Laura Cornelia (Houghtelin) Martin (1877-1970)

HOUGHTELIN, MCMILLAN, FIGERT, MARTIN, SKINNER, FIELD, GOODWIN

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

Laura Cornelia Houghtelin was born on August 12, 1877 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Her mother was Adelaide McMillan Houghtelin, who was born and raised in Gettysburg on her family homestead known as "Wildwood" and now known as "The McMillan House" on the Gettysburg Battlefield Grounds. Her father was William Henry Houghtelin, who also was born and raised near Gettysburg. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers from 1862 until the end of the Civil War. He was also a Methodist minister for a number of years and was over 91 years of age at the time of his death.

Mrs. Martin's family lived in Fairfax County,Virginia, from 1877 to 1885; then moved to a farm near Topeka, Kansas, later homestead a farm in southwestern Kansas; and still later returned to Topeka where she completed her public schooling.

She moved to Minburn, Iowa, about 1900 where she lived with her brother, Reverend David McMillan Houghtelin, and where she met and married Fred Henry Figert on August 25, 1904. Two children were born of this marriage: Frederick McMillan and Frances Marie. The family lived in Lake City, Iowa, where Mr. Figert taught in the local schools, and in Albion and Zearing, Iowa, where he was superintendent of schools. In 1912, they moved to Marathon, Iowa where Mr. Figert was proud to be the school superintendent of the second consolidated school in the State of Iowa. Mr. Figert died in 1913 and she was appointed Postmaster at Marathon and served until 1931, eighteen years.

In 1924 she married George P. Martin of Peterson, Iowa, who passed on in 1937. Mrs. Martin continued to live in Marathon until 1943 when she moved to Paullina, Iowa, where she lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Warren Skinner.

Mrs. Martin died in the Sioux Valley Memorial Hospital at Cherokee, Iowa on October 22, 1970 at 93 years of age, and her burial was in the Prairie View Cemetery at Paullina, Iowa, on October 25, 1970.

She was preceded in death by two sisters and three brothers: Mrs. Edith H. Field of Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Grace H. Goodwin of Topeka, Kansas; Reverend David McMillan Houghtelin of Des Moines, Iowa; Guy R. Houghtelin of Denver, Colorado; and Dr. William Clarence Houghtelin of Washington, D.C.

Surviving are her daughter, Mrs. Elmer (Frances) Skinner of Paullina, Iowa, her son, Frederick McMillan Figert of Washington D.C.; four grandchildren; and sixteen great grandchildren.

Mrs. Martin remained until the time of her death a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Marathon; was a charter member and later a fifty year honorary member of the Marathon Chapter No. 459 of the Order of the Eastern Star; a member of the Mary Ball Washington Chapter (Sheldon, Iowa) of the Daughters of the American Revolution; and a member of the FX Chapter (Paullina, Iowa) of P.E.O.

Until the past two or three years, Mrs. Martin was an avid reader, a close follower of current events, and vitally interested in those persons and events encountered in her daily round of life.

She was a deeply religious lady in theory and in practice, a devoted mother to her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren, true and loyal to her multitude of friends and an inspiration and living example of true Christianity to all who knew her.

Paullina (Iowa) Times, 5 Nov 1970, pg. 6