Clifford, Arethusa M. 1842-1928

CLIFFORD, HARTSOCK, HOLLINGSWORTH, HALL, MOSBY, MAXWELL, PRICE

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 6/2/2011 at 07:51:00

The Grinnell Herald; Jan. 27, 1928

OBITUARY OF MRS. ARETHUSA M. CLIFFORD

Arethusa McCoun Clifford was born in Green County, Ill., Jan. 28 1842.

She came to Iowa when a child with her parents, Stephen and Ellen Hartsock, who were amongst the earliest settlers of Johnson County. Before her marriage in 1860 to C.E. Clifford, deceased since 1911, she taught school in or near Iowa City.

Six children, were born of this union and lived to maturity: Charlotte who died when a young woman; Belle Hollingsworth of Washington, D.C.; Oneida Hall of Monrovia, Calif.; Alice Mosby who died in Oklahoma in 1915; Edwin who made his home with his mother in Grinnell, and Myra Maxwell of Dallas, Texas. Twelve grandchildren and eight great grandchildren survive.

Mrs. Clifford was a woman of superior mind and strength of character. She was devoted to her family and its welfare. In her busy life as the wife of an early settler she found time for a certain degree of culture; to be well informed on current events of national and world importance.

Her life was exemplary in kindness, uprightness, and devotion to principles and duty.

She was for over seventy years a citizen of Iowa, for nearly sixty years of that time a resident of Johnson Co. and Iowa City.

About eight years ago she removed to Grinnell to care for her sister Mrs. A.O. Price who passed away in 1920, and remained here until her death Jan. 21, 1928.

Funeral services were held at the residence at 1117 Prairie St., at 10:30 A.M. Monday, and the body was taken to Iowa City in the afternoon by members of her family. A brief service was held at the cemetery there in the presence of old friends and neighbors and the body was laid to rest beside her husband.