Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1916 — Obituary of Mrs. Mary E. Thompson. [ARTICLE]

Obituary of Mrs. Mary E. Thompson.

-—-Mary Ellen Travis was the third., of thirteen children born to Frances McCune Travis, of Lee county, Virginia, and Stephen Travis, of Pennsylvania, She was born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, Nov. 19, 1830. In one of her club papers she describes her schooling in these words: “Two books were all that I ever used in school —Cobb’s spelling book and the old English Reader —and to spell out of the one and to read out of the other, was all they ever gave us to do. I read and spelled and spelled and read until I could repeat everything in them, and as there was nothing more for me to learn, they took me out of school at thirteen.” After the father’s death in 1851, the family moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, and a few years later to Prairie Bird, 111., where on June 12, 1855, she was married to Alfred Thompson, of New Lisbon, and returned there td stay until October, 1855, when they came to Rensselaer then a village of five hundred people, to make their permanent home. Throughout three score years of devotion to her husband and children, her death being the 61st anniversary of her marriage, she retained a remarkable youthfulness, which found expression in a tireless effort to make her home a haven of cheerfulness and welcome for them, as well as for her friends. She was identified with many social, charitable and religious activities, and was a leader in civic improvements. She was a charter member of the Ladies’ Literary Club, which was founded November 26, 1877, the second oldest in the state, and was the first president of the Woman s Suffrage Club founded in November, 1878. She was a member of the Church of God from its time of organization here. Her spirit was modern and progressive, her mind liberal and open, her heart generous and brave, her hands busy and always ready to work for others. She loved flowers and sunlight and trees and gardens, children and friends and home. She died at noon June 12, 1916, at the age of eighty-five (85) years, ; six (6) months and twenty-three (23»

day s. , ’ _ Her husband, Alfred Thompson, died in 1896, and her oldest child, Florence Thompson Sears died »n 1899. The survivors are a son, Delos Thompson, and a daughter, Ora Thompson Ross; six grandchildren, Thompson, Bradley and Livingston Ross; Alfred and Emily Thompson, and Lois Thompson Kirk, and a great grandchild, Kennedy Paul Ross.