Charlotte Isabell Abel

ABEL

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 2/17/2011 at 21:07:40

Onawa Democrat
6 December 1956

Death of Sloan Women Ends 77-Year Marriage

Death of Mrs. John Abel, Age 97, Occurred On Friday At A Sioux City Hospital. Funeral Services Were Held On Monday.

Mrs. Abel and her husband would have celebrated their 78th Wedding Anniversary this coming Christmas Day if she had lived.

What is believed to be Iowa’s longest marriage and one of the longest in the nation has come to an end with the death on last Friday, November 30, 1956 of Mrs. John Abel of Sloan, Iowa. She passed away at a Sioux City Hospital.

She and her husband would have observed their 78th Wedding Anniversary this coming Christmas Day. She was 97 years of age and Mr. Abel, who survives is 98 years old.

Mrs. Abel was a comparatively good health when she observed her 97th milestone last June 5. Since then, however, she has been beset with arthritis. She entered the hospital on Tuesday of last week.

Funeral services were held on Monday, December 3rd at the Christian Church in Sloan. Rev. John Coatsworth was the officiating minister. Burial was made in the Willow Township Cemetery.

The Ables were the subject of a number of feature stories beginning with their 75th Wedding Anniversary which they observed on December 25, 1953, They observed their last anniversary at the home of their daughter, Mrs. Grayce Hall of Whiting.

The Abel’s had 11 children, five of whom are living. Two sons died during World War I, two died in infancy and one was still born. The surviving children in addition to Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Dean Worley of Sioux City, Mrs. Peter Rysdam, Mrs. Clyde Patterson, Mrs. Fred Ashworth and Charles Abel, all of Sloan. There are 26 grandchildren, 50 great grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.

(Charlotte Isabell Wittman)