Dies at 81

 Mrs. T.H. Jeffries, age 81 years, died at her home 200 Main street at 11:20 o’clock, Wednesday night, January 19.  She had been an invalid for fifteen years.

 Funeral services were held at 2:30 o’clock, Friday afternoon, January 21, at the home.  Internment will be made at Oakdale cemetery.  Rev. J.F. King will have charge of the services.

 Mary Jane Ricketts was born near Fosterville, Tenn., April 23, 1839.  She moved with  her parents to Bentonville, Ark., when a child, going most of the way by boat.  She was married to Dr. T.H. Jeffries at Bentonville, October 27, 1858.

 They were the parents of eight children, two of whom died in infancy.  The children surviving their parents are Mrs. J.H. Wormington, J.L. Jeffries and Miss Bertha Jeffries, of Monett;  Leroy Jeffries and Mrs. F.N. Reese, of Cassville and Mrs. L. B. Jones of Neosho.  Two brothers survive her – Harvey Ricketts, of Pea Ridge, Ark., and Nack Ricketts, of Wyoming.

 Dr. Jeffries, her husband, died August 12, 1902, and Mrs. Jeffries and Miss Bertha Jeffries had made their home together at the old home place since that time.

 Mrs. Jeffries saw many hardships in her early life.  The family went to Arkansas in the early day and lived the frugal life of the pioneers.  She was a young mother during the Civil war and as her husband was drafted into the Confederate Army and later escaped to join the Union Army, she was left alone in the wilderness to care for her little ones.  She lived near the Pea Ridge battlefield, and saw many of the horrors of that terrible battle, and helped with here own hands to bury the dead.  She was a woman of great courage and resourcefulness and bravely did the duties that came to her.

 After the war the family moved to Corsicana, Barry county, Mo., and later to Washburn.  They came to Plymouth Junction, now Monett, when the station was established and Mrs. Jeffries conducted a boarding house, while her husband practiced his profession and looked after business interests.  The older railroad men remember the excellent meals served by this industrious woman.

 She was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church for a number of years and was a good Christian woman.  She was firm in her faith and was ready and willing to go when death came.  He was a charter member of Monett Chapter Eastern Star No. 190.

 She not only reared her own family but was a mother to several other children, caring for them the same as her own.

 Through her long invalidism she never lost her remarkable courage and did not take to her bed until Christmas day, when the frail body refused longer to support her.

 All her children were with her in her last hours and the end was quiet and peaceful. – Monett Times.