Search billions of records on Ancestry.com

HOME

Back to Obituaries  Index

 

(updated: August 5, 2011)

 

LINN COUNTY, MISSOURI  OBITUARIES

 

(Submitted by Tracie Broaddus)

 

 

BARBARA AMBS

 

Died near St. Catherine, Monday, April 1, 1895, Barbara, daughter of Daniel Ambs, aged 6 years and 18 days.  The funeral occurred from the Catholic church in this city Wednesday, conducted by Rev. Father Tormey.

_________________________________

 

ISABELLA BAKER

 

Died fifteen miles north of Brookfield on Monday, April 1, 1895, Isabella Baker, aged 57.

_________________________________

 

EMMA BARTSCH

 

Died of consumption at her home on Market Street, South Side, Thursday morning, Mrs. Emma Bartsch, aged 34 years and 20 days.  Mrs. Bartsch has been a continual sufferer for over a year, being confined to bed for eleven months past.  She was a good mother and a loving wife, and had lived in this county nearly thirty years.  The funeral was from the house yesterday afternoon at 2 o’clock and was conducted by Rev. E. B. Shaw of the Baptist church, of which she was a member.  She leaves to mourn her a husband and three children, a father and four brothers.

__________________________________

 

ORPHA BIGGER

 

Died at Laclede, Wednesday, February 18, 1896, Miss Orpha Bigger, aged 22 years.  The funeral occurred Thursday from the Baptist church in this city, conducted by Rev. Denton.  The deceased was a daughter of the late Isaac Bigger of this city and an estimable young lady.

__________________________________

 

MATTIE BLACKBURN

 

Died, at her home near Triplett on February 2, Mrs. Mattie Blackburn, aged 33 years.  Mrs. Blackburn was formerly Miss Mattie Wise of this city, where for many years she made her home with her sister, Mrs. G. G. Carey.  She leaves a husband, children and four sisters to mourn the loss of a kind wife, a loving mother and a faithful sister.

 

“A precious one from us has gone,

A voice we loved is stilled;

A place is vacant in our hearts

Which never can be filled.

 

 

NETTIE BROTT

 

Sad News.  The following telegram received by Judge Ford yesterday, is sad news to many a heart in Brookfield:

 

                                                            Pomona, California, Jan. 24

                                                            John Ford, Brookfield, Mo.

 

                                                            Nettie died at 9:45 this morning.

 

                                                                        Walter Brott

 

Alas, that is so.  One by one our friends pass from earth.  Nettie Brott, formerly Nettie Scott, is dead.  After fighting that dread disease, consumption, for all these years, one so young, so bright, must die.  How sad.  This death calls to mind the younger days of one who in many ways was a remarkable girl.  Well do we remember her noble traits of character, her acts of kindness and of love towards her sisters and her friends.  A mind of genius, but a body too weak to support it; a heart of pure unselfish devotion to husband, family and friends.  But her tired and emaciated body has laid down to rest, while that brilliant soul has taken wings to a better, fairer world, where aches and pains and suffering never come; gone to join father, sister and brother who have gone before.

___________________________________

 

ANNA LOIS GRESS

 

Anna Lois Gress, 80, of Silverdale, Washington, died Saturday, April 22, 1978 at Harrison Memorial Hospital in Bremerton.  Cremation is under the direction of Lewis Funeral Chapel with interment in Brookfield, Missouri.

 

Born November 1, 1897 in Brookfield, she lived there until moving  to Silverdale 2-½ years ago.  During WWI, she worked as a telegraph operator with the U.S. Army.  Her husband, Malcolm Gress, died in 1976.

 

She is survived by a son, James McClelland Gress of Lee Summit, Missouri; two daughters, Virginia (Mrs. Bernard) Underwood of California, and Dorothy (Mrs. John) Broaddus of Silverdale; 13 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

___________________________________

 

MALCOLM ANDERSON GRESS

 

Memorial services for Malcolm A. Gress, 80, of Silverdale, will be tomorrow at Lewis Funeral Chapel.  He died September 13, 1976 at the Veteran’s Hospital in Seattle.

