Knowlton, Deborah Tracy (Pettis) 1805 – 1899

KNOWLTON, PETTIS, PETIS, PERRY, HOUCK, JOHNSON

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/19/2024 at 21:00:45

Source: Decorah Republican Oct. 5, 1899 P 2 C 5

OBITUARY.
Mrs. Sewall Knowlton died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. A. J. Houck, in this city, on Saturday afternoon last, at the rare old age of 94 years.
Deborah Tracy Petis was born in Canterbury, Conn., Oct. 22d, 1805, and was educated in Smyrna, N. Y., where her parents moved when she was young. Her life was that of a pioneer. In 1830 she married; in 1838 moved to Illinois, and came to Iowa, locating in Bluffton in 1859, where for more than a quarter century she was "grandma Knowlton" to all who knew her. When thirteen years of age she was converted, and although her life was one of privation as it appeared to all who were more happily situated, hers was the contented disposition that rested upon her abiding faith that “the Lord will provide for His own." Her grandmother was a cousin of John Quincy Adams, and her husband a soldier in the war of 1812, and after his death in 1855 she became a pensioner of that war. She was the mother of eight children, four of whom survive her, viz:—Mrs. A. M. Perry, Wm. Knowlton, Mrs. A. J. Houck and Mrs. Julia Johnson, of Belvidere, Ill. Funeral services were held on Monday and remains buried at Bluffton beside those of a daughter and several grandchildren. Until a week before her death her bodily vigor was unusual and her mind unclouded Peace be with this mother in Israel.

Transcriber’s Note: Find a Grave shows her maiden name spelled Pettis. She is buried in the Bluffton Cemetery.

Bluffton Cemetery
 

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