Polly (Brown) Hankins (1820-1912)

BROWN, HANKINS, DONAHUGH, DUNAHUGH, BECKER

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 1/22/2023 at 12:31:29

From Nevada Evening Journal August 28, 1912 (page 1)

SUDDEN DEATH OF AGED WOMAN

MOTHER OF ROBERT HANKINS DIED AT HOME OF HER DAUGHTER.

Mrs. Polly Hankins, aged about 92 years, mother of Robert Hankins of this city, died at the home of a daughter in Marshalltown Monday afternoon. While she had been an invalid for some time, she had been in her usual health up to the time of her death and but a few days before had been taken up town in a wheeled chair that she might select herself the material from which her shroud was to be made. The end came without any warning.

Last Thursday Mrs. Hankins remarked that she was feeling so well she believed she would go down town and buy the material for her burial robe. This she did. On Monday she was still feeling well and ate dinner with her daughter, Mrs. Nancy Becker with whom she lived. In the afternoon she laid down to rest on a couch. At 4:30 Mrs. Becker noticed her mother stirring and heard a gasp or two as though it was hard for her breathe. Becoming frightened, Mrs. Becker called Dr. A. B. Conway, the family physician. Dr. Conway hurried to the Becker home, but found Mrs. Hankins dead. Heart failure, induced by senility, was ascribed as the cause of death.

Mrs. Hankins was born Brown, Jan. 12, 1820, in Kentucky, and became the wife of Abel H. Hankins in 1845 near Vermont, Ill. In the '60s Mr. and Mrs. Hankins moved to Story county, and lived near this city. Mr. Hankins died in 1889 and for the past fourteen years Mrs. Hankins had made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Becker, in Marshalltown, the most of the time. She had lived in that city since 1901. Mrs. Hankins had been a member of the Methodist church since she was 17 years old. For the past twenty-five years she had been partially paralyzed but was able to be up and about most of the time.

Three sons and two daughters survive Mrs. Hankins. They are John Hankins of Topeka, Kan., George Hankins of Holly, Colo., Robt. Hankins of Nevada, Mrs. Almeda Donahugh of Hoyt, Kan., and Mrs. Becker of Marshalltown. David H. and William, two other sons, are dead.

The funeral will be held from the Becker home Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock, Rev. S. E. Ellis officiating. Thursday morning the body will be brought to this city for burial in the family lot in the Nevada cemetery.