Strohm, Mary Elizabeth (Goodenow) 1852-1931

STROHM, GOODENOW, WAHL, SNYDER, DUNKIN

Posted By: Bruce Atkinson (email)
Date: 11/29/2007 at 19:35:14

LAST RITES HELD FOR PIONEER MOTHER
Year by year the ranks of Woodbury county early settlers is thinning and long lives of usefulness are coming daily to an end, in answer to the final summons.
With the passing of these courageous men and women who payed the supreme sacrifice every community feels keenly their loss and only guarded stories of the historic past and memories links the present generation with the colorful and adventuresome past.
The people in this community paused in their labors Monday to pay the last tribute to one of the undoubted Christian souls and pioneer Mrs. Samuel Strohm who passed from this life Saturday afternoon January 24, 1931 at the age of 78 years, 6 months and 8 days. She lived all of her life a resident of Iowa.
Mary Elizabeth Goodenow was born in Maquoketa, Iowa, in July 1852, her parents being Mr. and Mrs. H. Goodenow, farmers of that locality. Raised under rural conditions she developed into young woman hood, with a strong physique and charming personality. At the age of twenty a young man of the neighborhood, Samuel S. Strohm sought her hand in marriage. The ceremony was performed on November 21, 1872 at Maquoketa. Four years later in 1876 they with a number of other families of the eastern part of Iowa and Illinois, crossed the state and settled in Woodbury county. Mr. and Mrs. Strohm selected a site 2 ½ miles west of Pierson. Unaccustomed to the privations and terrible hardships on the open plains, many families returned again to the east. The Strohm family, however, were made of sterner qualities and by indomitable will power overcame loneliness and remained on indefinitely until hard work gave them their reward.
Pierson, however, then boasted of nothing but a post office, which was located in a farm home one mile west of town. Correctionville was the closest trading center and Ida Grove the marketing center. Mrs. Strohm received three cents for butter, and many times was forced to bring it back home again as production was greater than the consumption. The present depression dwindles into mere nothingness compared with the hardships experienced by those early-comers whose courageous spirit and broad vision paved the way for the development of this county. Their lives were humbly and inauspiciously lived. Their tracts of raw land gave little indication of being transformed into fertile acres with trees and fine sets of farm building to crown their efforts.
Mrs. Strohm lived her life quietly. She graciously accepted the good and steeled her thoughts against the inadvertent reverses of life. She frequently left her own hearthside to hurry to the bedside of a sick or sorrowing neighbor. With her husband they lived on the same farm until death. They were the parents of seven children, three of which preceded them in death.
Mrs. Strohm enjoyed unusually good health until the death of her husband who passed away in November, 1928. So greatly did she miss his companionship that her physical condition since that time has caused her loved ones deep concern. On December the 9th, 1930, she became bedfast, after suffering a severe heart attack. She sank into unconsciousness eight days previous to her death and passed peacefully out through the portals Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock.
She leaves to mourn her death one son and two daughters; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They are: John A. Strohm of Pierson, Iowa; Mrs. Jennie Wahl of Kingsley, Iowa and Mrs. Grace Snyder, of Minneapolis, Minnesota; also one brother, Marsellis Goodenow of Hancock, Minnesota, and one sister, Mrs. Jane Dunkin of Spencer, besides other relatives and a legion of friends.
During her girlhood she gave herself to Christ and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. About thirty years ago, she united with the Church of Christ at Pierson and has been one of its most faithful members.
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Unknown (Woodbury County, Iowa) of 01/??/1931.