McMullen, Hannah 9/3/1925

WASHINGTON COUNTY

COUNTY’S OLDEST PIONEER DIES AT HOME IN CRAIG

Mrs. Hannah McMullen, past 101 and the oldest person in this section of the state, died at the home of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. J.W. McMullen, at Craig last Thursday morning, death following a two day illness of pneumonia. The funeral was held Saturday.

Up until two days prior to her death, Mrs. McMullen was in good health. She was a wonderfully preserved woman for her age, and retained her faculties until the end. She was able to read and sew, possessing what some believed to be “second sight.” She enjoyed conversing with friends and was a jovial conversationalist.

The death of Mrs. McMullen removes one of the last of the early day grandmothers, whose aid to the early settlers, when eastern Nebraska was but a plain, equaled in service and heroism the struggles of the men against the Indians and wild animals which inhabited the prairies. Mrs. McMullin was thirty-seven years of age when she came with her husband, Nicholas McMullen, to Fontanelle in 1861.

At that time Fontanelle was one of the few settlements in this region.

The early days were a trial, and there was much sickness. Mrs. McMullen gained a wide reputation for her willingness to aid at any time of sickness or trouble, and she was one of the beloved women of the little pioneer settlement.

Mrs. McMullen was born in Pennsylvania in May, 1824. She was married to Nicholas McMullen in Pennsylvania and four children, of which only one is living at the present time, were born to them there. In 1861 the family joined them the hardy pioneers on a trip into the new Nebraska country to make their home.

Mr. McMullen died in 1870, and Mrs. McMullen was left with her children to face the hardships of the early day. The children were all grown at that time, and for years she lived on the home farm with one of her sons, who worked it. Several years ago she moved to the home of her daughter-in-law in Craig, and has lived there since.

A few years ago she had the misfortune to fracture her hip and since has been confined to a wheel chair. In the last months of her life she was able to get around without aid, and could get up and dress herself in the morning, but the injury suffered a few years ago prevented her from walking any distance.

The cheerfulness with which she brightened the little Fontanelle colony in the early days remained with her to the end. She was the popular honored guest at a large gathering on her last birthday at the home of her daughter-in-law, and was the center of the conversation. She loved to tell stories of the early days and related them in an interesting manner which caused friends to sit by the hour and listen to her.

Her illness was sudden. She was stricken with pneumonia Tuesday morning, and the sickness became very serious. Her vitality ebbed rapidly until her death Thursday.

The aged woman outlived all her immediate family except one son, Abe McMullen, who lives on the McMullen farm at Fontanelle. A number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren survive.

~~~Obituary courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library ~~~