Mary A. Mickle was 90 when she died on Wednesday, April 18, 1923, at the farm home of her daughter, Uranah Smith, near Crawfordsville in Washington County, Iowa, having survived by 35 years the death of her husband, John.
John had died during February of 1888 when the couple was living at Osceola and had been buried in that city's Maple Hill Cemetery.
It had been Mrs. Mickle's wish to be buried next to John, so Mrs. Smith entrusted her mother's remains to Washington undertaker Louis A. Jones and he began to make the arrangements.
It was decided that Mr. Jones would use his motor hearse to transport Mary's remains from Washington to Chariton on Friday, April 20, where a brief funeral service would be held at 1 p.m. at the home of her son, Alonzo.
The Mickles had lived near Chariton for five years just after the Civil War, before moving west to Clarke County, and three of Mary's children had settled here --- in addition to Alonzo, Daniel, who had died during 1903, and Florence (Mickle) Willoughby, who died during 1906.
After the service, Mrs. Mickle's remains would be driven on to Osceola for burial.
The initial phase went well. At the crack of dawn on an overcast Friday, Mr. Jones --- at the wheel of a Studebaker sedan --- and Frank Bandy, at the wheel of the hearse bearing Mrs. Mickle, headed west from Washington, arriving in Chariton just before 1 p.m. after passing through Oskaloosa, Eddyville and Albia. The roads had been bone dry.
But by now, the skies had opened. Southern Iowa was widely noted for the depth and quality of its mud back in those days, but the journey west to Osceola on the route of what now is U.S. Highway 34, had proceeded without incident even though the road was unsurfaced. Mary was laid safely to rest beside John.
The mud hit the fan, so to speak, on the road back to Chariton when just east of Lucas Mr. Jones and Mr. Bandy encountered what Lucas Countyans still call the White Breast Hill, rising from the White Breast Creek valley to the heights above.
The rest of the story was recorded for posterity by the Davenport Democrat and Leader's Washington County correspondent and published as follows in that newspaper's edition of April 24:
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Louis Jones and Frank Bandy had rather a strenuous trip in their drive to Osceola with the remains of Mrs. Mickle. They had services at Chariton because Mrs. Mickle had lived there, and then they drove on to Osceola for burial. Everything went right on schedule then, right up to the dot, going out, but coming back the tug of war occurred.
It had rained heavily in that western county, and the mud was something fierce. Frank Bandy said he had never seen hills till he got out into that country.
They kept together, Bandy driving the hearse and Louis the Studebaker, and everything went pretty well till they got started home. About 15 miles this way from Osceola they encountered a young mountain and the Studebaker went right up over it, but the mud got to rolling and the hearse engine got hot, till Frank had to back down the hill and got into something of a gutter. It was dark as a stack of black cats.
Louie went on to Chariton, but Bandy put up at a farm house, refusing to fight darkness and mud any longer. The next morning, being Saturday, he got most of the horses around on the farms and hitched on six good ones, and they hauled his hearse out.
He made it to Albia, where he put up for the night as he had tire trouble there. Sunday morning, as soon as he could see --- he had to see the light --- he started for Oskaloosa and home. He took two hours to get to Oskaloosa and three hours from there home and he got here at 10 o'clock Sunday morning as tired as an old farm horse. Louis had put up at Albia Friday night and he got home at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday.
It was a desperately hard trip, but they got home and the hearse was used again in the afternoon, having made a hard trip, but without missing any appointments.
But they agree, both Louis Jones and Frank Bandy, that old Washington county looked good to them after they saw land nearer home again.
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Thanks to modern engineering, the White Breast Hill grade is not as steep now as it used to be (although it's still a mighty hill) and the surface is paved --- but it's interesting to remember the complications Iowa roads could present a century ago.
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