Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Thayer, Eliza Ann (Cooper) 1918
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net April 11, 2011, 5:47 pm

Ionia Daily Sentinel, 26 Jan 1918

Mrs. I. H. Thayer Was Ionia Pioneer of the Early Days.

Funeral services for Mrs. Eliza Ann Thayer were held Sunday afternoon at the 
Presbyterian church of which she had been a long time member when a resident of 
Ionia, of which city she was one of the oldest citizens.  The bearers were 
Montgomery Webster, M. M. McGeary, B. R. Ely, G. M. Phelps, H. F. Voelker, and 
Fred Cutler.  Mrs. G. M. Phelps and Mrs. Thane Benedict sang.  Rev. M. L. 
Marshall officiated at the services and preached the funeral sermon, and Dr. W. 
K. Spencer, who resided in the Thayer homestead on High street for ten years, 
spoke.  Burial was at Highland Park.  From out the city for the funeral were 
Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Spear, Mr. and Mrs. Rundell Hopkins, and Miss Alice Thayer, 
all of Chicago.

Mrs. Eliza Ann Thayer would have been 92 years of age if she had lived until 
March.  She was born in Paris, Maine, one of the 13 children on Mr. and Mrs. 
John Cooper, 11 of whom grew to maturity.  During her young womanhood in ??, 
Mass., she was a conspicuous figure in musical circles, being herself a 
vocalist and associated with all the first musicians of the day.  She sang at 
Theodore Parker’s church in Boston.

She married Isaac Thayer, Nov. 4, 1855, the ceremony being performed in the 
Adams house in Boston.  They came west after their marriage and settled in 
Beloit, Wis., where they lived for a few years before coming to Ionia where the 
permanent home was made.  They built the well known Thayer house on High 
street, and Mrs. Thayer’s home remained there until about ten years ago.  Mr. 
Thayer and Mrs. Thayer’s brother, George Cooper, formed the dry good firm of 
Cooper & Thayer, which did business here for many years.  It was about 25 years 
ago that Mr. Thayer died.

Of their three children only one is now living, Mrs. Frank Spear of Chicago.  
The others were Mrs. Chas. Stinchfield and Walter H. Thayer.  Four 
granddaughters of Mrs. Thayer are still living, and there are four great-
grandchildren.

For the past ten years Mrs. Thayer has lived with her daughter in Chicago, but 
until very recently she made annual visits in Ionia, remaining closely attached 
to the old friends here, and closely associated with local interests.  She was 
the possessor of a fine voice, and was one of Ionia’s prides as a vocalist in 
her day.  She sang during her life in every church in this city.

Mrs. A. P. Fleckenstein and Mrs. J. I. Williston, nieces, and Mrs. Mary Cooper, 
a sister-in-law, are the only relatives left in the city now.


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