Mary Elizabeth Jones

   Cause of her death was heart trouble complicated with dropsy.³

   Another name for Mary was Eliza.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Cemetery: Oakwood Cemetery, 06 Oct 1908, Grand Ledge, Eaton, Michigan, USA. ^{4 5}

• Obituary: Grand Ledge Independent, 08 Oct 1908, Grand Ledge, Eaton, Michigan, USA. ⁶
MRS. ELIZA SMITH

Miss M. Eliza Jones was born at Ithaca, N. Y., Dec 17, 1826. At the age of 17 years she was bereft of her mother and, being the eldest of eight children, the difficult and heavy burden of caring for and rearing into manhood and womanhood of her father's large family fell upon her. This she did with the greatest of motherly judgement and patience, until eleven summers had made their mould upon the lives of her sacred trust, two of whom, Chas. of Portland, and Harmon, of Grand Ledge, are still living.

How well her work was done has since been seen in the lives of those entrusted to her care and painstaking.

Soon after the death of her mother the family moved to Michigan and settled on the farm later known as the Chas. Jones homestead, about two and one-half miles west of Grand Ledge. Here she had the additional experiences of pioneering and struggling with the hardships in the woods of old wild Michigan, and assisting her father in the work of Pioneer home life; and right here permit us to say that the clumsy hand of the writer is incapable of doing justice to a life so generously and well spent, but anything short of an effort would be cruelly unjust.

In 1854 she was married to Peter Smith who had previously lost his wife, leaving him with two little girls. These she tenderly cared for, besides raising a family of one girl and three boys of her own, namely: Mary, who is the wife of C. E. Whitney; also Edgar, Simeon and Elliot Smith, all of whom are comfortably located on farms in the immediate neighborhood.

The husband died in 1886; since that time she has lived on the old homestead with her son Elliot, where she died on the morning of Oct. 4, 1908 of heart trouble complicated with dropsy, at the age of nearly 88 years old.

Mrs. Smith was a pioneer in every sense of the word, and no woman ever lived in this section of Michigan who has given her life more devotedly to the good of others. Patient and unselfish in every act of life she made herself endeared to all who knew her.

At the time she and her husband located on the old farm in Delta but one neighbor, David Anderson, lived within visiting distance of them. Being gifted with a remarkable memory, she was a good entertainer; often telling her experiences of early life in the wilderness to the enjoyment of others. She was of a retiring disposition of mind, and lived to be at home with her family. She was whole souled (sic) and extremely honest and leaves as a legacy to the world a family of children grown to manhood and womanhood who partake largely of her spirit. Besides her four children, eleven grandchildren and three great grandchildren survive her; also two brothers as above, and a host of relatives and friends. Funeral services were held at the home on Tuesday, Oct. 6, by Rev. W. E. Doty, interment in Oakwood

Thus passes from earth's scenes another of those sturdy few whose names will ever be enrolled as originators of our pleasant home comforts. J. L. Cupit.

Mary married Peter Smith on 12 Jun 1853 in Grand Ledge, Eaton, Michigan, USA.¹ (Peter Smith was born in 1819 in , , New Jersey, USA,⁷ died on 17 Jan 1886 in Grand Ledge, Eaton, Michigan, USA and was buried in Grand Ledge, Eaton, Michigan, USA ⁸.)