Mary Ann Bodkin Kiracofe
Birth 16 Apr 1811
Virginia, USA
Death 6 Mar 1903 (aged 91)
Doe Hill, Highland County, Virginia, USA
Burial
McKendree Methodist Church Cemetery
McDowell, Highland County, Virginia, USA
Highland Recorder March 6, 1903
Doe Hill News: Mrs. Mary A Kiracofe, one of the oldest, if not the oldest lady in this section, we are sorry to say, is serilously ill, at the home of her son-in-law Mr. Jacob Siron.
Highland Recorder March 13, 1903
ANOTHER OLD LAND MARK GONE
Died, at the home of her son-in-law Mr. Jacob B. Siron, March 6, 1903, at 5 a.m., Mrs. Mary A. Kiracofe, aged 91 years, 11 months and 20 days. She was sick only a short time and her mind, which was very little impaired by old age, remained clear until a few days before her death. She was twice married, her first husband was Henry McCoy, who died of smallpox, during the Civil War, when the neighborhood of Doe Hill, was smitten with that terrible scourge, and she with her own hands, helped to bury the dead, there not being men enough at home to bury the dead, and many will remember her helpfulness and kind ministrations to the sick and dying at that time. To them were born 13 children, ten of whom are living. Her oldest son Jackson preceded her only a few months ago. Her next oldest son, Benjamin McCoy of Webster City, Iowa, a very worthy son, when notified of her illness, hastened to her bedside, arriving too late to see her in the flesh, but while standing by her body, paid this beautiful tribute to her: "If I am anything in this world, I owe it to that dear mother." God be praised for christian mothers would there be more of them. She leaves 88 grandchildren, 90 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great-grandchildren. Her life was a very eventful one, and her memory was remarkable. One of the incidents of her childhood which she often related is well, worthy of mention. At that time, there was quite an exodus from this country to Ohio, among them her parents. After being there a short time, they were deserted by a faithless husband & father. Her uncle James Curry, hearing of their trouble, went to their relief. There were two other children besides herself, Eliza, aged 5, and a brother of two summers. The difficulty of carrying the three children was soon solved. The mother took a bed blanket, sewed up the ends, and part way up the sides, leaving an opening in the center large enough to admit the two girls, Mary and Eliza, one in either end, which they threw across the uncle's horse, the mother carrying the baby, and in this way they came home through an almost trackless wilderness,camping where night over took them, fording the Ohio river, it being low at that time, but not so low but that the blankets dipped in the water and gave the children a bath. Her early married life was one of sore trials. She was very industrious, manufacturing the goods and making with her own hands the clothing for her large family. It can be said of her as of Dorcas of old. "Her life was full of good works and alms deeds which she did". Having made, after she was past sixty, 132 counterpanes, most of which she presented to her children and friends, who will appreciate them all the more, since the hands that made them are cold in death. Her second husband was Geo. Kiracofe of Augusta county, a soldier of the war of 1812, who died some twenty years ago and as his widow has drawn a pension all these years which she used, for the benefit of her children and friends in need, and enclosed the old family graveyard, marked the graves of her husbands, father and mother, children and other friends. Mrs. Kiracofe joined the Methodist church more than seventy years ago, of which she has been a worthy member ever since, lending a liberal support to all of its institutions. She had been a number of years and was still at her death a member of the W.F.M. Society at Doe Hill, also a member of the Sunday school, probably, the oldest S.S. scholar in the State. Five of her children were present at her funeral, which was held in McKendree church, services conducted by her pastor Rev. M.P. Weikle after which she was laid to lest in the cemetery, which was once the old camp-ground, almost, if not quite on the exact spot where Rev. A.Q. Flaherty's tent stood, and within a few hundred yards of her birth place, a very fitting spot for her last resting place, and as her voice mingled in the songs and shouts of loved ones on the old camp-ground, so, on the morn of the resurrection, a glorified being, will she be reunited with them on the great camping-ground above, where her voice will mingle with theirs in one glad song of rejoicing forever and ever. One who loved her, Doe Hill, Va.
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