Phebe Elizabeth (Wood) COOLER

WOOD, COOLER, MYERS, WILLIAMSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/10/2024 at 13:06:54

Phebe Elizabeth (Wood) Cooler
9 March 1845 ---- 25 July 1925

Mrs. C. W. Cooler passed away at her home on South Iowa avenue Saturday evening, July 25. Her death marks the passing of another one of this community's earliest settlers. This city was but a year old when she moved with her husband on a farm about four miles northeast of town. This was in 1882. In 1893, the family moved to Eagle Grove, where they have since resided.

The following deserved tribute and obituary was prepared and read at the funeral services by her pastor, Rev. W. C. Muhleman.

Obituary

Phebe Elizabeth Wood was born March 9, 1845, in Meadesville, Pa. In the following year, when Iowa became a state, she moved with her parents to this state. They came down the Ohio river to St. Louis in steamboat. From St. Louis they went up the Mississippi river as far as Dubuque, then came from there to Delaware county and settled on farm near the town of Colesberg. It was at this time that the settlers suffered hard times. They had few if any of the comforts of life and the necessities of life were scarce. For sweetening and candy, maple sugar was used. For other necessities the natural resources were drawn upon. About this time the ‘49 gold rush started for California in which the neighbors joined. Mr. Wood died during this time of unrest, which made it doubly hard to get along at all. The family became separated.

Phebe Elizabeth was taken into a Myers home where she remained till she was nine years of age, when her mother married again and the family was reunited. At 16, she went to live with her sister at Greeley, where she had an opportunity of continuing her schooling for a while.

In 1860 she had the opportunity of seeing and hearing Abraham Lincoln at Cedar Falls. In 1865 she returned to New York, where she lived at North Collins till the time of her marriage to Charles W. Cooler in 1871. They moved to Conant, Ohio where they lived till in April of 1882 when they moved to a farm three miles northeast of Eagle Grove, Iowa. Eagle Grove was only one year old then and there were no roads, but only winding trails over the prairie. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cooler, Amos C., deceased, Mrs. Ruth Williamson of Eagle Grove, and Ralph, deceased.

They left the farm in 1893 and moved to Eagle Grove. In 1895 they moved to the home on South Iowa avenue, where they have since lived. Anybody who has ever visited this beautiful place has gotten some idea of the tastes and the industry of the occupants. Aside from its being an ideal home hidden away among evergreen and deciduous trees, it has produced fruits and vegetables of many kinds.

Here Mrs. Cooler lived with her loved ones till Saturday evening July 25, 1925, when her summons came and she answered willingly having reached the age of 80 years, 4 months, and 16 days.

Mrs. Cooler is the last of a family of ten children. She leaves to mourn her going her husband, one daughter, Mrs. S. H. Williamson, and her husband, and two grandchildren besides a host of friends.

Mrs. Cooler was a devout Christian. She has been a member of the church for many years. She joined the Baptist church at Delhi, Iowa, and in 1889 she transferred her membership from there to the Methodist church in Eagle Grove, when Rev. W. A. Black was pastor here. She has always been active in church work. In fact, on the day when she was stricken she was returning from a meeting of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society. She will be greatly missed in her home, where she was always a cheerful and helpful spirit.

Funeral services were held in the Methodist church on Monday afternoon. Rev. W. G. Muhleman preached the sermon from the text found in II Cor. 5:1. Interment was made in Rose Hill cemetery.

EAGLE GROVE EAGLE ---- Eagle Grove, Iowa
Thursday, July 30, 1925

source --- Paul Wilde