Great grandmother on our mom’s side.

Mary Matilda Matney was born on August 6, 1875 in Appanoose, Iowa, her father, William, was 40 and her mother Mary (Van Dyke) was 34.  She married John Magill in 1892 (when she was 17 years old) and they had 10 children in 19 years.  She died on May 9, 1936, in Hoisington, Kansas, at the age of 60.  Her husband John Magill passed away in 1954 at the age of 89.  I vaguely remember meeting him in Saginaw at Grandpa and Grandma’s house and I would have been 3 years old at the most.

After giving birth to five sons, her first daughter was Mary Esther Magill, who was to marry Hudson Dexter Mead II.  The fruit of their loins is our mother Gloria Jane Mead.

Mary grew up in Kansas, married and started raising her family in Kansas, but sometime before 1913 the family moved to Falls City, Nebraska where the last three of her children were born.  Around 1923 it appears the family moved to South Dakota and sometime before 1930 she would move back to Kansas where she lived out her remaining days.

Hudson Mead II and her daughter Mary Esther were married in 1927 in Chadron, Nebraska, which is near South Dakota.  Don’t know how they met, but maybe she went to see a band called the “Revelers” and fell in love with him at first sight!

I would guess that the picture shown here was probably taken around the time she was married and she indeed was a beautiful looking woman.