Mary Ann (Doyle) McLain (1843-1921)

DOYLE, MCLAIN, BRICKER, LOCKWOOD, PAGE

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 9/25/2013 at 23:14:10

From Nevada Journal July 6, 1921

Final services for Mrs. Frank McLain Sr.

Funeral services for the late Mrs. Frank A. McLain Sr. whose death at Pasadena, Calif., occurred on May 15, 1921, were hled from the family home Fourth and Avenue K, Saturday afternoon. The body had arrived her on an early morning train over the Northwestern, accompanied by Mr. McLain Sr., the son of Clark McLain, wife and daughters.

The funeral services were in charge of her one time pastor and close friend, Rev. J. W. Innis, now pastor of the Collegiat Presbyterian church at Ames, assisted by Rev. J. George Walz, pastor of Central Presbyterian church, of which she had been a member for many years.

The services were attended by neighbors and oldtime friends of the family, whose home in and near Nevada has covered over a period of over half a century.

Following the services at the home the body was escorted to the Nevada cemetery where it was laid to rest in the family lot in the center of the old portion of the beautiful burying ground.

Following her death at Pasadena funeral services were held there and the casket containing the body where it lay until the family were in a position to make the trip west and place the body of their loved one in its final resting place.

Many have been the expressions of sympathy and good sheer for the sorrowing one since their return and all are assured of the very deep sympathy of their wide circle of friends and neighbors.

Mrs. McLain was born Mary Ann Doyle, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Doyle, at Richmond, Virginia, the day before Christmas 1842 she being one of a family of seven daughters and two sons, but two of whom are now living.

While she was still a small child her parents moved to Indiana and after a short residence there again moved to Iowa, locating on a farm near the town of Nevada. On June 22, 1861, she was united in marriage with Frank A. McLain. Two children were born to this union they being Clark, now residing in Pasadena, Cal., and Mildred Lee, who was the wife of Jos. M. Bricker and who died in Nevada March 4, 1912.

The active years of Mrs. McLain and husband were spent on the McLain home farm, southeast of this city. There this pioneer couple united brain with muscle and died their part well in transforming the raw prairie and swamps of primevial Iowa into the great rich agricultural state Iowa is today. In 1893, Mr. and Mrs. McLain retired from active farm life and moved to Nevada, where they have since made their home. While Mrs. McLain felt an active interest in affairs pertaining to her community and town, her chief interest was in her own home and she was a model homekeeper and homemaker. For longer than 65 years Mrs. McLain and her husband have resided in the town of Nevada and its these years as man and wife they are wrought together. These years have witnessed the passing of all but a very few of their early Iowa friends, but as friends and the years have passed, Mrs. McLain made new friends from the strangers who came into her home town. The chief regret of Mrs. McLain curing the illness that resulted in her death, was that she would have to leave the companion of her youth and old age and that she would see the friends of her home town no more.

Of her immediate family she leaves to revere her memory her husband and son also five grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and two surviving sisters, Mrs. Kate Lockwood of Clarion, Iowa and Mrs. Margaret Page of Oto, Iowa, and many friend in both Iowa and California.

She was a member of Central Presbyterian church of this city. It was her expressed wish that she be laid to rest in the cemetery at Nevada, where both her parents, her daughter Mildred, and a grandson, and so many of her former friends, now lie at rest.

The illness that terminated her life commenced the night of February 20. This illness brought her many days of great physical suffering. She met these trying days with splendid fortitude and courage and Christian faith. In her passing her home community loses one of its constructive pioneers; her husband, a true and loving companion, her son a mother's love and her acquaintances, a true and steadfast friend.