Mrs. MARY A. FORDYCE 1825-1915
BECK, BRADLEY, FORDYCE, HARVEY, NEWBY, SHELDON, --AVIS, BESWICK, CLAYPOOLE, MILLER
Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 9/17/2006 at 14:26:48
November 1915
DEATHS – MARY A. FORDYCE
Big Mound. Nov. 30 – Word has been received here of the death of Mrs. Mary Ann FORDYCE, at her home near Libertyville on Sunday, November 14. She was the eldest sister of longtime Mount Hamill resident Mathew NEWBY and widow of the late Rev. Lewis FORDYCE, who died in 1912 and had been a popular traveling preacher at the Christian church here. She had not been well for some time but courageously celebrated her 90th birthday last July among friends and family.
The daughter of the late Gabriel and Rebecca (HARVEY) NEWBY, she was born July 25, 1825, near Cambridge City, Indiana, the first of nine children. Her family had long been affiliated with the Society of Friends. Her grandfather, Thomas Newby, spoke out to the North Carolina elders about the moral conflict that slave ownership had with Quaker beliefs, later elders granted permission for him and fellow Quakers to manumit their slaves in 1776.
As a teenager Mary Ann’s parents, early pioneer settlers in Indiana from North Carolina, took their family on the trail to become early settlers in Lee county, Iowa. A year after the death of her mother in 1845, she married outside the Quaker society to Lewis Fordyce on Mar 27 1846, a neighbor, farmer and traveling Christian minister. They remained in Lee county renting his brother Asa’s farm while Mary Ann assisted her father as a surrogate mother to her younger siblings.
In 1851 Lewis and Mary Ann removed to Van Buren county where they purchased a partially improved farm. Her Newby family siblings were frequent visitors and also helped at the Fordyce Inn while tending to their education. Meanwhile, Lewis served as Van Buren county Representative, at the Fourth Legislative Session in Iowa City. In 1873 they removed to Jefferson county, settling in Des Moines township, in 1882-1884 he served as state representative for that county.
Besides her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by two sons Carl and Oscar Fordyce; seven of her nine brothers and sisters, and one step-sister.
She is survived by five sons Thornton and Lewis of Libertyville; Winfield of Fairfield; Eugene of Ventura and Harry of Fernando, California; one sister, Mrs. C.H. (Nellie) Newby BRADLEY SHELDON of Ventura, California; one step-sister, Mrs. John (Addie) BECK of Muscatine, Iowa; one brother, Mathew NEWBY of Mount Hamill, one step-brother, G.A. NEWBY, Jr. of Burlington, Iowa, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The funeral services were held Tues. Nov. 16 at the home two miles west of Libertyville; Interment at the homestead in Fordyce Cemetery near Stockport.
[This was transcribed for Lee and Van Buren county Iowa genealogy purposes, the news clipping was found among other family scrapbook items gathered by Mrs. J.M. Newby, 1882-1964; publication unidentified but local to Big Mound and Mount Hamill.]
Note for Genealogists--Brothers and sisters names preceding in death: Isom Harvey, Thomas Jefferson and John Franklin NEWBY; Mrs. J.H (Lizzie) CLAYPOOLE; Mrs. Richard (Jennie) MILLER; Mrs. W.S. (Carrie) BESWICK and one step-sister Mrs. Lewis (Emma) AVIS.
65th Wedding Anniversary:
http://iagenweb.org/boards/vanburen/documents/index.cgi?review=102326Lewis Fordyce Obituary:
http://iagenweb.org/boards/vanburen/obituaries/index.cgi?review=102340
Fordyce Cemetery
Van Buren Obituaries maintained by Rich Lowe.
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