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- MARGARET (WILTSIE) MCFARLIN 1864 -1949 by; Peter F McFarlin - 2008
TEACHER UNTIL AGE TWENTY-SIX
Margaret Welles Wiltsie was born 24 September, 1864 in Dundee, Illinois. She had an older brother Charles, born in 1858 who died of dysentery at age one and a half. Also, an older sister Bertha (Bertie), born in 1861, who died at just thirteen mon ths old. Margaret was therefore, the oldest of the remaining three children of John C and Mary (Welles) Wiltsie. She had two younger brothers; George Wiltsie, born 1868 and Walter Wiltsie born 1871.
In 1870, when age six, young Maggie (as she was called then) lived in Dundee, Illinois on her parents farm. Ten years later, Maggie and family were living in Elgin, Illinois and her father had gone into the cattle dealing business.
PFM's uncle Kirk McFarlin (Margaret's son) relates in 1974; "She began teaching - she was a teacher at sixteen (1881) which was in those days not uncommon, in the Elgin Academy and I think she went from there to the schools in Evanston, at which t ime she was married." (# 1)
CAMPING AT CREED
While William McFarlin was working in Kansas in the late 1880's, "...he came in contact with certain people in Topeka who had membership in a camp in Colorado - in the near vicinity of Creed, which is up at the top of the divide, at the head water s of the Rio Grande. My mother was invited there, by a different family, to the same fishing camp. They met there under that vacation condition - in the early days of that country. My mother was teaching school in (Elgin) Ill, where she was spons ored by a very fine family, who were the ones who were responsible for her being out there at that camp. and she was very much taken with Colorado at the time. Somewhere there used to be a scrapbook that she had made at that time. Well - so one th ing led to another; the courtship letters were very formal in those days."
WEDDING AND HOUSEKEEPING
When Margaret and William were married in 1891, the certificate was signed by Rev A H Ball, member of the 1st Congregational Church of Elgin, Illinois. She and William had their first child, Charles Kirk McFarlin, born in Topeka, Kansas. Then the y had Donald Welles McFarlin in 1900 while living in East Orange, New Jersey.
Kirk relates in 1974; ..."Then she came out here (New Jersey) and she was primarily a housekeeper, but she had many interests - cultural interests; a woman's club. I can remember she was always writing papers about something...occasionally interes ted in music but only as an auditor. She was interested in art, she was interested in travel, all in a constrained manner...and the one great thing she did for my brother and I; she was anxious for us to have the best education. She had brown eyes ...and was 5'5" with brown hair. She was considered to be quite a beautiful girl and woman."
CHRISTAN SCIENCE
"She was always religiously interested, as a Presbyterian and perhaps a Congregationalist, but through her difficulties she became a Christian Scientist." Margaret had remained a Congregationalist until becoming a Christian Scientist. "On Novembe r 2, 1917, she joined The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, At the time, Mrs McFarlin was a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, East Orange, New Jersey, and her address was 170 Glenwood Av enue, East Orange." (# 2) (As to her husband William's religious interests Kirk relates that "...he was always a decent man, but to my knowledge never really had any religious affiliation.")
"And she became very - what I considered to be too - deeply engrossed. At the time when we thought she could have had help for this physical handicap, she would not have it." (PFM says here in 1974: "She relied on the spirituality instead of the p racticality?")..."that's right. She became a Reader...in the Maplewood church - that's the 1st Church (of Christ Scientist). Normally, the man is the 1st Reader, the woman reads the bible and the man reads The Science Now. And she was superintende nt of sunday school for a number of years."
MEETING THE FOLSOMS
her son Donald had met and become friends with, young Eddie Folsom of Brookline, Massachusetts, while at a summer camp in New Hapshire about 1912 and 1913. Her older son Kirk courted Eddie's older sister, Mary Folsom about 1918 through 1924. Thi s was when Kirk was finishing at MIT in Cambridge,Massachusetts adn later when he joined the US Navy flying with the naval air force in England as a meteorollogist during WW I. There are various photos of Kirk and his mother outside the Folsom's B eacon Street home in Brookline and of her canoeing on Lake Winnepesaukee, New Hampshire
SEPARATION
William and Margaret McFarlin separated about 1920-21, likely because of her nervousness (see below) and her extremist views regarding Christian Science and her desire for independence. Son Kirk went to live with his mother, while her son Donald f irst stayed with his father for a while and then, by April of 1930, Donald was enumerated with his mother at her South Terrace address.
After Donald married Peggy Folsom in 1932 Mrs McFarlin lived on her own for the rest of her life, as did her husband, William.
