OBIT: Ann (GALBRAITH) JONES, 1891, Hollidaysburg, Blair County, PA

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HOLLIDAYSBURG HAPPENINGS.

  Mrs. Ann Jones, our oldest inhabitant, died yesterday morning at 4 
o'clock, after an illness resulting from la grippe, of but a few days' 
duration.  Her death had been expected by her friends, and she passed 
easily and painlessly from the troubled waters of life into the haven 
of divine peace.  Mrs. Jones was born on July 26, 1800, in the then 
virgin wilderness where Altoona now stands, and her parents, James and 
Mary Galbraith, were the first settlers of that populous city.  Of her 
mother's sisters, one was the mother of General George B. McClellan; 
another the wife of Hon. John Blair, after whom Blair county was named, 
and another the wife of Adam Holliday, one of the founders of 
Hollidaysburg.  She was married on June 26, 1822, to John Jones, who 
has predeceased her several years.  She is survived by two children, 
James Jones and Mrs. Margaret McKee, both of this place.  No less than 
twenty grandchildren and nineteen great grandchildren mourn her 
departure.  Among her grandchildren are Mr. John McKee, of Altoona, and 
Poor Director A. J. McKee, Charles Barr and Mrs. Benjamin Williams, all 
of this place.  During her long life, extending over nearly a century 
in our nation's history, she ever displayed a strong individuality and 
breadth of view.  Her retentive memory and fluency of speech enabled 
her to tell many a reminiscence of the manners and customs of the days 
long gone by.  Mrs. Jones was temperate in all things, and never used 
medicine.  During the war she was an intense abolitionist, and on more 
than one occasion she made an open attack upon those who upheld treason 
and secession in her presence.  She was an omnivorous reader, a close 
admirer of the TRIBUNE from the first day of its publication and a 
subscriber to the Philadelphia Press for thirty-three years.  It was a 
familiar sight to see "Granny" Jones on a wintry night trudging through 
the snow to the news stand for a copy of her beloved Press.  She always 
read her papers by candle light, disliking the new fangled kerosene.  
Even on her death bed she plied her watchers with queries about the 
doings of the legislature, president's cabinet and other current 
events.  She joined the Presbyterian church in her 90th year, but her 
little old fashioned Bible of the print of 1785, bore the marks of much 
close study.  She followed closely in the footsteps of the Master, and 
braved the sleet and the blast to go to church when more pretentious 
Christians remained at home.  Her life well spent will bring its 
reward, for "at the dark portals of the grave it is better to have been 
good than to have been great."  Funeral services will be held this 
afternoon at 3 o'clock, at her late residence, on the corner of Clarke 
and Blair streets.  Interment in the Lutheran cemetery.

Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Friday, April 10, 1891