The Carthage Republican
Carthage, Illinois
Wednesday
September 20, 1944
Page 3
Column 5Mrs. Laura Roasa Dies at Ottumwa
Laura M. Thurber, daughter of William and Kesiah Langley Thurber, was born December 21, 1865. She departed this life at an Ottumwa hospital, September 15, 1944, at the age of 78 years, 8 months, 25 days. She was the last of seven children in her father's family.
She married Albert Roasa at Carthage, Illinois, on December 4, 1888. To this union were born six children: Gladys J., Carl A., Hollis G., Hubert L., Minor C., and Floyd H. She moved to Missouri about fifty years ago and has resided in and near Granger for the last forty years.
She joined the Baptist church when a child and lived a Christian life.
She is survived by these children: Mrs. Craten Barr, of near Kahoka; Hollis Roasa, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Lt. Hubert Roasa, stationed at Salina, Kansas; Minor Roasa, of Granger, Missouri; and Sgt. Floyd Roasa, stationed somewhere in England. One son, Carl Roasa, died in France in January, 1919, at the age of 22 years. There are nine grandchildren: Rosemary Barr, Glenn Barr, Betty Barr, Joan Barr, Marilyn Roasa, Dickie Roasa, Willa Roasa, Luther Roasa, and Janis Roasa.
The Daily Gate City
Keokuk, Iowa
Friday
September 22, 1944
Page 10
Column 1Rites in Granger For Mrs. Laura Roasa
GRANGER, Mo., Sept. 22 -- Funeral services were held here Monday afternoon in the Presbyterian church for Mrs. Laura R. Roasa, whose death occurred Friday evening in an Ottumwa hospital. She was 79 years old. Mrs. Roasa was born December 21, 1865, in Hancock county, Ill. She had been a resident of Memphis about 50 years.
Surviving are here children: Minor Roasa, of Granger; Lt. Floyd Roasa, in England; Lt. Herbert Roasa, Salina, Kans.; Hollis Roasa, of Cedar Rapids and Mrs. Creighton Barr, of Kahoka.
Music for the service was furnished by a mixed quartet composed of Clark Kennett, Maxine Sample, Merle Sample and Lester Davis. Mrs. E. J. Weyand was accompanist. Pallbearers were William Smith, L. J. Jones, Charles Carter, Maurice Snyder, Albert Jones and Gordon Evans. Burial was in Granger cemetery. A son, Carl, died in France during World War I, at the age of 22 years.
Children:
Gladys J. Roasa . . Carl A. Roasa . . Hollis G. Roasa 09-Jun-1902 ? Oct-1975 ? Hubert L. Roasa 05-Nov-1905 ? May-1980 ? Minor Clinton Roasa 24-Aug-1907 ? . Floyd H. Roasa 24-Jan-1910 01-Dec-1965 Sisters: Harriet Thurber, Paulina A. Thurber, Anna L. Thurber, Tabitha1 Thurber, Eleanor1 Thurber
Brothers: John W. Thurber, William Thomas Thurber Jr., Adolphus E. Thurber
1 Tabitha and Eleanor are probably the same person (based on census data).
The Carthage Republican
Carthage, Illinois
Wednesday
December 9, 1942
Page 10HISTORY OF OLD CARTHAGE TWP. BRICK CHURCH
Former Resident of County Tells of Edifice
By Mrs. Albert Roasa
Dear Miss Davidson:
As I promised you, I will try and write what I remember in regard to the old brick church. First, I will tell you how my grandparents and parents were so closely connected with the church and community. Grandfather Joseph Langley and family came to that neighborhood from McDonough county in 1835 and settled on a farm about a mile northeast of the place where the church was later built.
My mother, Kesiah, the oldest child, was four years old. Grandfather built a double log house and that was my mother's home till she was married at the age of twenty. Like most early settlers, their home was built near a spring. At that time there was a spring in a draw just east of the house. Both my grandfathers helped build the church. Grandfather James Thurber was living at that time on an adjoining farm, later known as the John Kiser farm.
They were all members of the Primitive Baptist denomination. The date of the building of the church was about 1840. The bricks were made there. My father's youngest brother (born April, 1836) Oliver Thurber with another small boy was left to keep the pigs away while the workers ate dinner. Like small boys will, they went to play and forgot and a drove of pigs walked over the bricks and left their tracks in the soft clay. When the building was torn down fifty years later, a number of bricks were found with the tracks still showing plainly. They were carried away as souvenirs.
Mother often told of going to school in the church before it had a floor. The benches were hewn logs with legs in them. Dr. William Booz was the teacher. The road by the church was an old Indian trail. Often the children saw Indians pass in single file, swiftly, silently.
I will tell you how I came to know the church so well before I describe it to you. After my father's death, Mother with a family of eight children came back to her old home neighborhood, bought land and built a home about one-fourth mile from the church. She also moved her membership from the Providence church where she and my father were members. I was then 1 year old. Like mother I grew up near the old church, moving away in 1888 when I married.
The church fronted the east. There were two double doors in front with steps made of hewn logs. There were two fireplaces in the west with the pulpit between. There were two rows of long white pine seats with rather high backs with a wide aisle between. The north side the women sat, the south side the men. There was a large cast box stove in the center with a drum in the pipe over it. I am not sure whether the pipe ran to the fireplace flue on the men's side or had a chimney of its own. I think the latter. The pulpit was painted white and two steps went up to it. The front was tall. There was a window just back of the pulpit in the west end. There were four windows on the north side and four on the south covered with heavy wooden shutters.
The church was built by the Primitive Baptists and always belonged to them. Once each summer the members met and cleaned the church and cemetery. Dinner was eaten in the hickory grove in front which at that time also belonged to the church. The depression now seen in front of the cemetery is the print of the old road where it cut across country before the land was fenced. It came out at the corner a short distance south of No. 3 school house (Valley Dale now).
A short distance west of the church was a clear deep place in the creek where they baptized. At that time there was a ford and foot log just above the pool. I remember the foot log well for once in trying to walk across I fell in.
Judge Dennis (Tubby) Smith of Carthage was the first to preach ????e that I can remember and Elder ????is Frazee the last I heard. They ???? meeting every third Saturday ??? Sunday at 11 o'clock. Once a ????? usually in the fall they had ????days meeting. At that time ????had several visiting elders. ????ening meetings were always ????ed at early candlelight. The ????and candles were always ???? by the members.
???? church was torn down in ????. I think it was no longer ???? safe and what material ???? use was put in a frame ????miles southwest of the ???? No doubt but what the ????ulpit are now in the re????
???? Roasa (Laura Thurber)
All questions marks at the end of the above text are due to the fact that the bottom left corner of the original article is missing.
Elder ????is Frazee is probably Lewis Edgar Frazee.