 

He was born in Brookfield, Missouri on October 19, 1895 and was a veteran of WWI, serving with the U.S. Army.  He also worked as a heavy duty machinist for Burlington Railroad and later owned and operated his own vacuum sales and repair company.

 

Gress was a 50-year member of the American Legion, a former scoutmaster, and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 2283 in Missouri.

 

Surviving are his wife, Anna of the family home; a son, James Gress of Lee Summit, Missouri; two daughters, Virginia Underwood of Fremont, California and Dorothy Broaddus of Silverdale; a brother, Arthur Gress of Tulsa, Oklahoma; 12 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

 

Interment will be at Rose Hill Cemetery in Brookfield, Missouri.

__________________________________

 

MARY E. HARRISON

 

LAST SAD RITES.   The last sad rites of all that was mortal of Mrs. Mary Harrison was tenderly laid to rest in Rose Hill Cemetery yesterday, following the services from the home of the grandson, Frank Gress, on West Park Avenue.  Reverend E.L. Robison paid tribute to the departed one.

 

Mary Foltz was born in Ashland, Ohio on March 3, 1837 and died in Dustin, Oklahoma, March 29, 1919, having made her home the past eight years with a son in that place.

 

She was married to Dr. Robert G. Harrison, who died some years ago, and of the union four children were born, one surviving, the son in Oklahoma.

___________________________________

 

CLARA E. HOLMAN

 

Mrs. Clara E. Holman of Brookfield, Missouri, departed this life May 26, 1897, in the 31st year of her age.  A member of the Baptist church for fifteen years, she willingly laid aside the honors and glories of this transient life to walk with her Savior in humility and meekness.  Her home was a little kingdom in itself where she reigned queen.  As a mother, she was a model.  She lived in the hearts of her children.  Home was always a warm spot while mother was there; she was the sun and the center.  We weep, as Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, tears of human sympathy, but that same Jesus has passed through the grave, and on the resurrection side of the grave welcomes her into the joys of heaven.  The tired hands, always busy for her loved ones, are now still on a peaceful breast, her work on earth is done.  Like a full-blown rose cut in its beauty, a useful life is closed.  It is the way of all the earth and there is only one more question involved -- are we ready?  May the children of Sister Holman be as well-prepared as she was to enter the glory land with all its brightness, peace and joy.

 

Her funeral was preached by the writer from the text, “Her sun is gone down while it was yet day,” (Jeremiah 15:9) in the Baptist church at 2:30 p.m., May 27, 1897.  From the church, the Sisters of Leah Rebekah Lodge took possession of the remains so far as ceremonies were concerned, and very lovingly bid their beloved sister farewell.  W.N. Denton.

__________________________________

 

Card of Thanks

 

We wish to thank our many friends and neighbors who were so kind to us during the sickness and death of our little daughter.  We pray that God may bless them for their kindness, and that in their hour of sorrow He may comfort them with that “Peace that may passeth all understanding.” 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Carey

___________________________________

 

JOHN E. CURTIS

 

Died Sunday, February 11, 1895 at the home of his father, David Curtis, one mile and a half east of this city, John E. Curtis, oldest son of David and Martha Curtis, aged 39.  He leaves a wife and four children to mourn the loss of husband and father.  The families extend grateful thanks to aiding friends and neighbors.

 

Card of Thanks

 

Mr. David Curtis and children desire us to extend their sincere thanks through the BUDGET to their many kind friends and neighbors for assistance and true sympathy in their recent sad bereavement.

