Mary Jane Fairly

Mary Reed was born as Mary Jane Fairly on December 22, 1856 in Cedar County Iowa. Her parents were Samuel Fairley and Margaret Scott. She was the fifth child and oldest girl of the family. Her grandfather Prior Scott was one of the earliest settlers of the County back in 1837. In the 1850 census the Fairley family was living on a farm next to the Prior Scott family, so Mary must have grew up on a farm. Her mother still owned 130 acres in 1878. Her father Samuel died in 1868 when Mary was twelve years old. She was not yet 15 years old when she married Francis Reed on 11 September 1871. Their first son Samuel was born in Iowa in 1873.

Their next son, my grandfather Frank was born in 1881 in Kansas. At this time, I do not know why they moved to Kansas but by the time their next child was born they were back in Iowa. Their last child was also born in Kansas in 1895. Maybe Francis Reed had relatives in Kansas. Some time after that they moved back to Iowa. The 1900 census showed they were living in Des Moines township in Dallas County, Iowa. They had a total of eight children, three of whom probably died as infants or children.

In December of 1920 her husband Francis went to their son Frank’s home west of Madrid to help him do some work. He went out in the fields but didn’t come back. When they found him, he was in bad shape. He had suffered a stroke and after lingering a few days died on December 5th without regaining consciousness.

In 1935, my mother Jennie Nolette, made a trip to Iowa with the Blanshaws. She stayed three months in Iowa. During her stay, she spent a few days visiting her Grandmother Mary Reed in Madrid. Apparently Mary owned her own small home right in the town of Madrid.

Jennie observed that her Grandmother was a serious woman but she treated Jennie very well. Mary Reed dressed very neatly and was very fastidious about her personal appearance. This personal fastidiousness carried over to her home, which she kept very neatly. She was very friendly to Jennie but was not one to sit around and laugh and joke. At this time Mary Jane was 79 years old. When my mother left, her Grandmother Mary Reed gave her a bag of black walnuts. They were extremely hard to crack but were the best nuts she had ever ate.

Mary Reed use to visit the family at Deer River with her daughter Mary and Mary’s husband Bent Davis. They sometimes came up on the train and sometimes they drove. When Grandma Amy Reed, Mary’s daughter-in-law, wrote her letters, Mary always answered by addressing the letter “Dear Frank.” This somewhat annoyed Grandma Amy Reed.

Around 1948 Rose Reed with her parents Frank and Amy Reed visited Mary Reed at the Lutheran Home for the Aged in Madrid, Iowa. Rose would have been around 13 years old at the time. It was the only time Rose visited her Grandma Mary Reed. Rose said that Mary was allowed to have her own furniture in her room. She had a beautiful matching bedroom set that included a double bed, night stand and a highboy dresser. She also had a rocking chair in the room.

Mary was propped up in the bed with pillows. She was meticulously dressed in a lace bed jacket. Her hair was fixed in a bun--the Gibson girl look, Rose said. They reminisced about the places they had lived and discussed the family. It was an exciting time for Rose because she finally got to spend some time with her other grandmother, her other grandmother being Lillian Dugan.

In 1951, the year before she died, Frank and Amy Reed visited her at the nursing home in Madrid but Mary did not recognize them. Mary was 95 years old when she died in January of 1952.

In 1995 I stopped at this home, now renamed Madrid Nursing Home, and tried to find out if they had any records of Mary Jane Reed. I talked to the administrator but she told me that all records are destroyed after three years. She took my name and address and would write me if they found anything at all about her. They were very nice but I never did hear from her.

David Nolette, 20 November 2000