Frazier, **Mary

DEATH: NEWSPAPER: Wabash Plain Dealer
Lincolnville March 3, 1886 in "Report column by TRAY Died-March 3, 1886, at the home of her son-in-law Joseph Kelch. Mrs. Mary Swafford. aged 90 years and 6 months. We get the following facts in her history from Mr. Kelch: Mary Frazier was born in Randolphye county, North Carolina July 27, 1795; was married to Enoch Swafford in 1813; emigrated to Wayne county, Ind. in 1820, and there to Wabash County, Ind. in 1842. Enoch Swafford died in 1867, after a sojurn together in life of 53 years. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Swafford has made her home with her daughter and sons-in-law Levina and Joseph Kelch. Her every want was tenderly supplied. She was a consistent member of the M.E. Church, and is gathered home at last, old and full of years."

OBITUARY: Wabash Weekly Courier March 12, 1886
The following obituary was read with a sermon preached by Rev. J. B. Alleman in the M. E. church, Lincolnville, March 5,1886.
"The last mother of the 18th century who lived in the vicinity of Lincolnville has gone above, and her body only lies before us here today. Mary Frazier was born in Randolph county, North Carolina July 27, 1795; married to Enoch Swafford May 13, 1813; died March 3, 1886 after a pilgrimage of 90 years and 6 days. Enoch Swafford and wife, with a family of eight children, emigrated from North Carolina to Wayne county, Indiana, in the year 1832; thence to Henry county in the year 1833, and from Henry county to Wabash county, with eleven children in the year 1842. In the late lsanguinbary struggle against secession they furnished four sons and four grandsons, two of whom returned no more. Mother Swafford was left a widow in 1867, after having lived with her husband nearly three score years. Her widowed years were mostly spent with Joseph Kelch and family, of Lincolnville, where she received the kindest care from her youngest daughter, Louisa. She joined the M.E. church in North Carolina, in which she remained till she came to Wabash county, when she attached herself to the Christian church and lived therein, faithful and consistent mother until her death. ln early life she loved that book which, in later years, lit up the path that lead her up to God. Few knew more of the written, none with more implicit faith relied upon its sacred truth than she. With faith and hope and Godly fear she lived until the sands of life ran out, and to her "twas said mother,"tisvenough, come up higher. With tremulous voice and accents low she said, "tis well, I'll go, I'll go, and bade the earth a long adieu and soared above. Today we meet to say, aged mother, precious relic of the gone by century, we bid thee a last, a long farewell." After an appropriate sermon by Rev. J. B. Alleman and prayers by Revs. Grandstaff and Josie Miller, the ancient form was borne by friends to the Owen graveyard and laid to rest beside her husband, and amid the mounds of her resting progeny."

(Thanks to Judy Cameron for the above information)