This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: COLLINS Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/2VB.2ACE/432 Message Board Post: Departed this life in the city of Zanesville, Ohio at the residence of her son, Dr. Z. C. McElroy, Wednesday morning June 5th, 1872, Mrs. ANN McELROY, relict of the late Rev. Archibald McElroy of the Pittsburg Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, in the 84th year of her age. At the time of her death, Mrs. McElroy was one of the very few remaining links connecting the past with the present. One by one they are disappearing, and soon they will be extinct. Born in the state of Maryland in 1789, she carried over eleven years of the last century in her age. She was the daughter of James S. Collins, who with his family, removed to then North-west Territory in 1802, and settled on land previously entered, at what is now known as Bern Station Muskingum Valley Railway, near Lancaster, Ohio. She experienced in her early life all the hardships, perils, and privations, inseperably incident to early pioneers. At the time her father passed the Muskingum on his way to his new home there were but three log cabins where the city of Zanesville now stands, and, as Father Collins wagon was the first that passed west of the river at this point, he had to widen the bridle path with his axe to get to his destination. She was married to the Rev. Archibald McElroy in 1814. The life of a Methodist minister's wife was then a very different thing from what it is now. They lived in log cabins or hewed log houses; had to cultivate all the garden vegetables required by their families, had to make much of the cloth required for clothing and house use, from the wool or flax direct. In 1826 she was left a widow, with four children; Two others had already died, and two have died since, while two have survived her. She was a widow for about 46 years. The greater part of her life was passed in Central and Eastern Ohio, the last twenty two years in the city of Zanesville. About ten years since her vision became impaired, and for the last five years she was unable to read, and could only see just enough to go about. Mrs. McElroy was genial and pleasant in her disposition and was therefore much beloved by her circle of friends. She joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in the year 1800 - when the denomination was in its infancy - held her membership and lived religion all the way to the end. Mrs. McElroy never shrank from any duty imposed on her by her family, church or society, but did what she could with all her heart and might during her whole protracted life. Always prudent, economical, and industrious, hers was an eminently good and useful life and example. Her faith in her Redeemer never wavered during the three score and ten and odd years she was in his service. She loved her church with passionate fondness, as the means of God for the salvation of the world. She loved her Bible and read it every day until vision failed her, and the task of reading it to her devolved on others. She often talked of death. Had laid aside the clothing she desired put on her at her burial. Her son oft! en tried to get her consent to have her body taken and placed beside his father at Western Penn, but she never gave it. So she was tenderly laid in her last resting place in Woodlawn cemetery June 9th, 1872. The Zanesville Signal, published: Zanesville, Ohio Friday, June 28, 1872