Keren Leach McCrary

MCCRARY, LEACH, THATCHER, JOHNSON, DISBROW, DAVIDSON, ROBERTS, FELLOWS, DAUGHRITY, STRICKLIN, RINABARGER, SLOAN, FELLOWS, BURNS, MANNING, DAVIDSON

Posted By: H.Vargus (email)
Date: 9/28/2010 at 17:34:00

From Keosauqua Republican, Thursday 22 May 1902, page 3, column 7

KEREN MCCRARY
Death of Mrs. J.C. McCrary
Another of the earliest settlers of Van Buren County, and the last one of the charter members of the Christian Church at Keosauqua is gone. Mrs. J.C. McCrary, whose maiden name was Keren Leach, died at her home in Keosauqua, Tuesday evening, 20 May 1902, aged 81 years, 5 months, 5 days. She was born in Virginia 15 Dec 1820 and in the spring of 1829 came, with her widowed mother and family, to Van Buren county, Iowa, settled in what is now Henry township. On Aug. the 15th of the same year, she was married to J.C. McCrary who died 15 June 1892. In 1841 she became a member of the Christian Church and when the Keosauqua Chrsitian Church was formally organized by the late Eld. David Thompson in the fall of 1847 in the old brick schoolhouse in Pleasant Hill, now South Keosauqua, she was one of the first to enroll as a charter member. From the time she united with the church until her death, her life was a record of faithful membership. She was the mother of six children. Mrs. Amanda M. Thatcher, of Oklahoma; John L. who is dead; Oscar, who resided in Keosauqua; and Orrin, who is dead. People of Keosauqua and vicinity, her home having been here, or near here ever since the spring of 1839, called her Aunt Carrie. They did this naturally because of her kindness to everybody. It was an term of endearment that meant much. The ide of addressing some women as "Aunt," that the writer of this and the reader might call to mind, would produce a ridiculous smile. But you and I who knew Aunt Carrie called her that because she so conducted herself towards the world as to endear her to all her acquaintance. What better tribute can we pay to her in writing these few lines, than to record the fact? The people that you and I impulsively call "Uncles" or Aunt", who are not relatives of ours, are never bad. The funeral was held in the Christian Church at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, in the presence of a large congregation. Eld. M.C. Johnson preaching the sermon and the services. The burial was at the side of her husband in the Fellows cemetery. The pallbearers were H.H. Disbrow, G.W. Davidson, Wyatt Roberts, S.D. Fellows, J.F. Daughrity, W.J. Stricklin. The honorary pall bearers were Mesdames Wm. Rinabarger, Rober Sloan, S.D. Fellows, J.W. Burns, E. Manning, G.W. Davidson.