The following is a newspaper abstract from the Winfield Daily Courier in January of 1945. It basically is a short biography of a pioneer woman of Cowley County, Kansas, MRS. MARY JANE (EDNEY) SMITH who celebrated her 97th birthday on January 4, 1945. She was my great-great-grandmother (I am descended through her oldest daughter, MRS. MARTHA MERRIAH "MATTIE" (SMITH) SIMMONS, of Dexter, Cowley County, Kansas). It is a very interesting story describing a bit of early pioneer life in Cowley County. ----LaVelda Faull Winfield Daily Courier Society News January 1945 (Abstracted by LaVelda Faull from a zeroxed copy of the original from the paper.) MRS. MARY JANE SMITH, 97, OBSERVES BIRTHDAY IN HER HOME "Mrs. Mary Jane Smith was 97 years old on January 4, and to celebrate the event quietly, five of her daughters and grandchildren met at the home of Mrs. and mrs. John B. Yianakopulos, 103 Indiana, Sunday for dinner. A large angelfood cake centered the dinner table. Mrs. Smith's health is excellent for one of advanced years; her eyesight and hearing are splendid and yesterday all day she was happy about the celebration of her anniversary. She is up and around the home each day, but for the past 18 months she has not been able to set out of doors or go places much. Twice a day she takes a short nap, morning and afternoon. She reads and sews without the aid of glasses, having discarded them sometime ago. Mrs. Smith has known all of the hardships and privations of a pioneer woman. She was born in Salem, Dent County, Missouri, January 4, 1848, the daughter of AMELIA and SAMUEL EDNEY, who came to Missouri from North Carolina, in the very early days. Her folks died in Missouri. In 1866 she was married to a young Englishman, BRITAIN C. SMITH. They continued to live in the Ozark region for a time after their marriage, but with the guerilla warfare raging in which he was called upon to participate, he decided, he did not want to rear his children in that atmosphere, and they decided to come to Kansas. In 1875, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, together with a group of relatives, started to this state with three covered wagons, drawn by oxen, in the wagon train. They settled at Oswego and farmed there a year but times were hard and they decided to move on, and came to Cowley county where they pre-empted a claim at the head of Grouse Creek near Latham. The land was broad prairie, no homes for miles and miles. There they had the taste of early day life - it was soon after the grasshopper scourge and many, many times food was scarce. Prairie chicken and wild turkey were common, so they set traps and caught their meat to care for them through the winter months. Indians were common, too -- they would ride up to the house on their ponies, wearing bright blankets and lashing their whips and demand food from the Smiths. One time they went to the smoke house where hung a side of pork and said, "We want hog meat". They took the meat and divided it among them and left. Mrs. Smith had a spinning wheel. She carded wool and spun and wove flax, making the family's clothes and blankets as well, even striping them. There were no fences at the time and she milked the cows at the end of a lariat rope. Mrs. Smith was the mother of 15 children, 11 of whom are living. She has 75 grandchildren and 60 great-grandchildren. She says the small grandchildren do not annoy her or make her nervous and the little folks are always interested in not having Grandma get sick. As one of her little grandsons said Sunday while the company was around, "Come quick and close the door. Grandma can't have a draft on her.." In 1910 the Smiths decided to leave the Grouse creek farm and go to Emporia, where they farmed for 10 years, returning to Winfield, Kansas in 1920 when Mr. Smith retired. He died in 1932. Mrs. Smith's oldest child is 78 and the youngest one is 49.. She has eight grandchildren in service and all are overseas. One granddaughter is a WAC in England and another granddaughter is an army nurse in France. The others are either in Germany or Italy. She is a member of the Free Methodist Church. Her {surviving}children are JOSEPH SMITH, Ringwood, Oklahoma; TYRA of Medicine Lodge, JOHN of Blue Mound, RUFUS of Humeston, Iowa; ALONZO of Sedan; MRS. RUTH PICKENS, Cambridge; MRS. CELIA EMMELL; MRS. HESTER FULTON; MRS. VESTA YIANAKOPULOS; and MRS. AUGUSTA GILLESPIE of Winfield, MRS. MAY ROWE of Redland, California." _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com