Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Colwell, Alice M. (Rickey) (Mrs. Eugene) December 6, 1939
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Maureen Cross mcross3454@gmail.com April 17, 2022, 3:51 pm

Lake Odessa Wave - Times - December 7, 1939
                         MRS. ALICE COLWELL PASSES AT AGE OF 96
                                   ---------------
FUNERAL WILL BE HELD AT HOME OF GRANDDAUGHTERS HERE FRIDAY AFTERNOON.
                                   ---------------
   Mrs. Alice M. Cowell passed away at the home of her granddaughters, Alice and
Grace McCartney here, 
Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 6, at the advanced age of 96 years and one month.
   Mrs. Colwell was born in Carlisle, Ohio, on November 5, 1843, the daughter of
Oren and Marcia Rickey.  She 
attended school in Ohio and started teaching a district school at the age of
fifteen,.  Later she entered 
Orberlin college, the first college in the United State to admit women students, and
graduated in 1863.
   She came to Michigan as a young woman and lived with her parents on a farm north
of Ionia which her 
father had bought from the government in 1848, and which farm she still owned at the
time of her death.  She 
taught school near Ionia until in 1867 when she was married to Alanson Corwell of
Ionia.
   Two children were born to this marriage, Guy and May  E. the latter being the
late Mrs. William H.McCartney.  
Mr. Cornell died in 1872 and a year later she was married to Eugene F. Colwell, who
was a cousin of her first 
husband, and was a widower with two sons, Clayton and Eugene.  Two children were
born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Colwell, Frank R. and Raymond A.  Mr. Colwell died in Lake Odessa in 1898.
   The Colwell family came to Lake Odessa in 1888, where Mr. Colwell was in business
and he built several 
store buildings which are still in use on our main street.  Their's was one of the
first houses to be built in the 
new village, having been erected in a wheat field.  For some time this was the only
house in town that could 
boast of a bathtub and, as far as can be determined, the first telephones in Lake
Odessa were at each end of 
the line between the Colwell store and residence.
   Mrs. Colwell was a regular attendant at services of the Congregational church
here as long as her strength 
permitted.  She was a charter member of the Lake odessa Women's club, helped to
organize the first library 
association  in the village and was the first woman to become a member of the Lake
Odessa board of 
education.
   She was an able business woman and was always very active.  Her hearing and
eyesight remained keen, and 
she read the daily papers and kept up her interest in public affairs until just a
few weeks before her death.  
She seemed to feel few of the disabilities usually incident of old age.
   Mrs. Colwell had lived with her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. William H.
McCartney, for twenty 
years and, following their deaths six years ago, she continued to make her home with
her granddaughters at 
the McCartney home.  During the last weeks of her failing health she was cared for
by Mrs. William McCurdy.
   During her long lifetime she knew seven generations of her family, having a vivid
recollection of a great-
grandfather who fought through the Revolutionary war, later helped as a stone-mason
to build the walls 
around West Point Military academy and who, on his 100th birthday, was granted a
pension by the United 
States government.
   Surviving members of the family are a son Ray A. Colwell at Ionia, a stenp-son
Clayton M. Colwell at 
Chowchilla., Calif.  the grandchildren William, Alice, Grae and Arthur McCartney,
all in Lake Odessa, Mrs. 
Franklin Hoar, Ionia and Mrs. Charlie Cook, Port Huron, five setp-grandchildren in
California and 10 great-
grandchildren.
   The funeral will be held at the McCartney home at 2 o'clock Friday afternoon with
the Rev. Edward H. 
Humphrey, pastor of the Lake Odessa Congregational church, officiating.  Interment
will be made in the family 
lot in Lakeside cemetery.  
     


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