Didama (Dickinson) Phares (1855-1932)

DICKINSON, CROSBY, PHARES, DOLPH, BENSON

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 7/26/2021 at 18:51:56

From Nevada Evening Journal March 21, 1932 (page 3)

Funeral Services for Pioneer Woman

Funeral services for Mrs. J. W. Phares were held Saturday at 2:00 p. m., at the house southwest of Colo, with Rev. C. E. Lookingbill officiating. Beautiful floral offerings covered the casket. A quartette composed of Mrs. Holmes, Miss Holmes, Mr. Huntrod, Mr. Keeney of Collins sang "He Leadeth Me," "Lead Me Kindly Light," "Rock of Ages." The pall-bearers were William Schnur, John Donnelly, William Sinnott, James Oswalt, Artie Van Pilson and Charles Yeager. Interment was in the Collins cemetery beside her husband, Mr. Phares.

Mrs. Phares is survived by her eight children and fifteen grandchildren, all but four of whom were present at the funeral. The children are Edgar Alfred Crosby, David William Phares, Mrs. Laura Josephine Dolph, Mrs. Goldie D. Benson, Benjamin Harrison Phares; Mary Louisa Phares; Harry Gerschon Phares; and Minnie Ruth Phares.

Mrs. John William Phares was born in Columbus, Ohio, October 2nd, 1855 and departed this life March 16th, 1932 aged 76 years, 5 months and 14 days. Her parents were Mary Hawes and James A. Dickinson. She, Didama, was the youngest of five children, but advanced from two years of age as if an only child--her two brothers and two sisters having died of scarlet fever in St. Louis where they resided at the time. Five years later, her father died. In early youth she affiliated with the Episcopal church in which faith she remained.

When nineteen years old, Miss Dickinson was married to Alfred Crosby and to this union was born one child, Edgar Alfred, five days after Mr. Crosby's death. For two years thereafter, Mrs. Crosby and her son Edgar lived with her mother in St. Louis, then the family returned to Columbus. In 1881, Didama married John William Phares whose family for many years previous were intimate friends and close neighbors of the Dickinsons. For about two years, Mr. and Mrs. Phares lived in Columbus where their oldest son, David, was born. Soon afterward, they moved to one of the Phares farm estates near Champaign, Ill. In 1885 Mrs. Phares came with her husband to Iowa and settled upon another of the grandfather's farms near Colo, where she has ever since resided.

Surrounded by open prairie land, Mrs. Phares started her Iowa residence in a four-room cottage built by her husband, and in that house were born six children. The continuous ambition and hope of both the mother and the father was to rear their children well--to educate them, and to secure for them better opportunities by way of developing their land and adding improvements. Amidst the laying of his plans for a new house and other buildings, Mr. Phares was taken away suddenly in February 1908. The mother and children continued to work and carry forth his plans together on this homestead, and by about 1915 nearly all the present buildings and other improvements were completed through the labor, the constant toil, the careful planning, the saving, and the guiding of the mother along with the help of her children. Her life was that of supreme sacrifice of self for others, yet, without one word of complaint. Her strong and enduring personality was tested and tried by first one deep sorrow after another, but always she met the challenge with strength, courageous thought and eventually success. Her joy and comfort seemed derived from looking ever onward and upward toward some far away goal--some ideal.

One wonders what it was that carried her through this long span of life's struggle so successfully--she actively engaging in responsibility until the end. The answer comes in these four words by which she will ever be remembered: Integrity, service, Mother-love. In the passing of Mrs. Phares, the community loses one of its finest and most esteemed citizens.