Mrs. Catherine Banta was born in Preble county, Ohio, January 27 1827 and was the youngest of a family of thirteen. The family emigrated to the Wea prairie in 1830 where they remained for six years. They moved to Cass county in 1836, coming by steamboat to Georgetown, following the Indian trail to the home where she has resided for seventy- three years. She was one of the oldest pioneers of Jefferson township.

She was married to Emanuel Wirick [sic] in 1846, and to this union three children were born. On the morning of Thursday November 29, 1860 her husband was kicked and killed by a horse. She was subsequently married to Beauford Banta in 1863 and to this union one son was born, Caleb Banta, who still survives her.

Early in life the question of uniting with the church was seriously considered, but owing to the impossible reconciliation of the belief in a future endless punishment she never became a member. The doctrine of future punishment being the principal subject, of discussion of the ministers at that time, she grew up to hate it, believing that virtue, honesty, charity, kindness and usefulness counted for more in life and if there is a future, these would receive first consideration of any orthodox opinion. Believing that God is the embodiment of goodness and mercy, she had no fear of death. That it mattered not so much about what one believed, but what he was worth as a citizen. That work and not opinions are rewarded. That no one has a right to press upon us a future filled with pain and grief. If kind treatment to the dumb brute, helping in the sick room, rearing of orphan children and being just to humanity, count for anything in the future, she will be abundantly rewarded, and punishment will have no part in the matter.

She past [sic] away quietly in her eighty-third year, from the effects of paralysis after a four weeks illness. It was her request to be buried beside her first husband, overlooking the place where she first landed in Cass county.