Obituary of Catherine Funk RICE (1900), Washington Co., MD

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    The following interesting sketch of her life, published on the occasion of 
her death, is taken from one of the newspapers published in the vicinity of Mt. 
Morris, Illinois.
 
     Catherine Funk was born at Beaver Creek, Washington County, Md., the 24th 
day of August, 1797, and died on Wednesday, December 26, 1900, aged 103 years, 4 
months and 2 days.  Her ancestral line was noted for longevity, although none of 
her ancestors, so far as known, can match her own in that respect.  Her father, 
Samuel Funk, lived to the ripe old age of 91 years.  Her mother Susanna Houser 
Funk lived to be 75.  Her grandfather lived to be about 86 years of age, and her 
grandmother was an octogenarian when she died.  Very nearly half her own life 
was spent in the home of her childhood, and she did not come west until 1845, or 
55 years ago.  While still bearing her maiden name, Catherine Funk, she left her 
Maryland home, in company with John Bovey and family, who were moving to this 
vicinity, and started to make her home with her brother, Samuel Funk, who had 
moved west some time before, locating in Pine Creek township.  She was married 
to Jacob Rice, who was a native of the same section as herself and his first 
wife Mary Rowland, having passed away three years after they had made their home 
in the new settlement.
     The marriage of Catherine Funk to Mr. Rice was the begining of a busy 
household life of her own.  Aunt Kitty , the name by which she has been 
familiarly known throughout the region around, had no children of her own, but 
she became a devoted and thoughtful mother to the children of her husband.  They 
made their home three miles north of Mt. Morris, Ill, which continued to be 
their abode until his death in 1870, at the age of 85.  She remained on the old 
homestead 20 years longer, but for the last 10 years resided in Mt. Morris with 
her step-son, the late Hon. Isaac Rice, whose name is honored throughout this 
part of the country.
     "Aunt Kitty" often told her friends of the interesting incidents of her 
first trip west.  On leaving her native state, this trip was made by stage as 
far as Wheeling, Va. (now West Virginia), thence down the Ohio River and up The 
Mississippi and Illinois rivers as far as Peru, near Peoria; thence she traveled 
overland to Oregon, the county seat of Ogle County.  This now beautiful and 
thriving city then had only a handful of people, scarcely more than 200 souls, 
and the widely famous college town of Mt. Morris was then a hamlet numbering 
perhaps 50 persons.  Among the incidents of life here in that early time were 
the occasional rides to Chicago by ox-cart, a trip she repeatedly made; her 
errand being to conclude  the purchases for the year.  On one occasion when the 
oxen were turned out to grass in the evening, one of the two teams strayed away, 
and in the morning could not be found, far or near.  They were compelled to 
hitch one rig behind the other and make their journey drawn by a single team.  
The runaways were subsequently found to have made their way home, swimming the 
Rock River on their return.
     At the period of Aunt Kitty's early visits, there was no danger of being 
lost in Chicago.  The town was too small for that.  Her annual visits there were 
for the purpose of laying in a supply of clothing for the severe western 
winters.  Chicago was a very unattractive place in those times, the business 
district towards the court house being in the swamp, and the Michigan avenue 
lake front, over toward the present Illinois Central depot a line of sandy 
knolls.  She remembered distinctly wandering along the Lake Michigan beach, 
picking up shells and pebbles.
     The fact that the home of Mrs. Rice was in and near the college town of Mt. 
Morris for more than half a century, presiding over the home of a prominant 
member of the community, gave her the personal acquaintance of many young people 
who afterward came to fame and high station.  Her roof always sheltered a 
generous hospitality.  Among those who have sat at her table may be mentioned 
Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, Martin P. Sweet, Thomas J. Turner, E. B. Washburne, 
Shelby M. Cullom, Gen. John A. Rawlins and many others, some of whom were 
students of Rock River Seminary.  Mrs. Rice was always industrious and frugal, 
but the needy were never denied food or care. She was almost as widly known in 
portions of Maryland around her old home, as in this vicinity.
     Aunt Kitty's memory of events of her early years was remarkably clear to 
the last.  Many stirring events transpired near her home at that time.  The 
excitement caused by the war of 1812, the burning of the national capitol, the 
Bladensburg race, etc., were as fresh in her memory as though a recent 
occurance.  She could trace the family connections of all who lived in the 
vicinity of her home, many of the families being represented in the older 
settlers of the region about Mt. Morris.  She credited to her cheerfulness, her 
never-flagging industry and abstemious habits, the marked flavor extended to her 
in her long life.  For many years of her life she was fond of smoking, indulging 
moderately, but for the last fifteen years or longer she strictly refrained.  
She was not able to read her favorite book, the Bible, for a number of years 
because of the impairment of her eyesight.  She was able to distinguish general 
form and color, but nothing more.  Her hearing continued good.  Like her father 
and grandfather before her, she was a devout member of the Mennonite faith, but 
since coming where there are so few of that persuasion, she worshiped with other 
denominations with which she was most in sympathy.  Although having her own 
views as to religious form etc., the spirit of the gospel was always the main 
thing with her.
     Aunt Kitty was the contemporary of every great event in our national 
history since the Revolutionary War.  Her life spanned all American presidents 
from Washington to McKinley.  She lived during the three wars of our nation 
under the constitution, including the last war with Great Britain, the war with 
Mexico, and the great Civil War.  She and her husband held to a faith that 
eschewed war, and excited of its following everything in act or conduct that 
could aid to basic war; but they gave their active sympathy and great cheer to 
the soldiers who fought to preserve the union.
