MRS. THOMAS WILKINSON CALLED TO REST

One by one the grim reaper is taking his toll of the pioneer settlers of this county until now there are but few remaining who can relate the actual experience of those early days gone forever and a matter of history.

This week we are called upon to note the ending of Mrs. Thomas Wilkinson who, since early womanhood, has been associated with the doings of our vicinity and has taken an active part in the early development of this section.

Miss Lucy Jackson was born in Lincolnshire, England, Sept. 3, 1840 and when quite young, came to Illinois where, in later years she met and married Mr. Thomas Wilkinson at Barrington, Ill. in 1859. The young couple, soon after their marriage, moved to Louisiana where they made their residence until the Civil War. At this time they came west by covered wagon through Omaha to Elk City with their two children, Ida and Emma. They landed in Elk City July 27, 1864.

For years Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson were engaged in farming and became extensive land owners but in the middle eighties they moved to Blair where they resided until Mr. Wilkinson’s death, which occurred in July 1912. Since 1914 she has made her home mostly in Omaha and it was there at the M. E. Hospital that she passed away Tuesday afternoon at shortly after six o’clock, the last member of a family of seven girls and two boys. She had suffered a slight stroke of paralysis some time back, from which she was thought to have recovered but it is believed that another sudden attack seized her a few days before her death and she fell, breaking her hip which hastened the end.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson have always enjoyed the respect and confidence of their friends and acquaintances and have taken their places in both the civic and social affairs of their neighborhoods and since coming to Blair Mr. Wilkinson served a term as postmaster during the last term of Grover Cleveland’s administration.

Of the immediate family the children are: Mrs. J. F. Smith and Mrs. Emma Shields, both of Omaha, Mrs. Nettie Dyball, who died in 1914 and Mr. Wm. Wilkinson of Blair, also eight grand children and six great grand children.

She was a member of the Grace Lutheran church of Omaha and a consistent Christian.

The funeral services are to be held Friday at 1:30 from the home of her daughter, Mrs. Emma Shields, where she had made her home, with Rev. Luther Kountze, an old friend of the family, and her local pastor, Rev. Soholm officiating and later in the afternoon the body will be brought to Blair where interment will be made.

#2 Pilot 20 May 1925

Mrs. Thomas Wilkinson (Lucy)

W. W. Wilkinson’s mother, Mrs. Thos. Wilkinson, died last evening at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. J. Smith, in Omaha, from the results of a fall last week, in which her hip was crushed. The funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at the home of another daughter, Mrs. Herman Shields, 2566 Poppleyton Ave. in Omaha, where she has been making her home for some time. She was 84 years of age. Burial will be in the Blair Cemetery, where her late husband, formerly postmaster here, is buried.

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

FindaGrave # 108755341