OBIT: Ida MEYERS, 1932, Meyersdale, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

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IDA MEYERS

  Many hearts were saddened this week when Miss Ida Meyers, last member of the 
Peter Meyers family in whose honor the town of Meyersdale is named, passed away.
  This highly revered and most gracious maiden lady expired quite unexpectedly 
about 8 o'clock Monday evening in the ancestral Meyers home a short distance off 
Meyers Avenue, of heart failure. The exact moment of her passing is not known, 
as she was alone in her bedroom and was dead probably 30 or 40 minutes before 
any member of the household was aware that her gentle spirit had taken its 
flight.
  Living with Miss Meyers in the old homestead, founded more than a hundred 
years ago, was the widow of her nephew, Mrs. Charles P. Meyers, and her 
granddaughter, Mrs. Florence West, and the latter's 16-year-old son, Charles 
West.  Mrs. West is employed as a department manager in a large department store 
in Newark, N.J., and therefore, has been living away from home, leaving her son 
in charge of her mother, who also tenderly cared for the aged aunt.
  Although 82 years of age on the 2nd inst., Miss Ida was frequently seen on the 
streets of her native town until a week or two ago.  She had been subject to 
heart trouble for some years past, but her condition was at no time very 
serious.  She had a heart attack last Saturday night, which left her indisposed 
the next two days.  On Monday evening her grand-nephew took a tray of food 
prepared by his grandmother to Miss Ida's room for her supper.  She was then 
sitting up, fully dressed, and ate more heartily than usual.  In half an hour 
Charles returned to her room for the tray and she then seemed to be quite at 
ease and was still up.
  Half or three-quarters of an hour later, Mrs. Meyers went up to Miss Ida's 
room to see how she was getting along, and found her lying on the bed fully 
dressed and cold in death.  Apparently she had become faint and lain down on the 
bed and expired without a struggle.
  Ida Eliza Meyers was the youngest and last surviving child of the late Peter 
and Lydia Miller Meyers.  Six brothers, Dr. William H. Meyers, Nelson, Joseph, 
Cyrus, Dennis and Jacob, and one sister, Barbara, preceded her to the grave.  
Dr. Meyers was one of the leading medical practitioners of Meyersdale for many 
years.  Cyrus and Dennis were lawyers, members of the Somerset County Bar.
  Miss Ida's grandfather, Jacob Meyers, Jr., the pioneer of the family in honor 
of whom the town of Meyersdale is named, came here from Lebanon County, Pa., 
about 1801, and was drowned in Flaugherty Creek in 1826.  Her father, Peter 
Meyers, Jacob's oldest son who was only about 18 years old when the head of the 
family was drowned, took his father's place as leading citizen and businessman 
of the settlement, and in partnership with his younger brother, William, for 
many years conducted the Meyers mill and store fronting on what is now known as 
Monument Square.
  Peter Meyers until his death of typhoid fever in 1870 was the leading business 
man of this entire community and was largely instrumental in getting the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad built through this town.  He did not live to see 
trains run through the town, but in recognition of his progressive spirit, the 
Meyers name has been used for more than a hundred years to designate the town 
which grew up here, known first as the village of Meyers Mills, and since 1874, 
when it was incorporated as a borough, as Meyersdale.
  After attending the village school during her childhood, Miss Ida finished her 
education in her young womanhood in a seminary in Norristown, Pa.  She was a 
highly cultured woman, with rare discriminating taste and good literature, good 
music, good art and all the finer things of life.  Beyond question, she was the 
most genteel person in Meyersdale during her long life.  She was kindness and 
gentility personified, the gracious friend and neighbor of all the people of 
Meyersdale, old and young, in all walks of life.
  She was a lifelong and devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and 
for many years one of the mainstays of the little Episcopal Church on the 
Avenue, until the congregation became too small to maintain a pastor.
  She was laid away with the solemn rites of her beloved church on Wednesday 
afternoon, Rev. Mr. Cloman of Cumberland, Md., conducting the services.  
Interment was made in the family lot in Union Cemetery.  The pallbearers were R. 
H. Philson, R. G. Miller, R.D. Pfaher, J. J. Hoblitzell, D. J. Fike and Arthur 
Lorentz.

Meyersdale Republican, November 17, 1932