 

 

 

FLORA GORDON

 

At the home of her parents in the eastern portion of the city, Miss Flora Gordon, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. H Gordon, peacefully passed away from that dread disease of consumption, after an illness of almost eighteen months, at 7:30 o’clock Monday morning.  Miss Gordon was in the 17th year of her age, was a member of the Baptist church, and enjoyed the friendship and confidence of all who knew her.  She possessed an admirable disposition, was unpretentious, and when death claimed her she left behind no one who was not a friend.  The funeral services were held at the Baptist church Tuesday afternoon at 3 o’clock, the Rev. E.B. Shaw officiating.  The lamented parents have the sympathy of many friends in Brookfield.

_____________________________

 

CLARA GOWDY

 

Died at her residence in this city Wednesday, February 7, Mrs. Clara Gowdy, wife of H. H. Gowdy, aged 61 years.  The funeral services took place from the residence Friday, February 9, conducted by Rev. L. C. Sappenfield of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Mr. Gowdy has the sympathy of many friends in his bereavement.

_______________________________

 

HENRY H. GOWDY

 

Died in this city, Tuesday, March 13, 1900, Henry H. Gowdy, aged 71 years.  The funeral took place Thursday, conducted by Rev. Paul Linn.

________________________________

 

MAGGIE JACOBS

 

Died April 2, 1895 at her home in the southern part of our city, Mrs. Maggie Jacobs, aged 40 years.  The funeral took place at the U.B. church at 10 o’clock Wednesday, conducted by Rev. J.W. Penn.

________________________________

 

HORACE KARNS

 

Died in this city Saturday, March 31, 1895, Horace, son of George Karns and wife, aged six months.  The funeral occurred from the house Sunday afternoon, Rev. Frisby of the Baptist church officiating.

_________________________________

 

CORA LONG KELLOGG

 

Died, at the home of her parents near Mendon, Missouri on Wednesday morning, August 23, 1893, Cora Long Kellogg, beloved wife of Mr. Earl Kellogg of Sumner.

 

Where vast herds feed in the valley, where land and wealth and splendor is on every hand, there is a weeping and sorrow and woe, for death has come and taken away the daughter, wife and mother.  Cora is dead, and husband, father, mother and brother mourn; mourn for her who was their pet from childhood, whose life furnished the sunshine for their lives.  Life and death.  How sad for one so young to die.  But God knows best, dear friends, and for that life He has taken from thy home, he has left another tender one, an innocent new-born babe.  Surely, death under these circumstances is in a measure softened, although it has come in terror clad to tear a trembling soul from all it loved.  Weep not for her, thy early lost; she’s gone on high to sing with angels, as she sang on earth with those she loved.

_______________________________

 

B. C. LOTTRIDGE

 

B.C. Lottridge, whose sudden death from catarrhal influenza occurred last Saturday morning, November 4, was an old citizen of Brookfield and of Linn county, widely known and respected and universally liked.  He was born in Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer county, New York on March 4, 1833.  He came to this state in 1850 and has resided in Linn county for the greater portion of the time since that date.  He has resided in Brookfield since 1873.  He was married to Mrs. Sarah Harrison Long on February 24, 1864, who with two sons, Joel and Edgar, survive him.  At the break out of the Civil War, he enlisted in the 18th regiment Missouri volunteers, was detailed as a musician in Company A, and served until mustered out by general order from the war department.  The funeral services, which were conducted by Rev. W. T. Whiteside, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, took place at the residence on Sunday, November 5, at 2:30 o’clock and were very largely attended by our own citizens and those of neighboring towns.  The procession of carriages was one of the largest we remember to have seen in Brookfield.

_______________________________

 

NICHOLAS NORTHUP

 

A Good Man Killed.  Nicholas Northup, an old and prominent farmer living just east of this city, was instantly killed in the eastern portion of the city last Saturday by a runaway team.  Mr. Northup was walking into town, and being defective in his hearing, a runaway team came up quickly behind him, the tongue of the wagon striking him in the head, killing him almost instantly.  He was dead by the time friends could arrive to where he lay.  He was buried here Tuesday morning and the funeral was largely attended.  He was about 70 years old and had quite a family of sons and daughters.  This is a sad ending of a good life.

