Joseph, Wallowa County, Oregon
Catherine Lindford 1835 – 1891
At her home near Joseph, December 10, 1891, Catherine Lindford Cole, aged 56 years, 6 months and 14 days.
Catherine Lindford was born hear London, England may 17, 1835, her parents removing to America the same year, after a short residence in Pennsylvania, they removed to Indiana, and finally settled in Clark County, Illinois. In 1854 she was married to Eli Misner who died in 1858. In 1859 Mrs. Misner moved to Iowa. In July, 1860 she was united in marriage to Wiley P. Cole (Rev.William Person Cole Sr.) Mr. and Mrs. Cole removed to Nebraska in 1866, and after 14 years’ residence in that State they came to Oregon and in October, 1880 settled in Wallowa valley where they have since resided.
For three weeks previous to her death Mrs. Cole had suffered from an attack of erysipelas, but was considered out of danger from that disease. On the evening of her death she seemed bright and cheerful, and was sitting by the fire conversing with her family when the fatal attack came. She asked to be helped to bed, and as her daughter, son and husband gathered around she told them that she was going, a few moments later the spirit of the faithful wife and mother returned to the God who gave it, the immediate cause of death being heart disease.
Mrs. Cole was a consistent Christian women, at the time of her death being a member of the Missionary Baptist church. she leaves a husband and six children to revere her memory, and the community deeply sympathizes with the bereaved family in their affliction. the funeral services, conducted at the Presbyterian church last Saturday by Re. E.G. Fowler, were largely attended and a deserved tribute to the deceased.
We have no other information on Catherine Lindford other that the fact that she not only raised her own five Cole children (her first child died at the age of 5 months) but also raised Eli F. Misner who was apparently her first husband’s nephew.
The following obituary appears in a scrapbook owned by Melvina Burnap. The paper is which it was published is unknown.
Information taken from page 34 of Burnap and Cole History, “Crossing the Plains” by Maud Burnap Cole. Compiled and printed by Bonnie June Lindroff (Boone) in 1965.
Bonnie June Lindroff (Boone) Nov. 1,1926 – Oct 9, 1967 was the daughter of Cordilla Maud Cole and Everett Boone.