While working on my paternal side today, I noticed a bunch of wiggling leaves when I was adding a few items to the profile of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Elizabeth (Epperson) Hodson. I was pleasantly surprised that a fellow Hodson family researcher had uploaded a copy of her obituary on the front page of the Joplin Daily Globe, which was published 4 Sep 1910.
Elizabeth was born 5 Apr 1858 to James Hamilton and Nancy Jane (Pyle) Epperson in Cedar County, Missouri. Elizabeth married John Benjamin Franklin Hodson on 15 Aug 1886 in Joplin, Jasper, Missouri. She was divorced from her first husband, James Cobb, with whom she had four children with. John and Elizabeth would add another four children to their family during their marriage of 24 years.
Since it was a bit hard to read, I have transcribed the obituary the best I could. I believe a word or two had been omitted in the 7th paragraph when it was printed. My Great Grandmother, Arulia Hodson (who I refer to as my doppleganger) is listed as "Ruhler" in the article.
DEATH OVERTAKES
WOMAN WHILE SHE
SINGS AT WORK
-------
MRS. ELIZABETH HODSON, OF
SMELTER HILL, DIES FROM
PULMONARY APOPLEXY
-------
HAD NO WARNING
-------
Gaily singing a popular song while
doing the family washing in the kitchen
of her home on Smelter Hill yesterday
morning at 8:30 o’ clock, Mrs. Elizabeth
Hodson was suddenly attacked by a
deadly hemorrhage of the lungs and
bled to death in less than five minutes.
She had not been sick since childhood
and had never before had hemorrhages.
At the coroner’s inquest held yesterday
afternoon at 3 o’clock a verdict of death
from pulmonary apoplexy was rendered.
Had Never Been Ill
Mrs. Hodson, who was 52 years old,
weighed almost 200 pounds and has al-
ways been exceptionally healthy for a
woman of her age.
Yesterday morning at about 7:20
O’clock she arose and after cooking
the breakfast began doing the family
washing in a large tub in the little
kitchen of their home on Smelter Hill,
just west of the Ino Mine.
Her little children were playing in
the backyard and no one was in the
room with her. Suddenly she was
seized with a violent fit of coughing
and before many second elapsed she
began to cough up blood.
Frightened by this, she called to her
children in the back yard and ran out
on the back porch screaming that she
had a hemorrhage. The children were
frightened at the sight of the blood,
which was now gushing in a large
stream from their mother’s mouth, and
ran to tell the neighbors.
Mrs. Hodson finally became exhausted
from the lost of blood and ran into the
sat down on the floor and slowly bled
to death.
Help Is Too Late
Three or four minutes before her
Death Mrs. N. Pickett and Mrs. Simpson
Arrived at the house, having been told
Of their mother’s injury by the chil-
dren. The dying woman, who was
unable to talk, motioned in Mrs. Pick-
ett to come around behind her and hold
her head up to stop the flow of blood.
This she did and propped up in the wo-
man’s arms Mrs. Hodson died.
Her husband, who was working in the mines,
was notified of his wife’s death and
hurried to the house.
The body was removed to the morgue
of the Huribut Undertaking Company.
Mrs. Hodson was born in Jasper coun-
ty and had lived here practically all her
life, being the oldest settled of Smel-
ter Hill. She is survived by her hus-
band, Frank Hodson, three daughters,
Mrs. Effie Crowapian, No 202 Virginia
Avenue, Ruhler, aged 10 years and Ha-
zel, 9 years old, and one boy, Hodson,
who is 13 years old.
The funeral services will be held
Monday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock from
the residence on Smelter Hill. Inter-
ment will be in Fairview cemetery.
