This little story begins during 1867 in Lucas County's Otter Creek Township --- its most northwesterly --- when the dedication of a young school teacher named Elizabeth French Ratcliff caught the attention of a reporter for the Weekly Indianola Visitor identified only by the initials "G.C."
G.C. was writing a brief article about the durability of pioneers in the south of Iowa, published on June 27, 1867, and had the following to say about Elizabeth --- although he or she did not share her given name:
+++
A case in point --- Mrs. Ratcliff, residing in the northwest corner of Lucas County, Iowa, taught school last winter 2 and 1/2 miles from her residence, and walked back and forth every night and morning (except 2 or 3 days in the coldest weather).
She waded through deep snow and faced the bleak winds on the high prairie; crossed Otter Creek on a foot log during that time. Her husband is also a teacher. She wants him to get her a loom, that she may devote some of her leisure hours to weaving. She is a worthy member of that industrious and thrifty Society of people called Friends. Such a woman is worth her weight in gold.
+++
Elizabeth would have been 30 that year, I found out later after locating someone who must surely have been her in both the 1860 and 1870 census records of Otter Creek, living with husband, Josiah, and their first-born children on a farm in the township. But the family vanished after that, suggesting that they had headed west.
There's a satisfying "click" that signals pieces of a puzzle falling together in the head of a local history geek when he or she is able to make a connection that carries a story forward from beginning to end. That happened to me when I found Elizabeth's beautifully crafted obituary in The Hitchcock County (Nebraska) News of April 25, 1924, 60 years after that piece was published in Iowa.
Hitchcock County's Stratton, where Elizabeth and Josiah lived and are buried, is located astraddle U.S. 34 in the far southwest corner of Nebraska. Here's that obituary:
+++
Elizabeth French was born February 12, 1837, in Damascus, Ohio. August 31, 1854, she was married to Josiah Ratcliff. To this union 12 children were born. In the same year in which they were married they moved to Iowa. In 1871, imbued with the spirit of the pioneer, the family traveled overland to Hamilton County, Nebraska. A wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen furnished the means of conveyance.
Fourteen years later, in 1885, the new frontier line called them and they moved to Stratton. In 1889, Mrs. Ratcliff was bereaved by the death of her husband. She, however, continued her residence here in Stratton until four years ago when she went to Denver. Here she stayed three years and then took up her residence in Ogden, Utah. Mrs. Ratcliff had been favored in that until quite recently had had no serious sickness. About three months ago she began to fail. She became dangerously ill Friday, April 18, and passed peacefully away at 5 o'clock Saturday evening, April 19, in Ogden, Utah. She had reached the advanced age of 87 years, 2 months and 7 days.
Mrs. Ratcliff was born into the Society of Friends. In this religious group she developed that type of deep spiritual life characteristic of the Quakers. In Stratton, she was interested in the work of the Methodist church. She was a kindly, lovable and loving soul, as her many friends testify. She has been characterized as "having as many virtues and as few faults as one could have." Her life was spent in trying to see the better things and to serve others. She was an extensive reader and was proud of the many times she had read the scriptures. Any kindness that was shown to her brought out her real appreciation. She loved to write to her children. Only a week before she died they received letters from her. Her family will miss a devoted mother and the many that knew her will miss a kind friend.
She leaves to mourn her loss six (sic) children: Emor C. Ratcliff of Stratton, Nebraska; Mrs. Alice Cundall of Glendale, Wyoming; Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg of Littleton, Colorado; Edward Ratcliff of Sterling, Colorado; Edgar Ratcliff of Sterling, Colorado; Walter S. Ratliff of Denver, Colorado; and Mrs. Pearl Strayer of Ogden, Utah, at whose home she passed away. All of the children except Mrs. Strayer, together with some of the grandchildren, were present at the funeral.
Funeral services were held at the Stratton Methodist Church Wednesday morning at 10:30 and the interment was in the cemetery here.
+++
I was unable to find an image of Elizabeth and neither she nor Josiah seem to have marked graves. So the image here is her of her Utah death certificate.
No comments:
Post a Comment