Eliza Ruth (Calvert) McCandless Submitted by Jessie McCandless Baker Tue., November 7, 2000 Eliza Ruth Calvert McCandless died in Rose Valley Township, Stafford County, Kansas the day before the weekly newspaper printing, so she ended up with two obituaries. The first, very brief article appeared in the St. John Weekly News on April 6, 1916, titled "Death of Aged Lady," and it reads: " Grandma McCandless, one of Rose Valley township's most highly respected ladies, died at 4:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. The funeral services will be conducted from Antrim Methodist church tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 o'clock and burial will be in Plano cemetery. Grandma McCandless would have been eighty-six years of age, had she survived until the coming July. Obituary has been promised for next week." The second appeared in the St. John Weekly News on April 20, 1916. Titled "Eliza Ruth McCandless," it reads: "In our last issue we promised a more extended mention this week week of the death of Mrs. Eliza Ruth McCandless, who died last week in Rose Valley township at the home of her daughter Mrs. N.C. Adams. Complying with our request a friend of the family has handed in the following. Mrs. Eliza Ruth McCandless, or as she was known by almost everyone in the Antrim neighborhood where she had lived so long, "Grandma" McCandless, passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. N.C. Adams, in Rose Valley township, Wednesday, April 5, 1916. Taken with a stroke of paralysis about two weeks before, she suffered much and felt that her time had come to go to the Better Land. She was born near Hiramsburg, Ohio, July 9, 1830, and had she lived until the coming July, would have been eighty-six years old. August 30, 1855, she was married to George H. McCandless and ten years after moved to Missouri, where the family lived until 1878, when they moved to Stafford county, Kansas. The country was very new at the time and it was from her that the post office got its name--Antrim. She, with her husband, endured many hardships incidental to pioneer life, but with their energy, thrift, and careful management, brought up their large family who have all done well and made their mark in the world. Her husband's death occurred in 1886, and for nearly thirty years, she made her home with her children, where she was always a welcomed guest. Besides her five daughters and three sons, she is survived by twenty-two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, most of whom were present at the funeral."
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