Catherine Funk Rice (1797-1900)

RICE, FUNK, ROLAND

Posted By: Gail and Dennis Bell
Date: 6/19/2005 at 08:09:50

THE MAXWELL TRIBUNE, Maxwell, Iowa, Thursday, January 17, 1901, page 1. Column 1. "IS LAID TO REST. - Funeral of Aunt Kitty Rice Held Saturday. Church Incapable of Holding Large Assemblage. Sketch of Her Long and Eventful Career. We take the following from the Mount Morris Index, being an article which will be of much interest to many in this locality. Mr. Rice was related to a number of the members of the Brethren church. The funeral of Aunt Kitty Rice was held in the Methodist church Saturday morning, conducted by the Rev. Ephraim Shellenberger, of Freeport, and Rev. F. W. Nazarene of this place. The funeral was probably the largest ever held here, the spacious Methodist church not being large enough to accommodate the hundreds of people who came from miles around to attend. After the funeral discourse by Rev. Shellenberger, the remains were taken to Oakland cemetery and laid to rest beside the husband and step-son of the deceased. The pall bearers were Chas. Newcomer, S. P. Mumma, H. C. Clark, A. E. Canode, A. J. Long and Josiah Avey. Catherine Funk was born at Beaver Creek, Washington county, Maryland, the 24th day of August, 1797, and died Wednesday, December 26, 1900, aged 103 years, four months and two days. Her ancestral line is noted for longevity, although none of her ancestors, so far as known, can rival her own in that respect. Her father, Samuel Funk, lived to the ripe old age of ninty**-one years. Her mother, Maria Houser Funk, lived to be seventy-five. Her grandfather lived to be about eighty-six years of age, and her grandmother was an octogenarian when she died. Very nearly half of her own life was spent in the home of her childhood, and she did not come west until 1845, or fifty-five years ago. While still bearing her maiden name, Catherine Funk, she left her Maryland home, in company with John Bovey and family, who were moving to this vicinity, and started to make her home with her brother, Samuel Funk, who had moved west some time before, locating in the township of Pinei** Creek. The very year of her arrival she was married to Jacob Rice, who was a native of the same section as herself and his first wife, Mary Roland, having passed away three years after making their home in the new settlement here. The marriage of Catherine Funk to Mr. Rice was the beginning of a busy household life of her own. Aunt Kitty, the name by which she had been familiarly known throughout the region around, had no children of her own, but she became a thoughtful and devoted mother to the twelve children of her husband. They made their home three miles north of the village of Mount Morris, which continued their abode until his death in 1870, at the age of eighty-five. She remained on the old homestead twenty years longer, but for the last ten years resided in Mount Morris with her step-son, the late Hon. Isaac Rice, whose name is honored throughout this region. Aunt Kitty often told her friends of the interesting incidents of her first trip West, which was made by stage as far as Wheeling, on leaving her native state; thence down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers as far as Peru, near Peoria; thence she traveled overland to our neighboring town, Oregon, the county seat of Ogle. This now beautiful and thriving city then only a handful of people, scarcely more than 200 souls; and the widely famous college town of Mount Morris was then a hamlet numbering fifty persons. Among the incidents of life here in that early time were the occasional rides to Chicago by ox-cart, a trip she repeatedly made; her errand being to conclude the purchases for the year. On one occasion when the oxen were turned out to grass in the evening, one of the two teams strayed away, and in the morning could not be found, far or near. They were compelled to hitch one rig behind the other, and make their journey drawn by a team. The runaways were subsequently found to have made their way home, swimming Rock river on their return. At the perold** of Aunt Kitty's early visits, there was no danger of being lost in Chicago. The town was too small for that. Her annual visits there were for the purpose of laying in a supply of clothing for the severe western weather. Chicago was a very unattractive place in those times, the business district toward the court house being in the swamp, and the Michigan avenue lake front, over towards the present Illinois Central depot a line of sand knolls. She re…." **Editorial note - The spelling used is from the original newspaper article.

RIDGEWAY, ROY W.

THE MAXWELL TRIBUNE, Maxwell, Iowa, Thursday, August 6, 1964, page 1, column 4. "ROY W. RIDGEWAY- Roy W. Ridgeway, 70, a resident of the Collins community, died Sunday evening at the Evangelical Hospital in Marshalltown, where he had been about four of five weeks. Survivors are his wife, Hazel, a daughter, Mrs. LeAnn (Norman) Ball of Collins, three grandchildren and five sisters."