MILFORD, Maria Bartlett - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

From an extended account of the life of Mrs. M. J. Milford, in the Attica Ledger, The Journal clips the following:

“Maria Jane Bartlett was born May 3, 1820, at Salem, Botetourt County, Va., and died at her home, 414 East Main Street, Attica, Ind., March 5, 1901, at 7:30 p.m. The funeral occurs on Friday afternoon.

Her father removed from Virginia to Warren County, Indiana, in 1828, and settled near Rainsville on Pine Creek, where she lived until May 31, 1842, when she was married to Marshall M. Milford, and came to live on the prairie farm of Robert Milford, two and one half miles east of Attica.

In the fall of 1852 the family moved to Attica and took up their residence in the house in which she died, and where she lived for more than forty eight years. Her children were Mrs. Benj. F. Hegler, who died in May, 1879, in this city; Mrs. Alex A. Rice, of Lafayette; Milton F. Milford and Robert L. Milford, of Wabash College, all of whom, excepting the latter, were at her bedside at the time of her death. In addition to the children above named, she had a son and a daughter, both of whom died in infancy. Her husband, Hon. Marshall M. Milford, died December 2, 1874. She was the last surviving member of her father’s family. She united with the Presbyterian Church of Attica under the ministrations of the Rev. Frank White, March 23, 1851, and labored to the end of her life with that church and congregation.

At the time of her death she was the oldest person of the congregation, and the oldest living member of the church. She was not a charter member of the church, but was among the first to unite with it on public profession of faith. She was a charter member of the Ladies’ Foreign Missionary Society of the church and in it worked with energy and zeal.

She was not impulsive or demonstrative in expression of her religious faith and feeling; but her quiet strength and patient trust in God were a persistent and energetic force that was felt in the church and community from the day she enlisted under the banner of the Great Caption of her salvation, to the moment of her death.” -s