Mary Eliza (Rainey) Brookman 1856-1927

RAINEY, BROOKMAN, GRIMES, FICKES, RAHFELDT

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 9/10/2018 at 22:32:12

From Nevada Evening Journal and The Nevada Representative October 3, 1927 (page 3)

Obituary Of The Late Mrs. Brookman

Special to the Journal.
Zearing, Oct. 3--Funeral services for Mrs. W. D. Brookman, 71, who died here last week, were held Wednesday afternoon at the Christian church, with her pastor Rev. Chas. A. Burkhart in charge. Interment was in the local cemetery.

On the green banks of the smiling Wabash river in Crawford county, Illinois, still stands the crumbling remains of a once cozy log cabin, where on Sept. 3, 1856 was born Mary Eliza Rainey.

She was the oldest daughter among a family of eight children--four girls and four days, residing at this childhood home until a girl of twenty when her parents moved to a newly purchased home near Mt. Vernon, Ill., where she lived and grew to womanhood. Here she pledged her life to the service of the Lord and was baptized and became a member of the Missionary Baptist church, and remained in the church for many years. While living there, she was united in marriage to William David Brookman, on Dec. 29, 1881. To this union were born twelve children. One boy, Ernest Everett died in infancy, also Myrtle, the eldest daughter passed away on October 15, 1906. Those surviving her are Earl of Cornell, Wis., Charles of Callaway, Minn., Albert of Zearing, Iowa, John of Lawrence, Mich., Jesse of Yakima, Wash., and Herbert and Walter of Zion, Ill., Esther Grimes of Franklin, Minn., Alice Fickes of Flint, Mich., and Seba Rahfeldt of Zearing, Iowa. All the living children were present at the funeral except one.

She leaves to mourn her death, a husband, ten children, thirty grand children, and seven great grandchildren, together with a host of friends and acquaintances for whom she wore her life away.

Mrs. Brookman's recent illness which led to her death was occasional attacks of cardiac asthma with complications of high blood pressure and heart failure. Her life was one of usefulness, of service cheerfully rendered to any one in reach.