contributor: Gloria A. Olson

Oconto Reporter 
July 1906. She died on July 5, 1906.  

OLD RESIDENT IS GONE
Mrs. John Matravers Passes away of Heart Disease
RESIDENT OVER 50 YEARS
In City and County--
Husband, Three Sons, Four Daughters and 29 Grandchildren Survive Her.

Mrs. John Matravers passed away at her home in Couillardville about ? o'clock last Thursday afternoon of heart disease with which she had been troubled for more than a year but confined her to bed only three days. The deceased was born in Chard Common, England, December 20, 1833 and was married to John Matravers April 10, 1884.

Immediately after they were married they were determined to see the new world, as it was then called, and went to Liverpool and took voyage on the sailing vessel called the Anglo Saxon. After being six weeks on the ocean they landed at Quebec, and remained there about six months.

From there they came to Milwaukee. After staying there two weeks they came to Oconto where they remained for about two years. Then, Mr. Matravers being an expert farmer, decided to buy a piece of land and go to farming, which he did, and in 1857, bought the land where they now live and have resided there ever since. Two years ago they celebrated their golden wedding.

Mrs. Matravers was a model Christian woman, having joind the Methodist church about forty years ago and ever since has been working hard to advance the cause of Christ.

Besides her aged husband she leaves to mourn her loss three sons, Edwin, Grant and Yarwood, and four daughters, Mrs. Samuel Couillard, Mrs. Ed. Couillard, Mrs. Edmund Classon and Mrs. John Porterfield. All of whom were present at her bedside during her last moments and the twenty four hours previous of which she was unconscious.

She also leaves twenty-nine grandchildren, six of whom acted as pallbearers. They were Misses Lucy, Stella, Zora and Nellie Couillard, Edith Porterfield and Mabel Classon. They were all dressed in white and with bare heads paid the last tribute of respect to their good aged grandmother.

The funeral was held Saturday afternoon at one o'clock, from the Couillardville Presbyterian church, the Rev. Shepard, pastor of the church, officiating. The pulpit was draped in mourning and the alter and casket strewn with flowers, testifying to the high esteem in which the deceased was held.

The funeral was one of the largest that has been held there for years.

"A Precious one from us has gone
A voice we loved is stilled,
A place is vacant in our home,
Which never can be filed.

God in his wisdom has recalled
The voice his love hath given,
And tho' the body moulders here,
The soul is safe in Heaven."