MUSCATINE COUNTY IOWA REGISTER OF OLD SETTLERS BOOK ONE

Source: REGISTER OF OLD SETTLERS , BOOK One, page 95
submitted by Ronna Thuman, November 14, 2007

DEATH OF MRS. STEPHEN WHICHER.

News was received, yesterday, of the death of Mrs. Stephen Whicher, on Sunday morning at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Chas. Brown, of Cincinnati. Deceased was dwelling so long in the shadows of the border land, that the news of her departure has been in a degree anticipated. But there are hearts in our midst which could never prepare against these dreadful tidings, and the whole community is impressed with a sense of loss as its reflects upon the death of one whose life for the first thirty years of Muscatine’s history occupied so large a space in the social and religious progress of the city.

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Whicher came to Muscatine in 1839. The beautiful residence now occupied by Wm. Van Nostrand and Elliot Smith was the Whicher home, having indeed been contracted for Mr. Whicher in Cincinnati, and its timbers and other material brought from the city by boat all ready for erection on the Muscatine bluff. In this picturesque home, for years the finest in our city, Mr. and Mrs. Whicher dispensed a hospitality known in that earlier period, the whole length of the valley and in all the west, for the wit and cheer of its board and fireside. The host was a gentleman of the old school, bringing from New York the dignified bearing and charming bon hommie of the Knickerbockers, which graces were united to a culture and talent easily placing him in the center of the professional and political circles of the west, and his genial hearth was witness to the most interesting society and assemblies of this new country. So conspicuous was this home as a resort, that Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler were not unfrequently called upon to enterain the friendly Indian chiefs and queens among their guests. At this hospitable home Mrs. Whicher presided with a grace which ever added to its popularity, while in all the spheres of social and religious duty in this new and growing settlement she contributed the invaluable service of a noble Christian woman.

Only two children survive of the family, Mrs. Charles Brown, of Cincinnati, and S. E. Whicher, Esp., of this city. As noticed in our obituary column, the remains will be brought to Muscatine and funeral will take place from the son’s residence to-morrow morning at 9 ˝ o’clock.

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