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Note: The Newton Record Friday, October 1, 1897 Obituary of Grandma Russell: Died, at the home of her son in this city, on Thursday, Sept. 23, at about one o�clock P.M., Mrs. Mary P. Russell, aged 87 years, 10 months and 10 days. Mother Russell�s maiden name was Mary Price Duncan. She was born in Aldermanic [sic] County, Va., (no such County - most likely Albemarle County) on the 17th of November 1809 and was married to Samuel R. Russell February 2, 1826. In the fall of 1831, they immigrated to Highland Co., Ohio, where they lived until the summer of 1876. At that time they came to this county to visit their children in Buena Vista Township, when Mr. Russell was attacked with typhoid fever and died on the fourth of October of that same year, and from that time, Mrs. Russell has made her home with her son, Samuel G. Russell of this city. She, with her husband, united with the Presbyterian Church in 1826 and for almost fifty years were members of the Old Crusade Church of Hillsboro, Ohio. After coming to Iowa she united with the Hixson Grove Chapel people and recently removed her membership to the Presbyterian Church in Newton. Mother Russell has long been in very feeble health, and for over two months has been confined to her bed, requiring constant care and attention, which were freely and tenderly given her by her loved ones. She leaves three sons, J. W., B. J. and S. G. Russell, all of whom reside in this city, and two daughters, Mrs. John W. Murphy of Murphy and Mrs. M. J. Bennett of Chattanooga, Tenn., all of them being present when their aged mother passed away. Brief services were held at the residence at 1 o�clock, Saturday, after which the remains were taken to Hixson Grove Chapel where services were conducted by Rev. E. J. Rice, a large concourse of old neighbors and friends being present. The interment was in Slagel Cemetery. Mary's middle name of Price is attached to many of the Russell's of Virginia of the 1700's. General William Russell and his son Col. William Russell of Culpepper County, Virginia and Tennessee both had Prices in their family / marriage lines. I have yet (05/03) to find a relationship between this famous branch of the Russells and ours. -DR Memorial in the Newton Record, October, 1897: Mary Price Duncan, the subject of this memoir, was the daughter of John and Ann Duncan. She was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, November 17, 1809. She had three brothers and one sister older than herself. Thomas, Garnet, Agie [sic] and Harriett, and one sister and two brothers younger; Sarah, Ann, George and Andrew Jackson. Her father died when she was young leaving her mother to raise a large family. She was a woman of much energy, push and business, strictly honest, a Christian, a Methodist. Mary Price Duncan and Samuel Russell were joined in marriage February 2nd, 1826. Mr. Russell's father (William) died when Samuel was a small boy leaving him and two sisters to be raised by a Baptist mother which she did well. This family of Duncans, father scotch and mother French extraction - the Bondurants - while the Russells are of English [descent]. To Samuel and Mary P. Russell were born four sons and three daughters: namely: John William, Ann Eliza, Benjamin James, Samuel Garnet, Robert Henry, Virginia Price and Mary Jane. Ann Eliza married John W. Murphy and Mary Jane married Caleb L. Bennett. Two died many years since. Robert H. in a San Francisco hospital from a disease contracted in the Union Army; Virginia P. of consumption, in Highland County, Ohio. In the first year of their married life Mr. and Mrs. Russell were converted at a Methodist revival meeting. After due time and consideration they united with the Presbyterian Church in Virginia. They erected the altar of family prayer and kept it up while they kept house. In the fall of 1831 Mrs. Russell with her husband and three little children removed from Virginia to Highland County, Ohio and in the spring of 1832 bought and settled on a heavily timbered piece of land and moved into a log cabin. They began to open a farm which they accomplished in process of time. The town of Russell, six miles west of Hillsboro, on the tracks of the B & O Railroad, is located on a part of the old homestead. They united with the Presbyterian church in Hillsboro, Ohio, and remained members thereof until the death of her husband. While on a visit to their children in Jasper County, Iowa, Mr. Russell was taken sick of typhoid fever, and died at the residence of J. W. Murphy October 4, 1876. After the death of her husband Mother Russell removed to Jasper County and has made her home with her son S. G. Russell up to the time of her death. She brought her letter of standing from the Presbyterian church in Ohio and on the 12th of August, 1877, she was received into the Hixon Grove Society Methodist Protestant Church on her letter by unanimous vote of the church. After the removal of her son from his farm to Newton, Mother Russell requested a letter of standing from the M. P. church which was granted to her May 23, 1897. She united with the Presbyterian Church in Newton soon after. Mother Russell died September 23rd, 1897, about 1:10 pm, aged 87 years, 10 months and six days. She has thirty-four grandchildren, nine of whom are dead, and thirty-two great grandchildren of whom three are dead. There were present at her funeral five children, twenty grandchildren and sixteen great grandchildren. Mother Russell was frail physically but had a tenacity of life seldom equaled. She had been a great sufferer at times during her long life, especially in the last few months.
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