----Source: The Stark Family Scrapbook.

MARTHA BROWN DIES AFTER LONG ILLNESS

Mrs. Martha Brown, 86 years of age, and one of the early pioneers of the village of Withee, succumbed to an illness that had kept her hospitalized for the past six months at the Sacred Heart hospital at Eau Claire, at three o'clock last Friday afternoon, July 18, 1947.

Funeral services were conducted Monday afternoon at three o'clock from the Methodist Church at Withee, with the Rev. James Irish, of Thorp officiating. Burial was mad at Greenwood.

Pallbearers at the service were; H. M. Wollum, Wm. Wollum, Richard Rabaska, Sr., John Zasoba, Withee, Vester Price of Cadott, and Ed Pasko of Abbotsford.

Martha Brown, nee Rockwell, was born on September 22, 1860, at Waupun, Wisconsin. On October 14, 1879, she was united in marriage to Charles A. Brown at Neillsville. The first five years of their married life was spent in northern Minnesota, after which they moved to Withee, which community was at that time in the early stages of development. Mr. Brown and her husband were among the early pioneers, acquiring a love for the community which she was so much a part of that she made her home there for 53 years. During the early days she assisted her husband in his work and raised a fine family to whom she was a devoted mother. The Wisconsin Central railroad went through Withee in those days and Mr. Brown drove the stage coach with the mail from Withee to Neillsville. She played an active part in his life and that of the mail, as she worked hard preparing for the daily trips.

Her husband preceded her in death having passed away in 1905. Surviving her are seven childreen, five daughters, Sarah Beebe, Vesper; Elsie Price, Cadott; Florence Honeywell, Spokane, Washington; Mrs. Edward Pasko, Abbotsford, and Mrs. H. M. Wollum, Owen; two sons, Earl Brown, Red Bluff, California, and Emmett Brown of Chicago. Twenty-two grandchildren and twenty-six great grandchildren.