Margaret Wyant Badger & a cemetery reunion

This is the third (and final) post in a series related to senior members of Lucas County's pioneer Badger family --- The Independent Spirit of Magdalena Wyant, Ebenezer Badger's Tragic End and Bitter Legacy, and now this, consisting mostly of the text of Margaret (Wyant) Badger's very long story-telling obituary, published in The Chariton Patriot of July 30, 1896. That's Margaret at left, an image shared to Find a Grave by Betty Best, among her descendants.

The editor of The Patriot did not write this obituary himself, exactly. Instead, he opened his copy of the massive and newly-published "A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa" (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co.) and copied much of the biographical sketch of Margaret that it included, adding his own introduction and conclusion.

Margaret's appearance in this volume is something of a rarity --- few women are featured among the very long and detailed biographies of the many Lucas Countyans that the "vanity" publication includes. Most of the subjects were male --- even though several were long dead by 1896 --- commemorated by their widows and children at a time when women were expected to recede. Margaret does not seem to have been a receding sort of person.

In any case, here's the text of the obituary:

+++

Mrs. Margaret Badger, who died at her home in Lincoln township on Monday evening, July 20, 1896, was one of our very highly esteemed citizens. She was one of the grand old pioneers of Lucas county who has witnessed the wonderful transformation which has taken place here.

When she first saw Chariton it was a little hamlet of only a few log houses. She crossed the state when it was almost a virgin prairie through its entire length. The cultivated farms and comfortable homes of today were yet to be created by the labor and energy of the pioneers. The state was not crossed with bands of steel, as it is now, whereon swift trains carry you its entire length in a few hours, but slowly and wearily in their prairie schooners the early settlers came into this goodly land.

Mrs. Badger was one of the brave and noble women whom the pioneers of Lucas county will revere as long as life lasts, and one whose life and character are surely worthy of emulation by the daughters of the rising generation.

She was born two miles from the pretty town of Bedford, the county seat of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, July 18, 1818. A daughter of Jacob and Magdalena Dibert Wyant, she was the fourth of their six children, four sons and two daughters, only one of whom survives, Isaac Wyant, who came to Lucas county in 1850 but four years later removed to Clarke county, this state, where he now resides, a successful farmer.

The paternal grandfather of Margaret Badger crossed the ocean and made a home in Pennsylvania where his son, Jacob, father of the subject of this sketch was born. The maternal grandfather also left his home in the old world and settled in Pennsylvania, where he built a primitive house and engaged in farming. He died in that state.

The mother of Margaret Badger was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and was married there, her husband dying when the youngest child, Isaac, was yet a babe. Alone she took up the great work of making a living for her little ones; but soon the sons and daughters, as they grew to maturity, gave their services to the brave pioneer mother, who paid off the large debt overshadowing the home, and by hard work, good management and economy, saved money enough to provide a home for herself and family in the far west.

She bade farewell to her Pennsylvania home and associates in the fall of 1834 and went to Grant county, Indiana, in a covered wagon, in which the family lived during the construction of a log house in the dense timber belt. The timber was soon cleared around the little cabin. In that neighborhood the good christian mother lived until the spring of 1850 when she and her son, Jacob, the eldest child, started for Iowa in a carriage, the sturdy son transporting the household goods in true freighter style.

Locating in Lucas county they purchased a farm of 160 acres one mile east of Chariton. Mrs. Wyant added to her original purchase until she owned 700 acres. She afterwards disposed of her property and came to live with her daughter, Margaret Badger, where she died of paralysis at the age of 84 years.

Mrs. Badger always lived on a farm and received the benefits of the common schools. She was united in marriage with Ebenezer Badger Jan. 11, 1836. The ceremony took place in the little puncheon floor cabin in Indiana, and was conducted by Squire Humble. Mr. Badger was born in Indiana, November 30, 1812. His father, Daniel Badger, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Though many years have passed since their wedding day, one looking into the face of this Christian woman, of seventy-eight years, could not realize the privations and hardships she endured in her early pioneer life.

Mr. and Mrs. Badger came to what was then Chariton township, Lucas county, and in the fall of 1850 purchased a half section of land of what was the estate of a Mr. Howard. On the place was a two room one-story house with a mud-brick chimney, two windows and clapboard doors. Those early settlers had few of the conveniences of life we enjoy today. Mills were scarce, the nearest being Eddyville on the Des Moines river where they had to go for all their flour and meal.

To Mr. and Mrs. Badger were born 11 children: Ephriam, a soldier in the late war, 34th Iowa Infantry, now residing in Chariton; John, who enlisted in Company I, Eighth Iowa Infantry, and lost his life in the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862; Mary, of Chariton; Samuel, a soldier in the 34th Iowa now residing in Cedar township; Edward T. of Warren township; F.M., living in Oregon; Martha J., wife of John D. Moore of Cedar; Isaac N., one of the well known men of Lincoln township, who lived at home and managed his mother's farm; William A. of Ottumwa; Margaret Ann deceased, wife of Lindsey Wilson; and Phoebe, wife of Noah Moore.

The husband,, Ebenezer Badger, died February, 1880, and was laid to rest in the Chariton cemetery. Now the wife and mother mourned by her children and friends, sleeps the last sleep beside her husband and venerated mother.

The Patriot writes with sadness of the passing away of the noble old pioneers whose memory should always be held in grateful remembrance and whose lives form, in large part, the most interesting events in the history of Lucas county.

+++

One of the footnotes to Margaret's departure involves the question of whether she was especially interested in sleeping her last sleep beside her departed husband, Ebenezer --- the couple seem to have been somewhat estranged at the time of his suicide 16 years earlier. He had been buried at one end of the Badger family lot; Margaret's mother, Magdalena, at the other.

Elsewhere in The Patriot of July 30, the editor published this brief item:

"The last request of Margaret Badger, recently deceased, was that she should be laid beside her mother in the Chariton cemetery. The family desired that the father and mother also should be placed side by side. In order to comply with the wishes of all, the remains of the father were exhumed and removed to that part of the lot where the grandmother, and mother, were buried."

As you walk to the Badger family lot today, you come first to the large stone of Magdalena Wyant, then to the stone shared by Margaret, whose inscription is on the north side, and Ebenezer, inscription on the south. In death at least, their children ensured a reunion.