Sarah Elizabeth (Smith) McCord (1833-1913)

SMITH, MCCORD, RAY, WHITE, FUNK

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11

From Nevada Representative September 23, 1913 (front page)

OBITUARY

MRS. SARAH E. McCORD

Mrs. Sarah E. McCord widow of the late C. P. McCord, long time resident of Story county and mother of numerous family, died at her home in the city about ten-forty Friday evening in the 81st year of her age. Mrs. McCord had been failing for some time, and her death was no surprise to relatives and friends it having more the character of the fitting ending of a long and useful life than of a any sudden interruption of activities.

Mrs. McCord was born Sarah E. Smith near Springfield, Illinois, April 29, 1833, and she died as stated at Nevada, Iowa, September 19, 1913, aged 80 years, 4 months and 21 days. She was the daughter of Abram and Nancy Smith, and she removed as a child with her parents to the vicinity of Burlington, Iowa, where she grew up and was married, January 12, 1851, when not yet quite eighteen years of age to C. P. McCord, who was familiarly known throughout this region as "Perry" McCord. Mr. and Mrs. McCord came as young people to Marshall county and in 1864 crossed the line into Story county, being among the pioneers in the southeast portion of this county with their post office at Iowa Center. Here they proceeded to build up a homestead, which with a growing family about them might have seemed enough of a task but when the civil war got into the second year, their mutual sense of patriotism would not long permit Mr. McCord to stay at home and so he enlisted in Company K of the 23rd Iowa while she dept the farm going and looked after a family of six small children. It was during the following winter that she was on her way to town with her eldest son Jacob when a wolf followed them and got into a fight with their dog and they gathered up the singletree and helped the dog kill the wolf. Mr. McCord returned home the next summer with his discharge, having lost a leg at Black River Bridge; but while his return undoubtedly contributed to her peace of mind, one is permitted to wonder about how soon he could have gotten into condition to help materially in the battle she was fighting for the support of the family. However he was not a man to rest very long under the shadow of any disability and he had resumed what was with him a most excellent practice of buying more land. Once they were tempted from the farm and the process of expansion, and that was when in 1869 he was elected the first auditor of Story County but it did not take them long to size up the fact that a good farm beats a county office, and in a very short time they were back at the real job.

So they lived and prospered until January, 1883, while Mr. McCord was in Nevada attending court as a witness in the Porter trial, he was stricken with paralysis on the side where was his remaining leg. Soon after this event they moved again to Nevada, then tried the farm again, but in 1884 came to Nevada to stay. Here he died October 2, 1886, and here her home has been in the nearly twenty-seven year of her widowhood her home here being shared always by her daughter, Alice and until they were married by her younger boys. Here she has lived quietly appreciated by her family and those who knew her, enjoying the fruits of industry and frugality in earlier years, and interested always in what was for the good of the country. In the years down about Iowa Center she became affiliated with the Evangelical church, and when she became settled in Nevada she transferred her membership to the Methodist church, where it thereafter continued. She is survived by eight of her nine children, twenty-seven grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, a total of fifty-four descendants. Her children are or were: Jacob W. of Colo; Mary (Mrs. John Ray, deceased); Abraham S. of Collins; Nancy (Mrs. Jas. T. White of Ames); Alice, at home; Edith (Mrs. C. A. Funk of Des Moines); Sherman G. of Nevada; Dr. Elijah S. of Delmar; Chas. P. of Nevada.

The funeral was conducted at who o'clock Sunday afternoon from the church at Iowa Center by Rev. W. E. Hardaway, pastor of the Methodist church of this city. The interment was in the Iowa Center cemetery, where her husband was buried long ago.