Kirk had a christmas dinner party in 1932 with Margaret, both her sons and their wives plus young Kirk (Mac) and Polly's parents, the Hollenbecks.
STROKE
"As my mother's condition became more and more difficult...she had developed what I considered to have been a nervous condition which persued her until she had this stroke, which I felt was the conclusion of many things. But it was basically a ner vous weakness I thought. That was about 1935-1937; something like that. She was in Florida visiting at the time, seeing some cousins (the Crabtrees). And she was massively handicapped from that time on with paralysis. She had lost all of one side , but she wasn't going to be done in by something like that. And it was twelve years under those impossible conditions. At that time it was possible to obtain help (live-in nursing assistance) in this area which she did obtain then"
PASSING
Margaret Wiltsie McFarlin died 6:30 am, March 26, 1949 at her own home in Springfield, New Jersey at age eighty-four. Her cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage which occured twenty-three days earlier. Also noted as an antecedent cause was cereb ral arteriosclerorsis starting sixteen years earlier, in 1933, when she was sixty-eight. James C Christian, DO, of Harrison St, East Orange, New Jersey, had been her attending physician since 1934, and had last seen her alive the morning she died.
Her son Kirk McFarlin, the informent on Margaret's death certificate, stated that she was born in Dundee, Illinois, September 24, 1864, was now a widow, and had been living at 39 Henshaw Ave, Springfield, Union co, New Jersey for the prior ninetee n months. Further, that she was a housewife, and her father had been John C Wiltsie and her mother's maiden name had been Mary Wells.
FSID MW9Y-7DT
(Research):Family Tree DNA (www.familytree.com)
Family Tree for Mr. Peter Folsom McFarlin
NOTES
(# 1) Peter Folsom McFarlin (PFM); 9-10 October, 1974 - Personal conversations between PFM and his uncle Kirk and aunt Polly McFarlin while at their home in Short Hills NJ. These were willingly taped and later transcribed to text. Many of the McFa rlin (also spelled McFarland therein) births, marriages, and deaths, with the names, are from the 1832 William McFarland bible, presented to his grandson, William Kirk McFarland by Wm K's mother, Sarah (Kirk) McFarland, March 9, 1897(sic-1877). Ph otocopies of the handwritten vital records pages in that bible, plus copies of other vital record notes and letters, were given to PFM by Kirk, who had the bible and notes in his possession at that time.
(#2) 2003 letter from The Mary Baker Eddy Library, Boston MA to PFM.
REFERENCES:
-1870 census; Dundee, Kane co, Illinois p 261 with her father John Wiltsie (Maggie's age 6, born in Illinois, attending school)
-1880 census; Elgin, Kane co, Illinois ED 85 p 322 with her father John Wiltsie
(Maggie's age 15, born in Illinois, f b in NY, m b in NY, attending school)
-1885 Elgin, Illinois city directory; Miss Margaret Wiltsie, Teacher at Elgin Academy, bds 144 South St (with John C Wiltsie)
-1887, 1888 Elgin, Illinois city directories; Miss Margaret Wiltsie, teacher
-1890 Evanston, Illinois city directory; Miss Margaret W Wiltsie, teacher, Hinman Ave School, resides 323 Hinman Ave, Rogers Park
-1891 Illinois State board of Health; register 2 p 296, marraige license # 751, for; William Kirk McFarlin a 31of Topeka, Kansas, and Margaret Welles Wiltsie a 26 of Elgin, Illinois
-1895 census; Davenport, Iowa; William McFarland (sic) a 35, Margt McFarland a 30 and Charles McFarland a 2 b Kansas.
-1900 census; East Orange, Essex co, New Jersey ED 180 p 201 with her husband William (Margaret's age 35, born in Illinois, m 9 yrs, 1 of 1 children alive, b f and m b NY)
-1910 census; East Orange City, Essex co, New Jersey ED 163 p 266b with her husband William (Margaret's age 46, born in Illinois, m 19 yrs, 2 of 2 children alive, b f and m b in US)
-1920 census; East Orange, Essex co, New Jersey ED 31 p 70 with her husband William (Margaret's age 46 sic, born in Illinois, b p b in Ohio sic) living at 170 Eastwood St (Glenwood Ave).
-1930 census; Millburn, Essex co, New Jersey ED 505 p 5b with her son Donald only (Margaret's age 65, born in Illinois, mar when 34, b p b in NY) living at 84 South Terrace
-1949 New Jersey State Department of Health, Certificate of Death #11866
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1864 - 1949 (84 years)
