Ezra Wright McPHEETERS

MCPHEETERS, EWING, MAUDLIN, COVERDELL, ROBERTS

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 12/17/2008 at 18:49:55

The Mount Ayr Record-News, 1928

OBITUARY - E. W. McPHEETERS.

Ezra Wright McPHEETERS was born in Morgan county, Illinois, on the 1st day of August, 1854. His parents were James McPHEETERS and Amanda Francis McPHEETERS, who during the year 1856, by way of the old fashioned "prairie schooner" emigrated to the then new country of Ringgold county, Iowa. When Ezra was but two years of age his father entered from the government, the land that was so long to be their home. He immediately moved upon this and built his log cabin. As the smoke from these early cabins which here and there dotted hillside and valley curled upward from the rude chimneys, it marked the home of the white man and family dedicated to the idea of better homes and better life. In this humble log cabin Ezra grew to manhood. His was a home without the aeroplane, the automobile, the telephone, the tractor or the truck. His was the life whose hands did the toil. At the age of 24 he united in marriage with Josephine EWING, the ceremony being performed at the home of the bride, by Dr. HUNT, a pioneer Free Will minister.

Immediately upon their marriage they moved into a small frame house he had erected on his father's homestead. They resided there until August 7, 1878, when they moved to Lincoln county, Kansas, an entirely new country, and again he moved in the old "prairie schooner." There Ezra homesteaded the land that for 17 years was his continuous residence. At the end of that time he returned to Ringgold county, Iowa, where he lived with and cared for his aged father and mother.

In 1915 Ezra and his wife moved to Redding. here they spent the declining years of their lives. Here his wife preceded him in death, passing away in March, 1928, On Monday evening, December 3, 1928, he died, passing away in sleep.

He leaves to mourn his loss many relatives and friends. He had two brothers, Walter, who preceded him in death, and John, of Peabody, Kan. Four sisters, Mrs. Jane MAUDLIN, of Grant City, Mo., Ida COVERDELL, of Grant City, Mo.; also Mrs. Anna ROBERTS and Minnie McPHEETERS, who preceded him in death. He leaves six brothers-in-law, John MAULDIN, William COVERDELL, John and Eugene EWING, all of Mount Ayr, and Ernist EWING, of Oklahoma.

Mr. and Mrs. Ezra McPHEETERS left 21 nieces, 23 nephews, 72 great-nephews and nieces and 17 great-great nephews and nieces.

NOTE: James A. McPHEETERS, Ezra's father, was born on September 24, 1824, and died on February 18, 1906. Amanda Francis (?) McPHEETERS, Ezra's mother, was born on March 16, 1834, and died on June 5, 1914. Josephine (EWING) McPHEETERS, wife of Ezra, was born on June 14, 1951, and died March 11, 1928. James, Amanda, Josephine, and Ezra were interred at Middle Fork Cemetery near Redding, Ringgold County, Iowa.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, 2008