Maria <I>Bash</I> Coulter

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Maria Bash Coulter

Birth
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA
Death
2 Nov 1915 (aged 84)
Conrad, Grundy County, Iowa, USA
Burial
Conrad, Grundy County, Iowa, USA Add to Map
Plot
Section 4, Lot 10
Memorial ID
View Source
Maria Bash was the second daughter of Christian Bash & Elizabeth George. Her name was pronounced with a long i---Ma-rye-a. At age 16, she married on June 13, 1848 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, to Samuel Coulter, second son of James Coulter & Cynthia Rose. Samuel & Maria had 11 children: Francis Marion, Emily, Priscilla, Jerusha, Mose, Aaron, Julia, Louisa, Lee, Florence, and Laura.

Maria's father Chris Bash died in January 1852. His will, dated 29 December 1851, left $200 to each of his three daughters, to be paid in increments of $50 each year. $200 in 1851 would equal about $5,880 today. Maria's inheritance probably helped pay for the 1855 migration from western Pennsylvania to central Iowa by Maria, her husband Samuel, and their first four children, Francis, Emily, Priscilla, & Jerusha--the latter just a baby. They would have needed to buy a covered wagon & a team of oxen to pull it for the long trip west through Ohio, Indiana, & Illinois. No bridges spanned the mighty Mississippi, so they would have paid to be ferried across with their wagon & oxen & milk cows tied to the back of the covered wagon. Three of Maria's siblings--Henry Bash, Magdalena Pettycrew, & Israel Bash--also settled in Marshall County, Iowa, with their spouses & young children.

The first photo shows Maria Bash Coulter around 1900, photographed at her home in Conrad, Iowa, by her visiting grandson, Wally Suter. Wallace Greyson Suter was a professional photographer based in Neligh, Nebraska.

The second photo shows Maria in front of her home in Conrad, Iowa, on her 60th wedding anniversary, June 13, 1908. Samuel's listing shows a closeup of him from the same larger photo. Maria had one blue eye and one brown eye--a rare occurrence called heterochromia. In old age, as seen in this photo, her left eyebrow turned white, but her right eyebrow remained dark. Her young granddaughter Lois Coulter, trying to resemble her beloved grandmother, shaved off her own left eyebrow! Lois' mother Etta was not amused.

The third visual is a photo postcard of Samuel & Maria Coulter on their back steps, photographed by their son Lee (who lived next door with his wife Ella) on, I believe, Maria's 84th birthday, October 22, 1915. She died 11 days later, Tuesday night, November 2, 1915, about 11 o'clock, of heart trouble.

Violets were Maria's favorite flower. When her children were little, they would pick wild violets to give their mother for a bouquet in the Coulter cabin on the Iowa prairie. Maria died at home in Conrad, Iowa, on November 2, 1915. The violets of spring were long gone. So her youngest daughter, Laura Stackhouse, had the undertaker order a nosegay of hothouse violets, which were placed in Maria's folded hands in her coffin. When Laura's eldest brother, Francis Marion Coulter, saw them, he shook his head, chuckled, and remarked, "Isn't that just like Laurie, to waste 59 cents on a bunch of flowers to bury underground!" (Keep in mind that many workers labored all day for just one dollar in those days. Adjusted for inflation, 59 cents in 1915 equals $12.78 in 2010.)

Funeral services were held from the Coulter home on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The pallbearers were six grandsons: Guy and Fred Coulter, Charles Crecelius, Alva, Louis, and Joseph Specht. Nine of the ten surviving children were there: Francis Marion Coulter of Conway Springs, Kansas; Priscilla Sanders of Rhodes, Iowa; Jerusha Suter of Salem, Oregon, Moses Coulter, Aaron Coulter, Louisa Specht, Lee Coulter, Florence Fetters, and Laura Stackhouse, all of the Conrad area. Laura lived on the old Coulter farmstead southwest of Conrad, with her husband Will and their two children: Dorothy and Wayne. Louisa Specht lived on a farm just east of there with her husband Joe and some of their 12 children who were still at home.

