Gerry stands at a busy intersection on State Route #60, which connects Dunkirk on the north and Jamestown on the south. (Gerry is 10 minutes north of Jamestown.) The hamlet was named after Elbridge Gerry, former V.P. of the U.S. (1813-14), a signer of the Declaration, but best known to us by giving us the word "gerrymander," meaning to reapportion legislative districts to favor one political party over another. Gerry was a stop on the DAV&P Railroad before the demise of that line. . . .
She [Jennie Ragon] died on 13 May 1933 in Lowell, IN. She was buried in Lowell IN Lowell Cemetery. Jennie was very silent and in the background. We haven't been able to find out much about her.
Henry Harrison RAGON and Amy Jane (Jennie) SMITH had the following children:
Obituary
Jane Amy (Smith) Ragon, youngest daughter of Uriel and Sally Smith, was born at Gerry, New York, March 1, 1847. At the age of nine days her parents moved to Erie County, Pa., where they resided until the deceased was 19 years of age, when she and her mother came to Lowell, where she has resided continuously with the exception of two years when the family resided at North Liberty, Indiana.
On April, 1871, she was united in marriage to Henry H. Ragon at Lowell. To this union six children were born, two of whom died in Infancy. Into the home came two children of her husband by a former marriage and she was always a mother to them in every sense of the word, and they reverence her memory as they do their own mother.
She always was ready to answer the call of those who were sick and in distress, and many is the time when the children arose in the morning they were told by their father that mother had gone to a neighbor who was sick. Her home was always open to her friends and she always made them feel welcome. She was a widow for fifteen years, her husband having passed away May 3, 1918.
She has not been in the best of health for the past several years, but she was able to be around the home most of the time and did her own work and took care of her home. Five weeks ago she was stricken with paralysis and since that time she has been in a partial coma until Saturday morning, May 13, when she passed away at the home in Lowell, where she had resided with her family for thirty-five years, at the age of 86 years, 2 months, and 12 days.
She leaves to mourn the loss of a devoted mother and grandmother, six children, Elmer E., of Crown Point; Mrs. Minnie L. Collins, of Little Rock, Arkansas; Leonard W. and Mrs. Lola M. Surprise, of Lowell; Mrs. Myrtle E. Buckley, of Crown Point; and Cordie U., of Lowell. Also 22 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and a host of other relatives and many friends.
Funeral services were held at the home Tuesday at 2 p.m. The services were conducted by Rev. T. H. Adkins, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Crown Point. Donald Petry sang two songs, "The Old Rugged Cross" and "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere." Interment was made in the Lowell cemetery, beside her late husband, in charge of Undertakers Weaver & Son. The following grandsons acted as pallbearers: Max L. Ragon, Howard H. Ragon, Chandos Ragon, Charles Surprise, Carl Trimble, and Dan Kreitzman.
Those attending the funeral from out-of-town were: Mrs. O.M. Collins, Little Rock, Ark.; Mr. and Mrs. E.E. Ragon, Mr. and Mrs. C.S. Ragon, Mrs. Myrtle Buckley, Mr. and Mrs. Dan Kreitzman, Mrs. Neva Henderlong, Mrs. Floy Claussen, of Crown Point; Bert Cox, wife and two daughters, of Calumet City, Ill.; F.L. Cox of Highland; Mr. and Mrs. Will Cox, Mrs. George Boyd, Mrs. Bailey Ragon, Mrs. Arnold, of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Carl Trimble of East Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Roger Surprise, of Indiana Harbor; Mrs. Alice Tilton and Mrs. Howard Cobb, of Whiting; Mrs. Laura Ragon and daughter, Miss Henrietta, of Hobart; Mrs. Fred Young, Mrs. Dorthea McWayne, Mrs. Linda Hentges, Miss Daisy Wilson, Mrs. Jessie Barr, Mrs. John Fisher, of Crown Point; Mr. and Mrs. Harold Crunden of Evanston, Ill.
Go to Jane A. "Jennie" Ragon, "Pioneer History Index," for further information.
Return to Lowell Biographies.
Contact Reference