________________________________

 

ELIZABETH M. PARKER

 

The Sad Death of a Brookfield Christian Woman, Mrs. Parker.  On Thursday afternoon at 4 o’clock, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Parker, wife of our fellow townsman, A. G. Parker, after an illness of only a week, breathed her last and her spirit took its flight.  The deceased was 62 years of age.  The funeral will occur from the home at 2:30 this afternoon, conducted by the Rev. Shaw of the Baptist church.  She came to Brookfield with her husband from Watertown, New York some twenty years ago.  Three sons, George, Theodore and Guy, are left to mourn the loss of a good wife and mother, a Christian woman, an active member of the Baptist church and a woman of extraordinary intelligence, being of a literary turn of mind.  She was a member of Eastern Star Lodge and of the Women’s Relief Corps of this city, and all who knew her were her friends.  But this good woman has gone to that life beyond.  She has laid down these earthly cares for an eternal rest.  The husband has lost the one who has walked by his side through the success and adversities of this life, and those sons  have lost their best friend on earth -- their mother.  Sacred be the name of wife and mother, the angels of this earth.  Yes, this good woman is dead, but her memory and good deeds will live on in the hearts of those she loved.

_________________________________

 

ELIZABETH SCHENCK

 

Death of a Good Woman.  Died, in this city on Thursday, January 10, 1895, Mrs. Elizabeth Schenck, wife of Mr. S. Schenck, in the 76th year of her age.  The funeral will occur tomorrow, Sunday, at 1 o’clock p.m. from the residence.  The deceased has lived in Brookfield for several years.  She was a Christian woman, a good mother and kind neighbor.  She will be missed and mourned by a large circle of friends.

_________________________________

 

 

MARY MILDRED SPARKS

 

Little Mary Mildred Sparks of Marshall, Missouri, 2-½ years old, who with her mother, Mrs. W. B. Sparks, had been at the home of the latter’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Hightower, for several months, was suddenly taken ill with enteritis a few days ago and passed away yesterday, July 16, 1917. 

 

The parents have the sympathy of their new-made friends here in the loss of their only child.  The body was prepared for burial by M. Y. Rusk and was taken overland this afternoon to Marshall where interment will be made.

_______________________________________

 

OSCAR J. STANARD

 

Ripe in years of a well-spent life, Oscar J. Stanard passed peacefully from earth at the home of his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. R. Henry Dryden, about five miles north of Linneus, at 4 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, July 10, 1917, that being his 87th birthday.

_______________________________________

 

SUICIDES

 

SHOCKING SENSATION!

 

Suicide of Mrs. Jay Davis, by Using the Deadly Pistol.

 

The citizens of the northern portion of the city were thrown into quite a state of excitement on Tuesday forenoon, about 11 o’clock, by the intelligence, which spread like wildfire, that Mrs. Alice Davis, wife of Mr. Jay Davis, had shot and killed herself in her own home.  The sad particulars as near as we can glean them are as follows:

 

Mr. Davis was about to leave home to return to his territory (Nebraska) as traveling salesman for a hard-ware house, very much against his wife’s wish, who opposed his traveling on the road and had (as it has since been learned) told some of her friends that she should kill herself if he did not give it up.  About 10 o’clock, at his request, Mrs. Davis had warm water prepared for him to take a bath and change under-clothing preparatory to his journey, and immediately after he had gone into the east room to bathe, she passed from the sitting room in which were the house girl and one of the children, to the bedroom adjoining and shut the door.

 

Soon after, Mr. Davis heard a sharp sound as of a smart blow on the weather boarding and a moment later another.  Stepping, in his shirt sleeves, to the sitting room, he inquired of the servant girl for his wife.  Learning that she was in the bedroom, he hastened to the door to find it locked.  Just then, he distinctly heard a third shot within the room, and divining the cause, tried in vain to burst in the door.  He then ran out and around to the window, and with some difficulty hoisted it sufficient to push the drawn curtain aside to make the horrible discovery that his wife was lying motionless across the bed with his own four-shooting Remington pistol in her hand.

