Martha Babcock Van Horn, daughter of John and Elizabeth Babcock, was born in Clark County, Ohio, May 26, 1836, and died at the home of her son, U. Sherman Van Horn, Welton, Iowa, April 24, 1916.
When she was about five years old the family moved to Shelby County, Ohio, two miles north of Port Jefferson. At about the age of fourteen they moved to Defiance County, five miles south of Fort Defiance. After a few years they came to Welton, Iowa, in 1854, where she spent the remainder of her life. She has been for over sixty-one years a faithful member of the Welton Seventh Day Baptist Church, being one of the twenty-one constituent members.
She was united in marriage to John B. Van Horn, April 8, 1856, Rev. Lewis A. Davis officiating. Mr. Van Horn died May 20, 1900, aged sixty-eight years. To them were born seven children.
The first three died in childhood. Those still surviving are Mr. Clara L. Van Horn, Mr. U. Sherman Van Horn of Welton, Iowa, Mrs. Naomi Ruth Van Horn of Garwin, Iowa, and Mrs. Lizzie A. Knight, of Gentry, Ark., who with two brothers, James O. Babcock, of Welton, Iowa, and N. Wilson Babcock, of North Loup, Neb., thirteen grandchildren and numerous other more distant relatives and friends, mourn their loss, yet not as those who have no hope.
Funeral services were conducted by her former pastor, Rev. G. W. Burdick, of Milton, Wis., and interment was made by the side of her husband and three little children, in the cemetery by the church. G. W. B.
