Mrs. Mary Ramsey Lemons Wood
Buried at the IOOF Hillsboro Pioneer Cemetery. Stone
reads:
WOOD Mary Ramsey 1787 - 1908
First Mother Queen of Oregon Pioneers
From the Cemetery records:
DATES NOT IN ERROR. Lived to 121 years; recorded in
Washington County, OR Court House.
OLDEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD
Will Celebrate Her Birthday.
(Note: I have no idea the newspaper or the date for
this first article)
Today will mark the 119th anniversary of the birth
of a woman supposed to be the oldest female in
existence. She resides, with a daughter, at Hillsboro,
Washington County, in this state, and if appearances
are any indication, is good for several more years on
earth
Mrs. Mary Ramsey Lemons Wood was born May 20, 1787,
at Knowville, Tenn. She Joined the Methodist Episcopal
Church in 1799, and was married to Jacob Lemons in
1804, the issue being four children, as follows: Mary
Jane Lemons, born in 1806, died 1904; Isaac Lemons,
born 1809, died 1866; Mrs. Nancy Lemons Bullock, born
in 1816, died 1868; Mrs. Catherine B. Southworth
Reynolds, born in 1830, still living.
Mrs. Lemons removed with her first husband to
Alabama in 1837, and to Georgia in 1838, where Mr.
Lemons died the following year. In 1849 she removed to
Missouri, and in 1852 crossed the plains to Oregon,
settling in Washington County. She rode a bay mare, a
favorite animal which she called "Martha Washington
Pioneer," the entire distance.
May 28, 1854, she was married to John Wood, who
built and managed for a number of years the first
hotel in Hillsboro.
She is descended from English ancestry, her parents
first settling in the Carolinas, and afterward
removing to Tennessee.
Her father, Richard Ramsey, was a brickmaker, and
built, it is said, the first brick house in Knoxville,
Tenn. He dropped dead from heart disease.
Her mother died at the age of 110. The day before,
she walked five miles, knitting all the way, as was
her custom.
Mrs. Wood weights about 130 pounds, and is about 5
feet 3 inches in height.
Every year the birthday of Mrs. Wood is made the
occasion ofr a gathering of relatives and friends from
all sections of the Northwest, and in 1905 several
great-great-grandchildren were present. Her oldest
living grandchild is Mrs. Bullock, aged 56.
At last year's celebration all joined in singing
"Blest Be the Tie That Binds." The old lady said she
enjoyed the music, but could not hear the words with
sufficient distinctness to understand them. She sat in
a side room jus off the parlor of her dauther's home,
and received the congratulation of her numerous
friends, frequently interjecting some quaint remark
that made it clear to all that she realized the
company had assembled to do her honor.
The old lady's photograph adorns the walls of the
Historical Society at the City Hall, and is always the
subject of interest to visitors, yesterday being no
exception, when it became aparent that she was about
to turn another milestone in her long earthly career.
GRANDMA WOOD CELEBRATES 118TH
From: Hillsboro Argus, May 25th, 1905
Birth Anniversary at Home of Daughter, Mrs. Reynolds
A LARGE COMPANY VISITS HER
Native of Tennessee Reaches Remarkable Age
A celebration of more than passing interest took
place in this city last Saturday, it being the
birthday of Mrs. Mary Ramsey Lemon Wood, who was born
at Knoxville, Tenn, on May 20, 1787, according to the
family record, contained in the old family Bible now
in possession or relatives in Blue Springs, MO., and
thus showing that she was 118 years old, and by far
the oldest person in Oregon; in fact there are but a
few older than she in the United States or in the
world. Mrs. Wood's maiden name was Mary Ramsey, and
she had four sisters and three brothers, all living to
a good old age, but non passing the century mark,
although her mother attained the age of 102. As near
as can be ascertained Mrs. Wood was first married
about 1805, in Tennessee, to a Mr. Lemon, by whom she
had four children, the first, Mary Jane, born in 1806,
dying in Missouri in the Spring of 1904, in her 99th
year, and the second, a son, also dying in Missouri.