     Aunt Kitty's grandfather came to America about 1748, early in his married 
life.  He came from the wine districts on the Rhine, being impelled to leave 
Germany on account of conscription and his religious compunction in regard to 
war.  On the way across the Atlantic they were nearly three months on the 
passage and were near to a famine from running out of supplies.  Her grandfather 
settled near Hagerstown, then a wilderness.  The settlement there was often in 
peril from the Indians, the times being very alarming during the French and 
Indian War and during the Revolution. On one occasion, nine families lived all 
summer in a barn.  At one time when the Indians came, they all fled to 
Fredericktown, 20 miles away, leaving a dinner cooking.  They never knew who got 
that dinner.
     Her grandfather gave her father a wild farm and her father and mother 
prepared it for cultivation, working together in grubbing out undergrowth and 
small trees.  Later her father bought the mill.  At one time it was so full of 
grain that the gable burst.  That presented a grave emergency.  He called in all 
the neighbors, with their teams, and moved the grain to the homes of the 
vicinity. The condition of the mill was found too serious to remedy and it was 
torn down, being completely rebuilt between April and October, a large force 
being employed for that purpose.  The millwrights were put to work in the forest 
to prepare the timbers and the masons in the quarries to get out the stone.  
They had to care for all the force at the house.  Her mother was an invalid from 
rheumatism at that time.  The only help Aunt Kitty had was a girl of eleven 
years.  There was absolutely no domestic help to be had.  She did all the work, 
all the baking of the bread for the table consuming twenty barrels of flour 
during the six months.  There were twenty-eight hungry men to be fed.  Breakfast 
had to be ready at sun-rise, and the men from the quarries did not get in for 
supper until sun-down.  A friend who dropped in to see them during that time 
period said he 'would not give much for Kitty when the mill was done',
thinking it a killing work; but she outlived them all.
     The farmer of that time raised quite an amount of wheat and corn, some rye 
and barley, and a little oats.  He was also a stock raiser, keeping cattle, hogs 
and sheep.  He grew flax for making all the linen for family use, and out of the 
flax and wool were prepared the fibres and the thread for weaving of the 
garments for both men and women.  Many beautiful white linen goods were made, 
but it gave the women of the household a life of  incessant labor.  They were 
never idle, not stopping from their day's work until nine o'clock in the 
evening.  The mere spinning was only a small part of the work of keeping the men 
and women in clothes, providing the bedding, the table linen etc.  The grain was 
all cut by hand with the sickle.  She had often seen twenty men in the field, 
going through the standing wheat and laying it in bundles.  They had some wagons 
in those days but many more carts.
     The young people were not without their enjoyments in her day, although 
their life was well filled with hard labor.  Most families made apple butter a 
prominant thing of their diet.  The young people used to get together in bees, 
prepare the apples and make them up into the apple butter.  They had no Sunday 
schools in those days.  When they came home from church the father would gather 
the children together after dinner to see how much they could remember of the 
sermon. After they had finished that catechizing they were allowed to play, this 
being about the only respite of the week.  She remembered her grandfather well, 
who died in 1804, and her grandmother who died in 1807.
     She recalled the first coffee they ever had.  Her father brought it from 
Fredericktown.  "Here's something they call coffee," she heard him say.  "I 
don't know if they make soup of it or cook it with meat!" was his wandering 
comment.  An English lady who knew coffee, pronounced it good and showed them 
how to prepare it.  She browned the coffee in the skillet, and beat it in the 
mortar as they did their spices.  Her father tried a mouthful of it, but 
immediately went to the door and spit it out, having a very poor idea of it.  
The English woman made it into a beverage.  They did not like it at first, but 
later learned to be fond of it.  Kitty's mother always made coffee Sunday 
mornings, and when she was little she could always tell when Sunday came because 
of the coffee-making.
     The bitter feeling against the tories of the Revolution lingered to Kitty's 
day, and she remembered the excitement attending the return of two of them to 
that vicinity.  One of them was saved by a reprieve from the president, which 
arrived just a half hour before the time set for his execution. Another was 
secreted and hustled off to New York by the 'underground railway.'
     Mrs. Rice remembers experiences of going to the weekly market at Hagerstown 
with butter, eggs, and other things, which were part of the regular duties of 
her childhood days. She was the youngest of the family at home, and her father 
and mother wanted her to care for them until they were gone.  This filial duty 
she was very glad to fulfill to them, with all the love of a faithful daughter, 
placing their interests and comforts always before her own.  It was not until 
she had buried her father that she came west to join her youngest brother, whom 
she survived twenty-eight years.
     Aunt Kitty knew her share of the trials and afflictions of life,but instead 
of yielding to them or being overcome, she was always thankful that they were 
not worse.  Her's was a beautiful spirit, and the trait just mentioned shines 
through all her relations with fellow men, and in the kindly sentiments with 
which no one could be with her any length of time without perceiving it to be 
the ruling characteristic of her life.  It was refreshing to receive the 
influence of such an association, even though it was but for a chat of a few 
moments.
     Her funeral took place on Saturday, the 29th of December 1900.  Services 
were conducted by Rev. Ephraim Shellenberger, of the Mennonite church near 
Freeport, the Rev. F. W. Nazarine, Mt. Morris.  Her funeral was probably the 
largest ever held at that place.  She was laid to rest in Oakwood Cemetery 
beside her husband.