MRS. LOU HUNGATE, PIONEER COUNTIAN, BURIED TUESDAY

Death Comes to Pioneer of 1865 at Age of 88 Years

Mrs. Lou Hungate, resident of Nebraska since October, 1862, and of Washington county since the Spring of 1865, died at her home on West Grant street shortly after nine o’clock Sunday evening, December 8, at the age of eighty eight. She had been ill for several weeks, but it was only recently that her condition became so grave that hope was abandoned for her recovery.

Funeral services were held from the local Baptist church, of which she was a devout member, Tuesday afternoon at two o’clock, with Rev. Thomas J. Reese officiating. Burial was made in the Blair cemetery. Scores of old friends, among them many of whom had known Mrs. Hungate for a period of more than half a century, thronged the church.

As Louvina Ann Beard, Mrs. Hungate was born on May 6, 1847 in Randolph county Indiana, the second daughter of John and Ellen Beard, who became pioneer Nebraskans. The Beard family moved to Henry county, Iowa in 1850, and in October, 1862 they continued their journey westward, coming to Florence in a covered wagon.

Attracted by the fertile regions of this county, the Beard family in 1865 moved to the farm seven miles north of Blair, not far from Cuming City. This farm the father of the family had homesteaded.

She was married on February 10, 1867 to Aaron Marshall Tyson by Rev. Mr. Wharton, early day minister in this county. To this union two children were born, Mrs. E. B. Redfield and M. E. Tyson, both of whom survive, also surviving are a brother and a sister, George and Cora Beard, both of Blair.

Following Mr. Tyson’s death, Mrs. Tyson was married to T. C. Hungate on November 2, 1894, and the couple came to Blair to establish a home. He was a resident of this city until the time of his death, and his widow likewise continued to made Blair her home.

Mrs. Hungate was one of the few remaining pioneer women who were residents of the state before Nebraska came into its agricultural greatness, and likewise one of the few remaining who saw it transformed from a virtual prairie into a region of exceptional fertility. Courageous, thrifty and self-sacrificing she maintained her interest in this county’s development until the time of her death, and it was one of her satisfactions throughout her latter years that she, among others, had taken such an active part in accomplishing that growth.

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

FindaGrave # 119811886 Note: she is buried with her first husband, and the stone bears his name