FRAZEE, Sophia

FRAZEE, JACKSON, PLATT, MILLER, RICKETS, SWIERS

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 1/26/2017 at 18:47:11

Obituary.
MRS. STEPHEN FRAZEE.

Sophia Jackson was born Dec. 7, 1812. Her parents Jacob and Elizabeth Jackson, emigrated from Allegheny county, Maryland, in the spring of 1805 and settled in Perry county, Ohio. During the war of 1812 her father was a soldier in the service of his country. They made for themselves a home in the wilderness amid the toils and privations of frontier life and raised a family of four sons and seven daughters of whom Sophia was the fifth child. They were staunch Christians and members of the Methodist Episcopal church and brought up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and against the evils of the intemperance of those early days. She read the Bible through when but a child and through her long life read it every day while she was able and when confined to her bed was glad to hear others read it. It was to her the Book of Life. It never grew old. She was converted at a meeting held in her father's house when about 12 years of age and joined the Methodist church of which she was a faithful member till death. On the 15th of April 1832 she was joined in holy matrimony to Stephen J. Frazee, by Rev. Jacob Hooper. To this union were born 12 children, two of whom died in infancy, one daughter, Elvira, aged 18 in 1856, and Mrs. Geo. Platt in 1899. All her remaining children were permitted to minister to her in her last sickness but two sons, William of Lincoln, Montana, and Samuel of Bisbee, Arizona. Bacomb of Kalispell, Montana, came a few days before her death. In the fall of 1841 she with her husband and five children, three married sisters, Mrs. Dan'l Miller, Mrs. Joshua Ricketts, Mrs. Wm. Frazee and their families, her parents, an unmarried sister, afterward Mrs. Wm. Swiers, and the youngest, John Fletcher Jackson, late of Baker City, Oregon, moved to Van Buren township, Van Buren Co., Iowa, again to endure the hardships of the early settlers. Her father and mother died in the fall of 1842. April 27, 1882, her husband died in the 73d year of his age. For several years she was afflicted with rheumatism so that she had to use two canes in walking. For almost a year she had been confined more or less to her bed and the sufferings were at times intense. Her affliction ended in dropsy. All who knew spoke of her cheerfulness and patience. She was a regular attendant at the house of God when it was possible. She was a faithful witness both in public and private, in health and in sickness, unto the end, of Christ's power to save and to sustain. She died on Saturday, Nov. 7, 1903. Had she lived one month longer she would have been 91 years of age. The home she had occupied for 48 years and made cheerful with her presence is broken up and those who remember it as their home are bowed down with grief on account of her departure. Yet our hearts are bound by stronger ties to our Heavenly home. Her body was laid to rest in the Old Chequest grave yard, beside that of her husband, where her parents, her husband's father and many of her kindred are buried, there to await the resurrection morning, when all they that are in their graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book H, Page 82, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA