LANDES, Callie J.: 1854-1906

CUNNINGHAM, LANDES, EDWARDS

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 5/3/2013 at 15:52:03

Mrs. J.H. Landes Passed Away at Her Home Here, Aged Nearly 52.

Callie J. Cunningham, youngest child of Obadiah and Cynthia Cunningham, was born on a farm near West Grove, in Davis county, Iowa, December 9, 1854. There she learned home duties and attended public school until she was about 18 years old, when with her parents she moved to Troy, in same county, to live with their daughter, Mrs. M.F. Edwards, who had recently become a widow. There Callie attended school in Troy Academy and there she became acquainted with J.H. Landes. Their friendship ripened into love which resulted in their marriage, June 24, 1879.

The first of September in the same year they moved to Keosauqua, where the husband was at the head of the public schools, and here they entered upon the pleasant duty of building a home. This home experienced many joys and few real sorrows until something like two years ago when the dreadful shock came, conveying the sad intelligence that mother was afflicted with tuberculosis. Still there was hope, at the start of the destroyer was mild, but this hope was delusive, and as the days went by the patient body, weakened by increasing pain, became weaker and more emaciated until God brought relief by wafting her soul to heaven at 9:45 o'clock, Thursday night, August 14, 1906.

She leaves a husband and five children, the latter ranging in age from 11 to 24, and all were at her suffering bedside except the oldest son Don, who is in Arizona, and who on account of the great distance away was not sent for. She also leaves one sister, Mrs. Edwards, who through all her failing health even to the last was a ministering angel of mercy and love. This tender sisterly care was seconded only by neighbors and friends who overwhelmed the suffering mother and family with their many, many kind acts and thoughtful attention.

Funeral services, conducted by Rev. J.W. Carson, were held at the home at 4 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 16, and the body was tenderly laid away in the Purdom cemetery. At the grave the beautiful P.E.O. ritual was used. The casket was beautiful decorated with a profusion of flowers, as was also the grave, the colors being white and yellow-emblems of the P.E.O. order-and it was the loving hands and willing hearts of this sisterhood that so kindly had charge of these details, which were greatly appreciated by the family.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book C, Page 46, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA