MOLSBERRY, Jemima J. 1825-1905

MOLSBERRY

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 2/20/2022 at 16:38:53

Jemima Jane Molsberry
(November 28, 1825 – May 3, 1905)

Worth County Index, Northwood, Iowa, Thurs., May 11, 1905, p.5, col.3
MOLSBERRY
Jemima Jane Pitman was born at Fredericktown, Knox County, Ohio November 28, 1825, and died at her home in Worth County, Iowa, on the third day of May, 1905, at the age of 79 years, 5 months and five days. She was married to Joseph M. Molsberry at Buchanan, Berrien County, Mich., on February 14, 1841; and to this union there were born ten sons and one daughter; the daughter and three sons died in early infancy. The husband died August 10, 1902. Thus it will be seen that this worthy couple journeyed together along life’s highway for a much longer period of time than is usually allotted those who assume this sacred obligation. On two occasions, one being the fiftieth and the other the sixtieth anniversary of their married life, neighbors and friends, of whom they had not a few, took occasion to extend congratulations and friendly greetings to this aged couple, who themselves had for sixty years extended best wishes and kindly greetings to those who had launched forth in the various walks and avocations of life. In the spring of 1855 the subject of this sketch with her husband and seven children removed from their home in Michigan to what was then the western wilderness and located at Rock Falls, Iowa, where they spent about a year, and then removed to their government lands and what afterward became their homestead, in Union Township, Worth County, Iowa, where both lived until their demise. Under the most trying circumstances, enduring all the hardships and vicissitudes of the early pioneer, Mrs. Molsberry did faithfully and well the part of a mother in assisting to support, educate and care for a large family. All this she did cheerfully and with that hopefulness and absolute faith in the future as characteristic of the early pioneer. Her greatest earthly ambition and almost consuming desire was that her children might be free from want and penury. This accomplished, no matter how humble might be their station in the business world, it was her greatest ambition that they might so live that when they were called hence it might be truthfully said of them that the world had been made brighter and better for their having lived in it. Early in her career she united with the Second Advent church of which organization she was a member at the time of her death. She was not often afforded an opportunity to worship with the church of her choice, for lack of a local organization, but this did not deter her from offering every assistance within her ability to spread the gospel and impress its truths. During the last ten years of her life the infirmities of age prevented her attendance upon religious services but her interest in the Christian cause never lagged, and she died in the faith. Seventy-nine years of unceasing, unremitting toil; of tender watchfulness over the family, of perplexities and anxieties; a mother true with all these words imply, and the silver cord is broken, she has passed from life to eternity.