Mary Counsel-Coles-Durston

COUNSEL, COLES, DURSTON, SANDY, GREER

Posted By: Nadine Coles (email)
Date: 11/8/2008 at 00:56:00

On the 4th day of March, A.D. 1807, at Lympsham, Somerset, England, Mary Counsel, the subject of this notice, was born.

On March 31, 1829, she was married to John Coles, who died in 1835. To Coles she bore three sons, two of whom survive her, James and Percy Coles of Williams, Iowa. On Jan. 10, 1837 she married Robert Durston, to whom she bore seven children, five of whom preceded her to the other land and two survive her. With the surviving children, Mrs. Wm. Sandy of Rolfe and Mrs.David Greer of Curlew, she has lived the last quarter of a century. She died at the home of William Sandy on Wednesday, February 24, 1897, within eight days of 90 years. For the last year she has been confined to her bed almost continuously.

She came to America about the year 1857 and then moved about 1865 tothis locality, where she has ministered to the sick with constant care for many years.

Few have been the births in any of the Somersetshire families in this locality where Grandma Durston did not care for mother and child, and few the cases of juvenile ailments that she did not treat in these families. She was a true woman, about whom or from no one ever heard a reproachful story. Her life was full of helpfulness and her end peaceful. She was a mother to more than could possibly meet to pay their last respects to her memory. There were present at the funeral all her living children and many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, beside a large a number of the neighbors as could gather at the home of William Sandy.

Rev. McCaffree preached a very acceptable sermon at the home, then followed the closing of the services at the house and later the interment of the remains at the Parvin cemetery. The deceased was a member of the established church of England, a lover of bible truth, and trusted in Christ for salvation.

It was like the burial of Rebecca of old. She leaves behind her so many tender memories of helpful service that gratitude would enumerate but cannot in this short obituary.

source - Obituary March 4, 1897 The Rolfe Reveille