Maria's eldest daughter, Emily Coulter Dickerson, was confined to a wheelchair at her home in DesLacs, North Dakota, due to severe arthritis. She sent her husband John Wesley Dickerson to represent her. And daughter Julia Maria Coulter Crecelius had died in 1897 of pleurisy, leaving her widower Allen with seven children aged 15 and younger.
Maria Bash was the second daughter of Christian Bash & Elizabeth George. Her name was pronounced with a long i---Ma-rye-a. At age 16, she married on June 13, 1848 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, to Samuel Coulter, second son of James Coulter & Cynthia Rose. Samuel & Maria had 11 children: Francis Marion, Emily, Priscilla, Jerusha, Mose, Aaron, Julia, Louisa, Lee, Florence, and Laura.

Maria's father Chris Bash died in January 1852. His will, dated 29 December 1851, left $200 to each of his three daughters, to be paid in increments of $50 each year. $200 in 1851 would equal about $5,880 today. Maria's inheritance probably helped pay for the 1855 migration from western Pennsylvania to central Iowa by Maria, her husband Samuel, and their first four children, Francis, Emily, Priscilla, & Jerusha--the latter just a baby. They would have needed to buy a covered wagon & a team of oxen to pull it for the long trip west through Ohio, Indiana, & Illinois. No bridges spanned the mighty Mississippi, so they would have paid to be ferried across with their wagon & oxen & milk cows tied to the back of the covered wagon. Three of Maria's siblings--Henry Bash, Magdalena Pettycrew, & Israel Bash--also settled in Marshall County, Iowa, with their spouses & young children.

The first photo shows Maria Bash Coulter around 1900, photographed at her home in Conrad, Iowa, by her visiting grandson, Wally Suter. Wallace Greyson Suter was a professional photographer based in Neligh, Nebraska.

The second photo shows Maria in front of her home in Conrad, Iowa, on her 60th wedding anniversary, June 13, 1908. Samuel's listing shows a closeup of him from the same larger photo. Maria had one blue eye and one brown eye--a rare occurrence called heterochromia. In old age, as seen in this photo, her left eyebrow turned white, but her right eyebrow remained dark. Her young granddaughter Lois Coulter, trying to resemble her beloved grandmother, shaved off her own left eyebrow! Lois' mother Etta was not amused.

The third visual is a photo postcard of Samuel & Maria Coulter on their back steps, photographed by their son Lee (who lived next door with his wife Ella) on, I believe, Maria's 84th birthday, October 22, 1915. She died 11 days later, Tuesday night, November 2, 1915, about 11 o'clock, of heart trouble.

Violets were Maria's favorite flower. When her children were little, they would pick wild violets to give their mother for a bouquet in the Coulter cabin on the Iowa prairie. Maria died at home in Conrad, Iowa, on November 2, 1915. The violets of spring were long gone. So her youngest daughter, Laura Stackhouse, had the undertaker order a nosegay of hothouse violets, which were placed in Maria's folded hands in her coffin. When Laura's eldest brother, Francis Marion Coulter, saw them, he shook his head, chuckled, and remarked, "Isn't that just like Laurie, to waste 59 cents on a bunch of flowers to bury underground!" (Keep in mind that many workers labored all day for just one dollar in those days. Adjusted for inflation, 59 cents in 1915 equals $12.78 in 2010.)

Funeral services were held from the Coulter home on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The pallbearers were six grandsons: Guy and Fred Coulter, Charles Crecelius, Alva, Louis, and Joseph Specht. Nine of the ten surviving children were there: Francis Marion Coulter of Conway Springs, Kansas; Priscilla Sanders of Rhodes, Iowa; Jerusha Suter of Salem, Oregon, Moses Coulter, Aaron Coulter, Louisa Specht, Lee Coulter, Florence Fetters, and Laura Stackhouse, all of the Conrad area. Laura lived on the old Coulter farmstead southwest of Conrad, with her husband Will and their two children: Dorothy and Wayne. Louisa Specht lived on a farm just east of there with her husband Joe and some of their 12 children who were still at home.

Maria's eldest daughter, Emily Coulter Dickerson, was confined to a wheelchair at her home in DesLacs, North Dakota, due to severe arthritis. She sent her husband John Wesley Dickerson to represent her. And daughter Julia Maria Coulter Crecelius had died in 1897 of pleurisy, leaving her widower Allen with seven children aged 15 and younger.


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