Esther Connor Wilmeth, aged eighty-three years, died at the home of her son, Dr. F. L. Wilmeth, 609 South Seventeenth Street, Saturday morning, where she had made her home for the past three years. Five of her children were present at her bedside. She was born in Indiana on March 4, 1832, from whence her family removed to Iowa, settling near Mt. Pleasant in the old Quaker settlement of Salem, when she was six years of age. She related to her children many experiences with the Indians during her childhood, as they lived near the old government trail to Ft. Madison, where the claims of the Indians were paid and where they traveled often on foot, begging and stealing from the settlers on the way. Later she taught school near the present town of Fairfield, in a log school house still standing a short time since, with the figures and letters on the inside of the door which she used for teaching. She was married at the age of twenty to William H. Wilmeth of Salem, Ia., and ten children were born to them, seven of whom survive. She leaves also twenty-two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. During the war of the rebellion her husband served four years in company C of the Twenty-fifth Iowa volunteers, and her hardships will be readily understood by those who experienced the same trying times, as well as her joy at his return, uninjured, at its close. They removed to Nebraska in 1885, homesteading near Stockville, Frontier county. They were the only settlers in the McCook district who had continously lived on their claim, there being at least one member of the family present on the homestead every day of the five years’ residence required by law. Their residence was continued there until the time of the death of her husband, in 1889, when she removed to Moorefield and later to Lincoln. The body will be taken to Moorefield Monday morning to be buried beside her husband. It will be accompanied from here by E. A. Wilmeth of Salem, Ia.; Mrs. Anna McMichael, Mrs. Hattie Fetz, Mrs. J. W. Scarborough and Dr. F. L. Wilmeth, and will be met by the other two sons, Fred A. and Howard Wilmeth.

The funeral will be held from the Methodist church, of which she had been a faithful member since her marriage, she having been a member of the Quaker church previous to that time. The funeral service will be conducted by Rev. H. H. Harmon of the First Christian church of this city.

The Nebraska State Journal 46():11 Sunday, January 9, 1916