora B. Pearson; one daughter-in-law and one son-in-law, eight grandchildren, and one great grandson also survive.

A brief time before her death she wrote her own obituary which her pastor read at the funeral service at the Methodist church in Hartley.

There was a brief service at the Wilson home four miles south of town at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and the public service at 2:00 p.m. at the Methodist church in Hartley conducted by Rev. J.E. Lombard, the pastor, and interment was in the Hartley Cemetery.

The following is the obituary as written by the deceased:

Sarah Jane Dawson was the daughter of Isaac Forister Dawson and Mary Carvell Dawson, born February 8, 1861 in Cedar county, Iowa, three and one-half miles east of Lisbon and 5 miles east of Mount Vernon, Iowa. In the year 1862 the father, though a man of 50 years, went to war, and the county allowed the mother $1.00 a month for the keep of the deceased, and the rest of the family $2.00. One dollar seemed a very small allowance to rear a child, but nevertheless I grew, and in 1883 moved to within three-quarters of a mile of Lisbon and there I spent 14 years of my girlhood, playing with my brothers and sisters, of which I had 9 brothers and 3 sisters. One sister and two brothers had deceased before my birth. Marion died in the Union service of our country and lies in Jefferson City, Missouri.

In the year of 1876, I was converted and accepted Jesus as my Saviour and joined the M.E. Church at Lisbon with a class of 43. There were men in that class 75 years old. They were of different ages, down to 14 years.

I lived there four years after that, and we all stayed by the church. Two died, then I moved to Marion, Iowa, after the death of my father, leaving 40 of that class singing and praying and helping with the church work.

I worked from place to place, not always at what I would like to have done, but the best I could get that would bring me honorable money. And of the little I got, I always gave some to the cause of Christ.

After 2 years, I moved to Hazel Green, Union Township, Delaware County, Iowa. I brought my church letter from my old home town and united with Buck Creek, a country church. There I lived with my sister, Mrs. C.A. Keith. It was there I met my husband, Mr. L.F. Wilson, then a student of Lennox College. It seemed we were destined for one another. After two years of courtship, we were married and came directly to Hartley, Iowa to the farm south of town. That was in 1884. In 1887, I brought my church letter here and we have lived here ever since.

I am the mother of 5 children, 3 boys dying in infancy, and Lew Hamilton Wilson and Mrs. Cora Belle Pearson survive. As I have no property to will, I will all my interest in my husband, L.F. Wilson, who has cared for me tenderly through all my sickness and sorrow, and also the interest in my son and his wife and family, and my daughter and husband and family to the care of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hartley (Iowa) Sentinel, 10 Mar 1932, p.8.