Sophia Ann McGlashen Elmore 1853-1918

PRICE

Posted By: Kara Seager-Segalla (email)
Date: 3/17/2005 at 12:28:29

Sophia Anna McGlashen was born April 1853 in Buffalo, New York to John McGlashen and Mary Ford from Scotland and Canada respectively. She and her family came to Keokuk, Iowa when she was just a child, where she graduated from the high school there. Her father was an engineer during the Civil War and died in Tennessee when Sophia was only 9 years old. Sophia was known by "I" and married Joseph Howard Elmore Nov. 12, 1868 and they had one daughter, Maymie Sophia Elmore (Price). She married into a very wealthy family and her husband was a musician, who played the piano. Family history states that Joseph Elmore and his parents thought that Sophia was beneath him, but all Joseph did was sit around the piano and could not make a descent living. He never knew his daughter until he went through Eldon, Iowa one day and saw a very pretty 17 year old girl. When he inquired who she was, he was told she was his daughter, but made no effort to speak to her. According to the 1880 census for Iowa, Sophia was divorced and living alone with her only daughter. She is also listed as living with her daughter, Maymie, in the 1900 census for Iowa. Sophia taught school for 22 years, twelve of them in the Eldon schools, and she was active in the Congregational Church. She died Oct. 28, 1918 of heart disease and is buried in the Eldon Cemetery Sec. D, Row 16. See her obituary. Sources: obituary, album book of Sophia's, information from her grandchildren, 1870, 1880, 1900 census records, cemetery records.