The third child, Mrs. Catherine Reynolds, was born
October 14, 1830 and the fourth, Mrs. Bullock, two
years later. The family removed to Alabama in 1837,
and the next year to Georgia. Here Mr. Lemon died in
1839. The widow remained with her family until 1849,
when all removed to Missouri. In 1853 her two youngest
children, then having families of their own, decided
to emigrate to ORegon, and the mother concluded to
accompany thim. Accordingly the company started from
Franklin county on March 7, wit ox teams, Mrs. Lemon
riding a favorite mare, which she called Martha
Washington.
After arriving in Washington county, in the Fall of
1853, Mrs. Lemon was married to John Wood, who lived
until 1867.
Those present to extend greetings to Mrs. Wood were
principally relatives and pioneers who have known her
for half a century.
They were: Rev. J.F. and Mrs. Ghormley, Rev. H.L.
and Mrs. Hamilton, Rev. G.W. and Mrs. Webb, Mr. and
Mrs. C.F. Hayes, Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Greer, Mr. and
Mrs. William Hinde, Mesdames M.W. Matheson, E. Leaman,
R.L. Jenkins, 1856; S.W. Hickling, 1855; Charles Pio,
1859; Annie Wilcox, George Thompson, Robert Oliver,
Edward R. Thomas, A.N. Stryker, A. Peters, M.P.
Cantwell, John Sewell, F.A. Bailey, M. Manning, E.
Rood, S.J. Brown, 1852; S.E. Farnham, Green Hale,W. H.
Jarmin, C. Binkley, J.W. Morgan, H.R. Emmott,
Elizabeth Benson, E.D. Thorne, H.B. Morgan, 1848;
Ralph Wilcox, F.S. Olsen, A.L. Holcomb, M.J. Comstock,
R. Simon, Geo. Ledford, Verena Siegrist, L. Coruell,
1850; W.D. Wood, W.O. White, James Jarmin, M.M.
Pittenger, Misses Kate Hackling, Esther Bradley,
Eleanor Wilcox, Daisy Thomas, Emma Pittner, Grace
Matheson, Emma and Julia Wilcox, Grace Emmott, Gertha
Olsen, Edna Hicks, Alice Hale, Marguerite Leaman,
William Allen, Theodore Bowlby, C.J. Adams, William
Adams, E. Pitman, S.B. Huston, F. McGraw, W.H.H.
Meyers, George H. Himes, Dr. C.L. Large, Carl Olsen,
William Cantwell, Ray Emmott and others.
"Grandma" Wood Passes Away
Washington County News, Forest Grove, Washington Co
Thursday, January 2, 1908
"Grandma" Mary Ramsey Wood, the oldest woman in the
world, who was 120 years old May 20, 1907, and crowned
queen of Oregon last summer by Judge George H.
Williams of Portland, passed away at her home in
Hillsboro yesterday morning at 5 o'clock from general
debility. She had been in failing health several
months previous to her death.
Mrs. Mary Ramsey Wood was the daughter of a brick
mason, Richard Ramsey, and was born at Knoxville,
Tenn. May 20, 1778. At the age of 12 she joined the
Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1804 married Jacob
Lemmons.
She moved with her family from Tennessee to Alabama
and from there to Missouri. Lemmons died in 1839. In
1852 she crossed the plains to Oregon, riding the
entire distance on horseback on a mare she christened
Martha Washington Pioneer. She settled in this county
and married John Wood in 1854.
Mrs. Wood had seen General Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and other statesmen of her younger days and
as a girl danced with her ideal president, Andrew
Jackson, many times. Her mother died at the age of 110
years.
The funeral was conducted today from the home of her
daughter, Mrs. C. B. Reynolds, whith whom Mrs. Wood
had lived for several years. It had long been her
emphatic wish not to be conveyed to her last resting
place in a hearse, but in a simple wagon.
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