OBIT: Elizabeth (Beachy) MUSSER, 1942, Berlin, Somerset County, PA

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

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http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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ELIZABETH B. MUSSER

  Awaiting patiently the great day when she would meet her Savior face to face, 
Mrs. Elizabeth (Beachy) Musser, one of the oldest and best loved Christian women 
of the Berlin community, passed through the pearly gates at an early hour last 
Sunday morning.
  Her translation from the life terrestial to the life celestial took place at 
the home of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Shultz, at their 
farm home in Brothersvalley Township, a few miles north of Berlin, where Mother 
Musser had been living most of the time since she gave up housekeeping and sold 
her home in Berlin, several years ago.  She suffered from a heart disorder 
during the last week of her life, but she retained her mentality and was able to 
converse lucidly with the members of the household and others who came to her 
bedside during her illness, until her last hours.
  She was the widow of Jacob M. Musser, for many years one of Brothersvalley 
Township's best farmers and a most highly esteemed citizen of Somerset County, 
who passed away at the age of 83, March 1, 1937.  Had Mrs. Musser lived a few 
months longer she would have reached the age of 82 years.  She was born Aug. 8, 
1860, in Milford Township, Somerset County, Pa.  She was a daughter of Daniel 
and Elizabeth (Lichty) Beachy, scions of two prominent pioneer families of Elk 
Lick Township.
  Most of Mrs. Musser's girlhood was spent on the farm adjoining the village of 
Summit Mills to which her parents moved when she was a very young child.  Her 
father died before any of his children were grown up.  After his death Mrs. 
Beachy managed the farm and reared her children there.  After the oldest of the 
Beachy sons, Albert D. Beachy, was grown up and left the farm to locate in 
Chicago, and the second son, John, died of diphtheria in his young manhood, and 
several of the younger children of the widow Beachy also succumbed the dread 
scourge, Mrs. Beachy sold her farm to the late Andrew Rishel, and moved with her 
two surviving daughters, Elizabeth and Annie, just budding into womanhood, and 
her youngest son, Cyrus Milton Beachy, then about 16 years old, to a home on 
Meyers Avenue in Meyersdale, (the house in which the Fulton Shipley family now 
reside) which she purchased.
  It was while living with her mother and younger sister and brother in 
Meyersdale that the door of romance was opened to Miss Elizabeth Beachy, when 
the tall and handsome young farmer, Jacob M. Musser, of Brothersvalley Township, 
came paying court to her.  Their romance soon blossomed into marriage, in 
December, 1882, and there never was a better mated couple than this pair.  Mr. 
Musser took his bride to the ancestral Deep Spring Farm, adjoining the west 
boundary of the Borough of Berlin, which he took over from his father.  On this 
fine farm, one of the best in the township, Mr. and Mrs. Musser prospered and 
lived very happily and reared a fine family, two sons and three daughters, all 
surviving.  The sons are: Earl B. Musser, ice manufacturer of Kansas City, and 
D. Jay Musser, present owner of Deep Spring farm, who took it over when his 
parents retired to a cozy home at the west end of Berlin's Main Street.  The 
surviving daughters are: Mrs. Mary Werner, widow of Dr. John C. Werner, 
Assistant Superintendent of Schools of Allegheny County, Pa., at the time of his 
death, in 1941; Maud, wife of Prof. William Showman, of Pittsburgh; and Ruth, 
wife of Harry Shultz, Brothersvalley Township farmer.  Mrs. Werner just recently 
moved into her new home in Berlin, where she expected to have her mother with 
her part of the time.
  Mrs. Musser is survived also by twelve grandchildren and two great-
grandchildren, and one brother, Cyrus Milton Beachy, prominent manufacturer of 
ice and dairy products of Wichita, Kansas. 
  Mr. and Mrs. Musser were privileged to live to celebrate together their golden 
wedding anniversary.
  Mrs. Musser and her husband were for many years very active and devoted 
members of the First Brethren Church of Berlin.  She was an interested member of 
the missionary society of the church and of the Second Society of Farm Women of 
Somerset County.  Her friendly, cheerful and unselfish nature endeared her to 
all with whom she associated.
  Funeral services were conducted at 2:30 o'clock Wednesday afternoon at the 
Shultz home by Rev. N. V. Leatherman, pastor of the Berlin Brethren Church.  
Interment was in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery under the direction of Johnson and Son, 
Berlin morticians.

Meyersdale Republican, May 7, 1942