REGISTER OF
OLD SETTLERS
BOOK ONE
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MUSCATINE COUNTY IOWA REGISTER OF | |
Source: REGISTER OF OLD SETTLERS , BOOK One, page 458
submitted by Neal Carter, November 28, 2007
GONE TO HER REWARD
Dec 7, 1897 (hand written)Full of years and honors, the earthly career of MRS. J. B. HAWLEY, better known in pioneer days as “Mother Morford,” terminated yesterday just as the day king crossed the meridian. Her pilgrimage covered the long period of 87 years, and though the immediate cause of death was pronounced nervous neuralgia by the physician, it was the ebbing of vitality as her sands of life ran out.
The maiden name of deceased was Sarah Stoops, she first seeing the light of day on June 18, 1810 in Greene county, Pa. There she was united in marriage to Thomas Morford on September 16, 1828, and seven years later they left the keystone state and for three years resided in Dearborn county, Indiana, before coming to Iowa, which was then a territory. On the 7th of April, 1838, they came to Muscatine, then Bloomington, and at once located on the homestead on Cedar street extension, where she lived for 59 years, and until summoned to the spirit land. There were born to this pioneer couple eight children. Five are dead, viz: Cynthia Ann, who was the wife of M. Kirkpatrick; Eliza Jane, wife of Dr. George W. Fulliam; Clarissa, wife of H. W. Smith; Thomas J., who died in 1894, and Sarah, who died at the age of three years. The living are Remembrance Morford, whose home is in Seattle, Wash., Wm. Morford, at Griswold, Iowa, and Mary Rider, wife of W. H. Rider, of Muscatine.
Thomas Morford, the pioneer and patriarch of this family, died on the 12th of December, 1868. His widow was married April 22, 1870, to J. B. Hawley, who died in 1891. In her eighteenth year the decedent became converted and united with the Methodist church. She was one of the seven who organized the first Methodist society in Muscatine in 1839, and she kept the faith unswervingly to the end. The funeral will be held at First M. E. church, with which she was so long and honorably identified. The time will be fixed upon the arrival of the absent son.
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