Lucretia Mullin Kepper 1865 - 1925

MULLIN, KEPPER, HIBBET

Posted By: A.M.W. (email)
Date: 3/3/2006 at 01:35:03

Winfield Beacon - July 25, 1925
Perhaps no other death in this community has caused so widespread sorrow as that of Mrs. George Kepper, which occurred at the Burlington Hospital last Friday morning. Not only was she loved and respected by her Winfield neighbors and friends, but her writings under the non de plume of "Faith Felgar," in the Corn Belt Dailies, gained for her thousands of unseen friends who feel the loss just as much as we. Mrs. Kepper was great. The response to her pen demonstrated that to her publishers long ago. Her quaint way of saying things, her apt philosophy and sound business judgment, helped many a woman over the rough rocks of despair, and on to happier days. Blessed with a steady flow of beautiful rhetoric, Mrs. Kepper's newspaper articles were literary gems. And she knew from whence she wrote. Busy from early morn until late at night with all the tasks of the farm housewife her sympathetic nature prompted her to help others and give them the advantage of her experiences. She was a devoted helpmate. Her sound judgment and reasoning were far above the ordinary, all of which made her life a well rounded and successful one.

Mrs. Kepper lived a quiet, unassuming life with her family on the farm one mile north of Winfield. While she would have been a welcome guest at many of the social functions about town, she seldom attended. She was content to remain in her home, busy with her housework or writing, or to devour the contents of a good book and the newspapers. She will be greatly missed from the home, where she was ever to be found.

Her funeral was held from the spacious country home Sunday afternoon. A very simple, yet impressive service. Hundreds gathered upon the lawn about the house to pay their last respects. The services were in the charge of Rev. W. C. Allen, of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Wyman. He read a Scripture lesson and the following obituary:

The whole community was startled when the death of Mrs. Kepper was announced. She passed peacefully away on Friday morning, July 17th, in the Burlington Hospital, where she had been for about a week, and was thought to be responding favorably to treatment for her disease - diabetes. As there seemed to be no immediate danger none of her family were with her when she died, and the peaceful expression on her face indicated that she had without waking from sleep passed into her last, long rest.

Lucretia Alberta Mullin was born in Winfield, Iowa, December 23rd, 1865, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Washington Mullin, well known pioneers and early settlers. She graduated from the Winfield Schools in her early young womanhood and took Normal Training at Mt. Pleasant, and taught school for several years. In 1887 she was united in marriage to Mr. George Kepper, and they made their first home about four miles southeast of Winfield, afterwards buying their pleasant homestead one mile north of town, where they have since resided, and where were born their three surviving children: Mrs. Gladys Hibbet, Lawrence Kepper and Samuel Kepper. She made her home the center of a wide spread and generous hospitality.

But the charm of her genial personality took a wider sweep when she began to write for the public press under the pen name "Faith Felgar." when she chose the name "Felgar" she paid a high tribute to her mother for that was her mother's maiden name. The circle of her readers kept growing , her editorials being published not only in The Drovers Journal, a Chicago daily, but also in daily papers in Omaha, Kansas City, and St. Louis. Twenty-three years ago her name was added to the editorial staff of the Drover's Journal, and during these years she has daily discussed in her "Household Department" not only home economics, but a vast range of subjects. Her editorial published July 3rd, glows and throbs with her intense patriotism - it is well worth re-reading. Today July 21st, appears an editorial she had prepared before her death on "How to Grow Old," in which she quotes Karl Wilson Baker's lines entitled, "Old Lace":
Let me grow lovely growing old,
So many fine things do;
Lace, and ivory and gold,
And silks need not be new.
And there is healing in old trees,
Old streets a glamour hold;
Why may not I, as well as these
Grow lovely growing old.