Nancy (Comfort) Crawford Betts
August 6, 1802 – June 4, 1884
From the June 6, 1884 Supplement to the Enterprise (Galesburg, Michigan):
Mrs. N. B. Betts passed from earth life last Wednesday evening at 11:15. Funeral at half past two to-day at Baptist Church. Only two of her sons, Prosper and Hiram Crawford, were able to be present.
===========
From the June 19, 1884 Omro Journal, Page 1:
IN MEMORIAM.
Mrs. Betts died very suddenly at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. C. L. Keith[1], on June 4, at 11 p. m. She had been unusually well during the day, had been visiting her grand daughter, Mrs. H. A. Brown[2], and others, and at nine o’clock returned home and in two hours she passed away.
Her maiden name was Nancy B. Comfort. She was born in Orange Co., New York, August 6, 1802, and removed to Beamsville, Canada, in 1812, and was married to Hiram Crawford July 25, 1820. In 1846 they moved to Galesburg, Mich., and from thence to Dowagiac, Mich., in 1851. Mr. Crawford, her husband, died September 2, 1852. After his death she went to Omro, Wis., where she married Rev. Platt Betts, a Baptist minister, on November 8, 1857. Mr. Betts died December 29, 1861, since which time she has lived in Galesburg, mostly with her daughter Mrs. C. L. Keith. She has reared a family of eleven children[3], nine sons and two daughters. Six of these are now living, one daughter and five sons[4], all of whom are good, substantial citizens. She was the mother of a noble family of children. Could there be a greater evidence or a more fitting testimony of genuine worth than the bringing up of such a family as she has. When we reflect the life of this old lady dying at the age of eighty-two, and think of the suffering and care she has endured for these long years, the life of a true mother, we feel that she deserves the blessings of Heaven and our greatest admiration.
——-
[1] Sarah (Crawford) Keith
[2] Nancy (Keith) Brown
[3] In the Keith archives there is a picture showing a young couple standing in front of a monument with the following inscription (it was very faint and the dates may be in error):
In Memory of
Walter Crawford Died Aug 31, 1823
Francis Crawford Died Aug 10, 1832
Nancy M. Crawford Died June 6, 1844
It is believed that these were Nancy’s and Hiram’s children, who died in childhood; research is ongoing
[4] Sarah, Robert, Henry, David, Hiram and Pros. Besides the children listed in Footnote #3, Edwin and James had predeceased Nancy
Letters & Diary Entries From the 1860s through the 1890s 