Mary Drummond Akins was born September 11, 1817 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, the second child and one of 11 siblings to Andrew Drummond and Elizabeth Loutzenheiser.
When Mary was a small child, the family moved to Licking County, then Franklin County, Ohio. On June 27, 1838, she married Samuel Avery Akins who was born April 28, 1811 in Cecil County, Maryland. Samuel was a Methodist preacher and farmer. Samuel, Mary, her parents and siblings moved to Ogle County, Illinois where they settled on a farm in Pine Rock township. Seven children were born to them. Samuel died at the age of 45 years in 1856. Mary continued to live on the farm until her children reached adulthood.
In 1879, at the age of 61, she and her children migrated to Antelope County where they all homesteaded. She was a devout Methodist. Her home was the site of early Sunday School classes. She died January 19, 1903 at the age of 86 and is buried in the Memorial Cemetery at Plainview, Nebraska. The children are: Almedia married Martin V. Plantz; Elizabeth married John W. Todd; Euphemia A. married Benjamin F. Todd; Alvah D. married Harriet Cable; David A. married Carrie Orvall; Samuel Lee married Mary Lawler; Letha Emily Ann married Estes Orlando Howe; and two sons, Lewis D. and D. S. died in infancy.
Mary Drummond Akins was a courageous woman, three times a pioneer, who raised a large family as a widow and then migrated with them all to Antelope County.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007