Barry County Missouri Obituary
Mrs. America L. (Roland) McClure 1833 - 1915 
Source: Scrapbook bought at the estate sale of Vivian Roller by Ted W. Roller


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MRS THOS. J. McCLURE DIED LAST FRIDAY Death is  as  profound  a  mystery
today as at the dawn of time. The intervening centuries  have  witnessed
countless efforts to discover the land beyond  the  mortal  sphere,  but
there is no discoverer of the grave! The achievements  of  science,  and
the researchers of philosophy, are powerless alike to solve  the  enigma
of dissolution. With all the advancement of the vaunted present  we  are
as ignorant of our condition beyond the sepulcher, as the savage of pre-
historic age.

Yet we have the glorified promise of a beautiful future, if we carry out
and live up to the Divine truths that are so plainly  portrayed  in  the
Holy Bible, the book of books.  The  promise  of  eternal  salvation  is
promised us, if we but obey the Divine injunctions, as Mrs.  America  L.
McClure did during nearly all her entire life on earth, and we will have
the blessed assurance of our living in  that  mansion  not  prepared  by
hands, eternal in the skies.

The subject of this sketch, Miss America L. Roland, was born in Franklin
county, Tenn., Nov. 17, 1833, and died March 5, 1915, at her home, of la
grippe, 5 miles south-west of Cassville, aged 81 years, 2 months and  19
days. She came to Barry county, Mo., at  a  very  tender  age  with  her
parents and grandparents, who located at or  near  Washburn,  where  she
passed her early childhood, early girl and womanhood  days.  Her  father
having died when she was about grown, her mother  moved  to  Pea  Ridge,
Benton county, Ark., where she continued to reside until her marriage to
This. J. McClure in October 1866, when she returned to Barry county with
her husband, and lived and died on the same farm.

She had no time for frivolities of life, but  practiced  and  did  those
things that made people happy, by doing good to all. She showed her true
worth, just after the civil war, when homes had to be re-built,  livings
had to be made, while poverty was plentiful on every  hand,  she  proved
her real worth, to her family and  friends.  She  was  always  ready  to
render assistance to her family and neighbors. Her family came  on  when
the mothers of this section wove the cloth that was made  into  clothing
for her children. In all this trying  time  she  always  found  time  to
attend church and to entertain the minister and friends  in  her  humble
home. Her circumstances in life never changed her  duties  to  her  God,
family or neighbors.

Another grand consolation to the aged husband and children, is that  all
her life, excepting twelve years, was devoted to the service of her God.
At the age of twelve years, she united with the Twelve  Corners  Baptist
Church on Pea Ridge, in Benton county, Ark., and continued a  member  of
the Baptist Church to the day of her death.

She was the mother of J.P. McClure, Frisco Agent at Purdy, Ewing K., and
Francis E. (Bud) McClure at home, and Mrs. Annie Arnold of near the  old
home, and the mother of Emmett McClure of ????la?d, Ark., Mrs. T.D. Pits
of Monett, Mo., and the late Finis McClure.

Sunday at 1 p.m. Rev. E.W. Love conducted funeral services at the  home,
where a large number of sorrowing relatives and neighbors had  assembled
to pay the last respects to the departed. The remains were  interred  in
Washburn Prarie Cemetery.