The end of more than one hundred years of life came to Mrs. Margaret E. Morlan at the home of her son, Geo. Morlan and wife, southwest of Hawarden, about 10 o'clock Sunday night. The mind and body which had been active for more than a century at last found rest when the spark of life gradually flickered out. Her death marked the passing of Union county's oldest resident and perhaps the oldest in the entire state of South Dakota.

Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon at the Methodist church in Hawarden, conducted by Rev. J.W. LaGrone, the pastor, and interment was made in Grace Hill cemetery in this city.

Margaret Ellis was born in the Province of Ontario, Canada, Nov. 21, 1825, and she celebrated the 100th anniversary of her birth just a little over two months ago. At that time she was enjoying fairly good health and received a considerable number of callers who came to congratulate her upon rounding out a century of life. When she was quite young, she moved with her parents to Ohio where her girlhood was spent. She was united in marriage with Barzilla Morlan at West Alexander, Pa., Oct. 1, 1854. Mr. Morlan served in the Union army during the Civil War and in 1873 moved with his family to Calliope and lived in town for three years. In 1876 they homesteaded in Union County five miles west of Hawarden. Mrs. Morlan has continued to reside in this community during all the intervening years. Mr. Morlan passed away on January 11, 1898. Five children were born to them and two of them were daughters, preceded their mother in death. Alice Lee died in infancy and Mrs. Annie May Rose passed away in 1909. The children who survived are George Morlan of Union County; E.L. Morlan of Hot Springs, Ark; and Mrs. Henrietta Record of Osmond, Nebraska. Mrs. Record came to attend the funeral. E.L. Morlan was prevented from being here by [illegible].


The Independent (Hawarden, Iowa) 2/4/1926