----Source: GREENWOOD GLEANER (Greenwood, Wis.) 11/04/1915

Varney, Cynthia E. (17 Augl 1842 - 25 OCT 1915)

Mrs. Cynthia E. Varney passed away Oct. 25th, 1915, at Cheyenne, Wyo., where she had been making her home for the last two years. She was at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mabel Lamont, at the time of her death, which came without a moment’s warning. She had been troubled for a few weeks with indigestion and was somewhat weaker than usual, but was feeling better and stronger each day, and at the time of her death she was in a happy, hopeful frame of mind, planning a grip to Helena to visit her son Ralph. At 3:30 o’clock p.m. she quietly passed away as one falls asleep. Mrs. Lamont was alone with her mother at the time, although two other daughters, Edith and Maud, were working in Cheyenne. The three girls took charge and brought the body to Greenwood, Clark County, Wis. for burial, which took place in the Greenwood Cemetery Friday, Oct. 29.

Services were held at the home of her oldest son, Charles A.L. Varney and at the M.E. Church, Rev. J.S. Willmarth officiating, assisted by Rev. Allard of Arkansaw, Wis., a friend of the family, who delivered the sermon, and by Rev. W.T. Hendren. The three sons, Charles, Alba and Ralph, and three grandsons, Dale and Everett, sons of Alba, and Verne, son of Charles, were the pallbearers.

Mrs. Varney had lived to be 73 years of age. She was born Aug. 17th, 1842, at Norridgenock, Maine, the youngest of seven children to Zechariah and Polly Withee.

Her girlhood days were spent in Maine, and she told many interesting accounts of the primitive district school she attended in the early days. Her schooling was completed at the Academy in Bangor, and she taught several terms before her marriage July 13, 1861, to Hiram W. Varney of Skowhegan, Maine. This was during stirring times and the Civil War interrupted their married life a year later, when Mr. Varney joined the 19th Volunteers, Co. A., until he was mustered out in July 1865. They left Maine the following month for Wisconsin and spent about four and a half years at La Crosse. Except for three years at Osage, Iowa, the remainder of her married life was passed in Clark County, Wis., nearly thirty years of which she lived on the farm near Greenwood, where Mr. Varney cut down the timber and cleared land for a home, with early pioneers in this country of pine forests. The balance of her life was spent at Greenwood, where her husband’s death occurred Oct. 25th, 1902.

In the early seventies Mrs. Varney taught the school in the little log school house where what is now known as the Benjamin school, doing her pioneer work in educating the young minds of children who now are gray haired men and women living near and far from the old home. It is noteworthy that the body of Mrs. Varney was placed beside that of her husband on the thirteenth anniversary of his funeral. All the members of the family were present at the funeral, with the exception of the wife and two sons of Ralph, who are in Helena, Mont., and Forrest the eldest son of Charles Varney, who is in Washington, D.C.

The many floral offerings of family and friends were beautiful and gave evidence of appreciation of and regard for the qualities of character possessed by the deceased, which made her the loving mother, and a friend who it was a privilege to know and remember.

[Postcard sent by Cynthia to Carrie Damon]