JOHNSTON, Louisa Elizabeth: 1847-1935

JOHNSTON, STEWART, SIGLER, DAVENPORT

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 12/9/2013 at 17:15:03

MRS. FRANCIS JOHNSTON
**Handwritten: 1935

Louisa Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of George W. and Rebecca Ann Sigler Stewart, was born near Greencastle, Putnam county, Ind., on March 17th, 1847, and departed this life at the home of her son, Craig in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Oct. 26, 1935; at the age of 88 years, 7 months and 9 days. Her son, Harold, who lives in Washington, Iowa, was at her bedside when she passed away. Besides her sons, she is survived by one sister, Mrs. Stella Davenport of Robinsdale, near Minneapolis, Minn., and one brother, Edwin R. Stewart of Arlington, Texas. Her eldest brother, William M. Stewart, died in California several years ago. Three grandchildren survive, Ruth, Rachel and Etta Mae Johnston, also other relatives and a host of neighbors and friends.

Though Iowa was not the land of her birth, it was her life long home, and she dearly loved the old town in the bend of the river, and the "house by the side of the road" where most of her life was spent. In 1847 when she was a babe in arms, her parents came from Indiana to a farm near Keosauqua where she lived until she was 3 years old, when they moved to Keosauqua where she was a teacher in the Van Buren county schools for several years.

On Nov. 29, 1871, she was married to Francis Johnston, a Civil war veteran, and to them came one daughter, Etta May, who died in infancy, and two sons, Craig Linden, who resides in Council Bluffs, and Harold E. of Washington, Iowa, and to their beloved mother these sons have given most devoted love and attention.

At the age of 13 she united with the Methodist Episcopal church, to which, like her mother before her, she has always been merely a nominally professed member, but in her younger days, an active, faithful and zealous member, giving freely of her time, her labor and her purse to its activities and its maintenances. Of late years, illness, the cares of life, and the infirmities of age have not permitted her to participate in these things she loved to do. At the time of her going she was and had been for some years the oldest member in this church in point of membership as well as years of life.

This house she leaves vacant here is the same to which her parents came in their early life, where their children lived and grew to adult age and went out to make their own place in the world. But Mrs. Johnston's years have been spent mostly in this "house by the side of the road" and her friends and neighbors will miss her sadly, when in passing they see her smiling face at the door no more, of her familiar form no more among her flowers. She seemed to have a magical touch with the seeds she planted or the roots she set, for they grew and bloomed profusely as if in gratitude for her loving care.

"Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to Man."

The above sketch of the life of Mrs. Johnston was written by a near neighbor and very dear friend.

Funeral services were held at the Keosauqua Methodist church on Tuesday afternoon, her pastor, Rev. M.E. Hayes officiating. Interment was in Purdom cemetery.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book C, Page 369, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA