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Chase County Kansas Obituaries
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Wood, Caroline Halsey Breeze
Mrs. Carrie Wood of Elmdale, wife of Stephen Wood, and one of the earliest and best known pioneers of Chase county, died at her house last Thursday afternoon at 4:00 o'clock, following a long illness.
The funeral services will be held from the family home at 2:30 o'clock tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon after which interment will be made in the Elmdale cemetery.
Mrs. Wood was in her 86th year and she and her husband had been married almost 58 years. She leaves besides her husband, three children who are W A Wood, C D Wood and Miss Carrie Wood, all of Elmdale.
Chase County Leader News, Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, Jan 9 1920.
!OBITUARY OF MRS STEPHEN WOOD
Mrs. Stephen A. Wood died at her home in Elmdale, on the afternoon of January 8, 1920 at the age of 86 years. Her life begun in Mt, Gilead, Ohio, in 1833 covered a period which has been full of change and growth the world over, and she was brought up in a time when ideas and customs were very different from what they are today. Yet she kept abreast of the times and belonged to the 20th century as a young person does. She never longed for the "good old days" but considered the present a better and happier time in which to live.
Yet with all her interest in life, she was ready and eager for the fuller life beyond. Her Christian faith was unshaken and her Christian belief colored every thought of her long and beautiful life.
Carolina Halsey Breese was the daughter of Alfred and Rachel Breese who came to Mt. Gilead, Ohio, from New Jersey, in 1830. Her brothers, Edwin Breese, of California; and' Sidney A Breese and Stephen D. Breese, also piopeers of Chase county, departed this life several years ago. Her half brother, Asa M Brevee, and her half sister, Mrs. Caleb Kirk, are living in Cottonwood Falls. Other half brothers and sisters are in Ohio.
After her childhood and school daya spent in Mt. Gilead, she taught school for two years. She was married in 1855 to Stephen Mosher Wood. A year later she moved with her husband to West Liberty, Iowa, and lived there during the strenuous days when John Brown, a frequent visitor in her home was drilling his troops for Harper'sFerry. In Iowa two sons, Wallace and Clarence, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wood. She was left with them during the war while her husband served in the Union army. She sold the Iowa farm and spent most of the war, time in Ohio. At the close of the war Stephen Wood came to Kansas with his brothersthe the late S. N. Wood and in the spring of 1866 his family joined him in Cottonwood Falls. A few months later they built their first Kansas home, a log cabin, on their, homestead southweet of Elmdale. Twp other children,
Carrie and Sidney were born here
This pioneer home was one of the sort that went into the making of the sturdy wholesome fiber of the state. Here the traveling minister or the political speaker stayed during his sojourn in this part of the country, and the hospitable door was always open to wayfarer as well as to the most notable visitors who came this way. Such a home is one of the bulwarks of civilization, and here are in others of its kind the moral and intellectual standard of Kansas was fixed. There were privations and there was lonliness in that early day, but through it all she was the charming hostess of her home, a devoted wife, a wise mother, a helpful neighbor.
'In 1898 Mr. and Mrs. Wood retired and built a home in Elmdale. A few years later came the longest illness of Mrs. Wood's life from which she never fully recovered. In 1906 her youngest son, Sidney, died making the first break in her family. Three years ago she fell and fractured a hip. As many times, before, the doctors said she could not live. But again her strong hold on life and her wonderful vitality stood her in good stead and she recovered sufficiently to he able again to walk with help and to enjoy many days in her wheeled chair.
She was always eager to be out doors in the sunshine and on bright days even in cold weather she would sit on the porch of her home. Her friendly greeting to passers by would be a thing for there to look forward to as well as she. For her life was full of greetings and her popularity with all sorts of people was seldom equaled. There was the small neighbor boy by who would rather be with "Grandma" than with any playmate of his own age. Thera were people of her own years who loved her as they usually do a younger woman, and there were the middle aged men who had her "boys" years ago and the middle aged women who had been her girls. She was always the center of attraction in her own homeand the axis of her family.
Her hearing was not good and her eyesight was failing; but up until her last illness which began in Novemberr she read, wrote letters and visited with people as she had always done. She gradually grew worse as her sickness continued until her death last week.
She leaves to miss her, more friends than many peeple know in a whole lifetime, her aged husband, her son Wallace and Clarence, her daughter Carrie, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Chase County Leader News, Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, Jan 09 1920.
by Lorna Marvin
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