| Notes |
- Mary Helen Haines notes:
Memory of Mary Arabella McFarland Jennings about her grandmother: "Grandmother McF. impressed me as kind of an iron woman, ready to defend her own against any odds. When Minta and I spent the summer with her and attended school at Oak Ridge we had potatoes boiled with the jacket on every night for supper-and loved it. I thought she was a beautiful woman-erect posture and wavey black hair."
Artemissa's name is also spelled Artimissa by other descendants. However, on documents from the time period, it is spelled with an "e."
Memory from a letter from Bose McFarland to Lola McF. Hill, dated Jan. 29, 1967: "I remember Great-grand-ma-ma (Artemissa) when she was living with Aunt Jane Cunningham. She smoked a little clay pipe. And one day she showed me about twenty or thirty pennies; that were beginning to turn green, that she kept in a small tobacco sack."
In 1890: P.O. was Ladonia, and she had 1196 acres in cultivation.
In 1893 she must have been living with son Bose and his wife Sude, because she received letters from her sisters and they were always asking about them and Willie and the baby.
Below is the transcription of her obituary made by Lola McFarland, her granddaughter.
GONE HOME _ ARTEMISSA PENCE MCFARLAND
--- Ladonia News, July 1906
Saturday, July 6, the spirit of Grandma McFarland went home to
God. Aged 81 years . four months, and four days, Mrs. Artemissa McFarland
was born at Land Of Sinking, Ky., March 2, 1829. When a young
girl she moved with her parents to Texas, settling in Fannin county.
In July 1845, she married Jackson McFarland, one of the pioneers of
this country, who preceded her almost a quarter of a century ago.
Mrs. McFarland leaves five children, four sons and one
daughter, over thirty grandchildren and over twenty great grandchild-
ren and a great host of friends to mourn her loss.
Coming to this country when Texas was a republic, she spent the
early days of her life amid scenes which were as full fo exciting and
thrilling as they were of inconvenience and self-denial.
None but the few remaining pioneers of this country can adequate-
ly appreciate the hardships that were undergone by those who settled
here in an early day and transformed a wilderness into a cultured,
Christian communities. Without commercial, educational or Christian
opportunities, they toiled and denied themselves these pleasure that
rising generations might enjoy the products of their frugality.
Grandma McFarland was one of this number. She lived to see her desc-
endants to the third generations enter into and enjoy the fruits of the
struggles of herself and her frontier neighbors.
She was the product of those days and conditions when society
was free from artificialities, when friendships were genuine, and
life was delightfully simple and real. I am told by friends who knew
her well that she was a woman of strong, positive convictions; one
who viewed life from a practical, business standpoint;. Industrious
and frugal, she lived a quiet, unassuming life. She was a devout
Christian, but her church life, like her social living was free from
ostentation. Her life was the constant expression of her faith in
God.
Dear old faithful mother! She now rests from the eighty years
but the gentle influence, which, by a constant life, was set in mo-
tion shall live on in the hearts of others long after the frail body
has returned to dust. To sorrowing children and friends we would say:
Trust the same God that brought her a good old age and in whom she be-
lieved.
In a lonely graveyard, Not very far away,
Lies a dear old mother, 'Neath the cold, cold clay.
Memories oft returning of her tears and sighs;
If you love your mother, meet her in the skies.
Now the old home, vacant , Has no charms for you,
One dear soul is absent, Mother, kind and true.
Ever more she dwells where pleasure never dies
If you love your mother, meet her in the skies.
Sunday evening a large company of friends followed her remains
to the family cemetery and after services, conducted by Brothers, Lee
and Parker she was laid to rest by the side of her husband.
Patient and gentle in life, she was glorious in death.
A Friend and Brother.
Artemissa's name is also spelled Artimissa by other descendants. However, on documents from the time period, it is spelled with an "e." Excerpt from letter from Bose McFarland to Lola McF. Hill, dated Jan. 29, 1967: "I remember Great-grand-ma-ma (Artemissa) when she was living with Aunt Jane Cunningham. She smoked a llittle clay pipe. And one day she showed me about twenty or thirty pennies; that were beginning to turn green, that she kept in a small tobacco sack."
1890: P.O. was Ladonia, had 1196 acres in cultivation.
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1829 - 1907 (78 years)
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