Hannah Minnie (Smith) Bamberger (1811-1907)

SMITH, BAMBERGER, WAGNER, TAYLOR, LONES

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 2/22/2017 at 23:23:07

From Nevada Representative December 27, 1907

OBITUARY

DEATH OF MRS. BAMBERGER

Mrs. Hannah Smith Bamberger died at one o'clock today at the home of her son, Ezra S. Bamberger, aged 96 years, 6 months, 11 days. She was born in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1811, was married in 1832 and has had her home in Nevada for more than forty years. She is believed to have been the eldest person in Story county; and she has finally passed away under the burden of her many years. She had eight children, six sons and two daughter; and through a life of extraordinary length and until she broke down utterly as the result of age when was a woman of most notable worth and energy. More extended notice of her will be given later. Her funeral will be held probably on Monday.

From Nevada Representative December 30, 1907

OBITUARY

HANNAH SMITH BAMBERGER

Mrs. Hannah Smith Bamberger was born near Lebanon, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1811, and died at Nevada, Iowa, December 27, 1907, aged 96 years, 6 months and 11 days, being at the time of her death the oldest person in Story county. She was reared at the place of her birth near Lebanon, and was married there to Samuel Bamberger February 21, 1833; he having been born and raised in the same neighborhood and being three years her senior. They continued to reside at the old home until 1851, when with their family they started westward with a prairie schooner and kept on to Stephenson county, Illinois where they located for the time at Orangeville, near Freeport. They remained here for two years and then moved twenty miles north into Greene county, Wisconsin, where they continued to make their home until 1863, when they moved to Iowa and made their first settlement in this state near Marion in Linn county. There they remained for about two years; but in 1865, just about the close of the war, they came to Nevada, where was to be their home for the remainder of their days.

They lived first on the corner where their son Ezra S. now has his home and where Mrs. Bamberger has died at an extraordinary age; but soon after they made their home with their daughter Mary in rooms over the millinery store which she then and for many years conducted on the lot which she still owns and in the building which has long since been moved and is now David Prior's harness shop. Here it was Mr. Bamberger died in October 1877. After his death Mrs. Bamberger continued to live with Miss Mary until the latter sold out her business nearly a dozen years ago. Then the two spent a year or more with other daughters at and near Freeport, and then after a visit in Ohio they returned to Nevada and have since had their home, for about ten years, with Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Bamberger. Here Mrs. Bamberger bore exceedingly well the weight of increasing years until in December of 1904, she fell and dislocated her hip. From this time on she was confined to a chair or bed; but a seemingly iron constitution enabled her to live on in a fair state of physical health until about six weeks ago, when she took finally to her bed; and since that event the final end has seemed to be approaching. When the end did come it was not the consequence of any illness but simply a renewed demonstration that here is a limit to the span of human life.

Mrs. Bamberger was the mother of eight children, as follows: Ezra S., of Nevada; Mrs. Kate Wagner, of Orangeville, Illinois; Lucetta, who died after coming to young womanhood; Carrie B. Taylor, of Freeport, Illinois; Mary A., of Nevada; Ruben S., who died at Nevada in 1877 three months before the death of his father; Anna E. Lones, formerly of Nevada and of Richland township in this county, but now for many years of Elkton, Ohio; and Elizabeth A., twin sister of the last named, who died in infancy. There are also six grandchildren. So long as she retained her vigor and the full command of her faculties Mrs. Bamberger was a woman of rare qualities, energetic, capable and faithful in all her obligations in life. She enjoyed in her extended old age the devotion and self-sacrificing care of her children with whom she made her home; and although she had distinctly passed that period in life when discriminating friends wish to see the burden of years yet further increased, still the devotion of those about her continued, and everything that was possible was done for her comfort and welfare.

The funeral was conducted from the Bamberger home Sunday afternoon by Rev. R. E. Shaw, pastor of the Methodist church, in which church Mrs. Bamberger had been long a worshiper, although the membership of herself and husband was always with the German Reformed church in which they were both reared. She was buried in Nevada cemetery beside the husband who had been laid there more than thirty years before. For many acts of neighborly kindness in their time of bereavement the children wish to make grateful acknowledgement.