Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Dexter, Lucinda (Nichols) 1923
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Ionia County News, 22 Feb 1923

Miss Lucinda Nichols was born in Marion county, Illinois, May 11, 1831, and 
when only 16 years of age she lost her mother, and accordingly spent the 
following ten years keeping house for her father.  At the age of 25 years she 
was united in marriage to William Dexter, October 3, 1856.  

At the beginning of the Civil war Mr. Dexter volunteered to help maintain the 
standard of his country against the arms of the South, and left the young wife 
alone with two small children to cope with the trials incident to that time of 
awful suspense, when the battle bulletin at any time might record the name of 
the husband as the victim of southern bullets.  There being at that time a 
scarcity of men for farm work, Mrs. Dexter spent the time between the care of 
her little family and the cultivation of the farm, that the wolf of hunger 
might be kept from the door till the husband’s return from the defense of his 
country; and many a time has the writer listened to a rehearsal of the 
experiences of war time home life from the lips of the subject of this sketch, 
which to the casual hearer would seem like romance.

On the return of the husband from the war it was decided to leave the 
environments of home in Illinois and move to Michigan, where they had purchased 
a farm near Hubbardston, where they spent about 25 years clearing and moulding 
the primitive forest into a home.

It was here that Mr. and Mrs. Dexter met with many discouragements, trying to 
make a suitable home for their family which had then grown to three children, 
besides father and mother

Through the dim vista the parents looked to a home of larger and better 
proportions where the cares of life could be laid aside and the family enjoy 
more suitable surroundings, where the attractions of the family fireside would 
appeal to the development of the youthful minds under their care.  Their 
anticipations were splendidly rewarded when out of the wild conditions of those 
anxious days and years sprang into being a beautiful home with many modern 
conveniences attached.

Being worn with toil and the heavy cares of life, they decided to retire from 
the old homestead, and accordingly purchased a delightful home in the 
neighboring village of Pewamo; where the husband died about 14 years ago, 
leaving the widow to a life of loneliness in the spacious house which she 
occupied till December, 1922, when she decided to leave the old home and spend 
the balance of her days among her children and grandchildren, where she died at 
the home of her grandson, Nelson Dexter, of Eagle township, Feb. 15, aged 91 
years, 9 months and 4 days, leaving to mourn the loss of an affectionate 
mother, two sons and one daughter, namely: Arthur, of Edmore; Charles, of Grand 
Rapids, and Mrs. J. L. Cupit, of Grand Ledge.  She is also survived by four 
grandsons and eight great-grandchildren.

For more than 40 years she has been a devoted member of the Seventh Day 
Adventist church, and we laid her away to await the Master’s call at the 
resurrection of the just.

Funeral services were held at the residence of Nelson Dexter on Feb. 17, Eld. 
E. N. Sargeant, S.D. Adventist, of Kalamazoo, officiating.  She was placed in 
the mausoleum receiving vault in Grand Ledge, where she will be interred when 
weather conditions are suitable.

J. L. Cupit.


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