Individual Details
Mary Pratt
(20 Sep 1810 - 23 Apr 1885)
Fort Madison Daily Democrat, Fort Madison, Iowa, Wednesday, May 20, 1885, Page 5, Col. 4: Obituary. On the 23d of April, Mary Kirkpatrick, another veteran of the cross, has fallen after 75 years of faithful life, and passed beyond the vale to behold the glory of her Redeemer.
She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the year 1810. Moved to Illinois in the year 1818. Was married to W. P. Kirkpatrick in the year 1830. The young couple immigrated to Iowa in the year 1834. That was before it became a territory and commenced a frontier life. She was converted in her youth and joined the M. E. church, but after they settled in Henry county she and her husband united with the Methodist Protestant church, of which she was a faithful member. She was the mother of ten children, three boys and seven girls. The funeral services were conducted by the writer, at Bethany Chapel, after which a large procession of friends followed to the silent graveyard where she was laid to await the resurrection morn.
The funeral was over and the company turned away from "God's acre" with wet eyes where a worm and weary body had been laid to rest after an earthly pilgrimage of 75 years.
And who do you think was this woman, the spirit of whose life was a sermon? Was she one of high abilities and broad opportunities whose years had been passed amid sweet and gracious influences? Nor at all. Her talents were only ordinary and her advantages the scanty ones that early pioneer life affords. Her opportunities only those that come to one confined her whole life in narrow ways, with many privations and hardships. A farmer's wife in moderate circumstances, the mother of a large family, her hands were knotted, her form bent with toil, her pale face lined with the wrinkles that many cares and sorrows carve. Little time was hers for the nice requirements of life, or what the world calls its culture. Busy in her secluded home, it is doubtful if she heard of heeded the demands for higher education or broader fields for women, or even so much as aspired to enter in and possess the wide realms of literature and art. A common woman, but whose life was a sermon. And it a sermon why? Because it had been a life, filled, permeated with the love of God, and hence with love to man. The trio of Christian graces, Faith, Hope and Charity, had been indeed hers. Charity in its wide, apostolic sense that suffereth long and is kind, seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, hopeth all thing and endureth all things. Such a life was true and beautiful. But the evidence of such a life never cheered this world by chance. A sunny patience, a bright hearted, self-forgetfulness, a sweet and winning interest in the little things of family intercourse, the divine lustre of a Christian peace, are not portentious weeds carelessly growing fortuitious out of the life garden. It is the internal that makes the external. It is the force residing in the atoms which shape he mountain. It is the beautiful soul which forms the chrysalis of a beautiful life without. In conclusion, I pray the blessing of Almighty God upon her bereft and afflicted husband. May all the children and grandchildren notice the Christian grace their parents possessed and try and emulate them. And at last make an unbroken family in heaven. Frank Britton, Lowell, Henry Co., Iowa.
She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the year 1810. Moved to Illinois in the year 1818. Was married to W. P. Kirkpatrick in the year 1830. The young couple immigrated to Iowa in the year 1834. That was before it became a territory and commenced a frontier life. She was converted in her youth and joined the M. E. church, but after they settled in Henry county she and her husband united with the Methodist Protestant church, of which she was a faithful member. She was the mother of ten children, three boys and seven girls. The funeral services were conducted by the writer, at Bethany Chapel, after which a large procession of friends followed to the silent graveyard where she was laid to await the resurrection morn.
The funeral was over and the company turned away from "God's acre" with wet eyes where a worm and weary body had been laid to rest after an earthly pilgrimage of 75 years.
And who do you think was this woman, the spirit of whose life was a sermon? Was she one of high abilities and broad opportunities whose years had been passed amid sweet and gracious influences? Nor at all. Her talents were only ordinary and her advantages the scanty ones that early pioneer life affords. Her opportunities only those that come to one confined her whole life in narrow ways, with many privations and hardships. A farmer's wife in moderate circumstances, the mother of a large family, her hands were knotted, her form bent with toil, her pale face lined with the wrinkles that many cares and sorrows carve. Little time was hers for the nice requirements of life, or what the world calls its culture. Busy in her secluded home, it is doubtful if she heard of heeded the demands for higher education or broader fields for women, or even so much as aspired to enter in and possess the wide realms of literature and art. A common woman, but whose life was a sermon. And it a sermon why? Because it had been a life, filled, permeated with the love of God, and hence with love to man. The trio of Christian graces, Faith, Hope and Charity, had been indeed hers. Charity in its wide, apostolic sense that suffereth long and is kind, seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, hopeth all thing and endureth all things. Such a life was true and beautiful. But the evidence of such a life never cheered this world by chance. A sunny patience, a bright hearted, self-forgetfulness, a sweet and winning interest in the little things of family intercourse, the divine lustre of a Christian peace, are not portentious weeds carelessly growing fortuitious out of the life garden. It is the internal that makes the external. It is the force residing in the atoms which shape he mountain. It is the beautiful soul which forms the chrysalis of a beautiful life without. In conclusion, I pray the blessing of Almighty God upon her bereft and afflicted husband. May all the children and grandchildren notice the Christian grace their parents possessed and try and emulate them. And at last make an unbroken family in heaven. Frank Britton, Lowell, Henry Co., Iowa.
Events
| Birth | 20 Sep 1810 | Cincinnati, Hamilton Co., Ohio |  | ||
| Marriage | 13 Jan 1830 | Morgan Co., Illinois - William P. Kirkpatrick | | ||
| Death | 23 Apr 1885 | Henry Co., Iowa | | ||
| Burial | Bethany-Hussey Cemetery, Lowell, Henry Co., Iowa | |
Families
| Spouse | William P. Kirkpatrick (1806 - 1885) |
| Child | Susan Jane Kirkpatrick (1831 - 1897) |
| Child | Charles Thomas Kirkpatrick (1833 - 1902) |
| Child | Matilda Maria Kirkpatrick (1835 - 1914) |
| Child | Mary Lucinda Kirkpatrick (1837 - 1902) |
| Child | Martha Louise Kirkpatrick (1839 - 1920) |
| Child | Margaret Caroline Kirkpatrick (1842 - 1903) |
| Child | Elizabeth Emily "Emma" Kirkpatrick (1843 - 1911) |
| Child | Sarah Catherine Kirkpatrick (1846 - 1905) |
| Child | William Rogers Kirkpatrick (1849 - 1927) |
| Child | Joseph Asbury Kirkpatrick (1855 - 1934) |
Endnotes
1. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995, Page 43.
2. Illinois Marriages On-line, Vol. A, Page 11.
3. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995, Page 43.
4. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995, Page 43.