Obit for Mrs Esther Dawson Taken from the Hutsonville Herald, January 26, 1894, p.1 col 3: ALMOST A CENTENARIAN Death of Mrs. Esther Dawson in Her 99th Year Last Saturday evening, Jan. 20, Mrs. Esther Dawson departed this life after a short illness at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Wm. R. Cox, aged 98 years, 7 months and 2 days. She passed away peacefully, just at the close of day, surrounded by relatives and friends, who had ministered to her every want in affliction. Funeral services were conducted at her later home Monday by Elder Cox and the remaines were laid to rest along side of her departed husband in the Bailiff cemetery. Mrs. Dawson was undoubtedly the oldest living woman in the state up to the time of her death, and of late years many interesting sketches of her life and experiences have appeared in the daily papers. She was a woman beloved by all, and of her history we produce the following: "Aunt Hetty," as she was familiarly called by every one, was born in Orange County, North Carolina, June 18, 1795. Nathan and Esther Wells were her parents. Early in the spring of 1815, her father loaded his household goods into wagons, stowed his family_______among them, and started for the new territory of Indiana, where he arrived in October of the same year, locating in Orange County and remained there until he died. At the age of twenty-one Miss Esther became the bride of John H. Fulton, in 1816. Four children blessed their union, only one of whom is now living, Mrs. Charles Willard of Hutsonville. She came with her husband to Illinois in 1819, settling on the Parker farm just north of town. Israel Harris was their nearest neighbor and lived in a log cabin on the ground where now stands the town of Hutsonville. John Fulton died in 1827, and in 1828 she married Daniel Dawson. Four children were born to them, two of whom are yet living, John W. Dawson of near Kankakee and Mrs. Wm. R. Cox, with whom she had made her home for twenty-four years past. Daniel Dawson entered land in Clark county just east of the Pliney Draper farm and lived there unitl 1866, when he and his family came to Crawford county. The remainder of his life was spent on a farm on the range road west of town where he died in 1870. The hardships, toils, joys, privations and sorrows of pioneer life have all been Aunt Hettie's. When she and her husband came here the Indians skulked in the woods and prowled around the cabins of the whites. She has witnessed the growth of Hutsonville from the log cabin of Israel Harris to a thriving town of a thousand inhabitants. She was raised a Quaker and was a member of that church until she attended a "run-away" wedding , which was an act the church did not sanction and they "withdrew" from her. She then joined the Methodists and remained with that denomination 60 years. Desiring baptism by immersion she united with the Christian church in 1880 with which she remained until death. During her life she had read the Bible through a number of times, being in possession fo all her faculties, except hearing, until she was taken down sick, on the 30th of December. Previous to that time she had not been confined to her bed nor missed a meal in seven years, and up to last summer she often walked to the neighbors, from a quarter to a half mile distance, stay all day and walk back without scarcely any fatique. She was very punctual in her habits, having a certain hour to go to bed, to get up, to make her bed, etc., which she had always done until she was last taken sick. Her long life of ninety-eight years was one of honesty, industry, and usefulness. She was the mother of eight children, twenty-nine grandchildren, sixty-seven great-grand-children, and four great-great-grand-children. --------------------------------------------------------------------- UGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marcia Cooper Giordano