 

The alarm had already been given and neighbors flocked to the scene, and when the door was opened, by his climbing through the window and unfastening it from the inside, the scene that met the gaze of the horror-stricken women was truly heart-rendering.  The form before them entirely inanimate and three ghastly wounds were found from bullets fired into the mouth, one of which passed out at the neck severing the jugular vein.  Another passed out near the top of the head and the third at the back of the head.  Blood was spattered upon the wall back of her head, a pool formed beneath her neck, and in the ceiling above appears the mark of a shot passing nearly directly upward.  The pistol was tightly clutched in her fingers, and both hands were powder-burned.  It would seem that in her desperate and dying struggle that the pistol, a self-cocking weapon, must have been fired three and possibly four times, empty shells being found in each of the four barrels.

 

The terror and confusion of the family and neighbors may well be imagined.  Dr. Haley, who lives next door west, was soon on the ground, as were other medical men.  Later the coroner, after viewing the corpse and the premises and getting the facts of the case, decided that no inquest was needed.  On commencing to prepare the body for burial, a note was found pinned within the bosom of her dress, which read as follows:

 

            Brookfield, Mo., November 8, 1886,

 

            My Dear Boys,

 

            I will say to you, be good boys and always live and remember your mother’s advice.

            Always live honest and upright in all things.  Forgive me for this act, for I am tired

            Of life.  I have lost all that is dear to me, and that was your Pa’s love.  Be good to

            Him and always love him as I have done.

 

            From your loving mother,

 

            Mrs. Alice Davis

 

The remains of the unfortunate victim of self-destructive mania were yesterday laid to rest, a touching funeral service being held at the house by Rev. Mr. Canady of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which denomination the deceased had formerly been a member.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Davis had lived in Brookfield about two years, and theirs was an intelligent and highly respected family.  They have both been in rather poor health of late years, having come up from Texas on that account, spending one year at Bucklin.  Mr. Davis engaged in teaching and other employ until the past few months he has traveled, much against his wife’s wish.  She was somewhat an invalid, and doubtless what friends thought a mere freak in her concerning his absence, became a settled purpose.  Mr. and Mrs. Davis were married in Carthage, Illinois not quite 17 years ago.  The maiden name of the deceased was Sarah Alice White.  The family left to mourn this sad event are the husband  and four boys, one in his 14th year, one 11, one 5 and one 15 months old.

 

MONT DEGRAW COMMITS SUICIDE

 

Last Saturday forenoon, about 10 o’clock, the startling and sad news was noised abroad that Mont DeGraw, only son of Major DeGraw, had suicided at his father’s home.  Upon investigation the report was found to be but too true.  The deceased had taken a shot gun to his room, and putting the muzzle to his breast, had touched the trigger with a stick, his death being instantaneous.

 

In his boyhood the deceased was a bright, intelligent and promising youth, the pride of an intelligent father and mother and affectionate sisters.  It was at this period in his life that he was stricken with a malignant type of spinal meningitis, which for a time baffled the best medical talent of the city.  His cure was effected, but the disease left its mark upon both mind and body, and he became a cripple for life and his once bright intellect was forever dimmed.

 

Mont DeGraw was 28 years of age, was a native of this county, and has spent a greater part of his life in Brookfield.  The funeral services were held at the residence Monday at 10 a.m., and all that was mortal of poor Mont DeGraw was followed to the cemetery by a large concourse of friends.

 

T.O. TERHUNE TAKES HIS LIFE

 

T.O. Terhune, a master mechanic who had been out of employment for a year, shot himself at his home at 410 Park Avenue shortly after midnight and died early in the afternoon.  He was 58 years old and lived with his wife and family.  He had been unable to secure employment for a year and was despondent.