Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1921-11-16
MRS. MARY A. Ram
dies in 92ND Year
POSSESSED UNUSUAL LITERARY
ATTAINMENTS, AND WAS A
LOVER OF NATURE
H. E. MUNSON GRANTED RELEASE
they have become justly famous
Dies at His Home On Gay Street
After Lingering Illness.


Wayne Street Wednesday afternoon
November 9th, 1921, after brief i'll
ness succeeding fall in which she
sustained a fracture of the hip. Had
Mrs Ram lived until December 9Th,
next, she would have reached the re-
markable age of 92 years.
Funeral services were held at the old
home Friday forenoon at 10:3O. Rev.
w. W. Carlton, pastor of the Method
ist church, had charge OF the services.
Interment was made in the family lot
in Oakland cemetery.
A Native Of New York State
Mary A. Leffingwell was born in
Westfield, Chautauqua county, New
York, on December 9Th, 1929. She
grew to young womanhood in her ma
tive state, and in 1851, she was united
in marriage with H. l.. Ram Sr. Dur
ing the twenty years from the time
of her marriage until coming to Map-
chester the family resided in Rockford,
Illinois, where Mr.. Ram founded the
Rockford Register; then in Whitewat-
er, Wisconsin,; st. Louis, Mo-; and
Pontiac, Michigan; in each of which
places Mr. Ram was engaged in news
paper work as publisher. In 1871
the family came to Manchester and
this has been her home since. Upon
reaching Manchester, Mr.. Ram found
ed the Press, and continued the busi-
ness until his death. since which
time the business has been carried
on by his son.
Mrs Ram was the mother of sever
children. Four OF these-Herbert, En-
dress, Gertrude, and Mrs. Amy L.
Crocker, preceded the mother to the
better land. The surviving children
are Miss Edith V. Ram, Mrs. Milly
S. Clark, of Webster City, and Fl. l..
Ram One sister, Mrs. Helen Pratt
of Huron, South Dakota, also sur
wives. Another sister, Mrs. H NJ Con
ger of Los Angeles, passed away the
past summer.
From girlhood Mrs. Ram was a de-
vout member of the Methodist Epis-
copal church. She was charter men,
Der of the Manchester Thirteen club,
and graduate of the Chautauqua
Literary and Science Circle.
Mrs. Ram retained keen interest
in the affairs of the day until after
she had reached a very remarkable
age, and during the past five or six
years, when her strength began u
fail, she was given the most tender
care by her daughter, Miss Edith, who
devoted herself with the utmost fidel
ity and self-sacrifice in kindly min
istrations to the aged mother.
The following tribute paid to this
good mother by her own children,
expresses the high regard that the
editors of The Democrat and the peo-
pie of Manchester generally had for
Mother" Ram:
"The above sketch epitomizes the
main facts in the life of our mother.
They are merely the high lights in
a life as unusual in character as ii
was in longevity. Reared on farm in
western New York, deprived of all
but the most meager and primitive
educational advantages, her marriage
in her teens to a man of literary
tastes and pursuits inspired her to
develop the Intellectual side of her
nature. Despite the cares OF an in
creasing family, the ceaseless round
of household toll and the accelerating
responsibilities which crowded upon
her, she clung steadfastly to that am
bition. A wide range of knowledge
and literary appreciation rewarded
her. She knew every star in the sky,
every bird in the woods, every flower
in the field. No poem of worth was
strange to her. Every author whose
work time has not withered was to her
familiar At ninety years Of age she
was able to write beautifully and
gracefully of the out of doors shs
loved. Ideals of life and conduct now
seemingly so old-fashioned as to be
obsolete were held to by her with
the fidelity Of the lode star, and among
them none was more distinct than
her belief in the church Of God and
its mission. The early years of her
married life were full CT discourage
ment, of financial quagm!reS and or
accommodating sorrows in the loss OF
little children, but no trial, however
severe, daunted her spirit or shook
her resolution. Every changeful dis
appointment, every shattered hope,
was met with the indomitable cour-
age of the hardy race from which
she sprang. Her later years were
her best years. She loved her home,
her garden, her friends, her firside
and her books, and she mellowed in
to old age as sweetly and serenely as
the ripening fruit yields to the touch
and glow of the master painter. 1t
is hard to give her up. She has been
to us something more than mother,
in the benediction of her great age
and the love which took on strength
as the body failed. We are glad to
believe that she is once more with
the ones loved and lost" from this
sorrowful earth, for heaven syisualized
itself to her in the promise of re-
union long deferred. In the quiet
ness of her sleep she is to US Of those