(Husband's Great Grandmother)

Anna Eliza Henry was the fifth child born on November 20, 1863 at Braddyville, Iowa to Thomas Henry and Rachel McIntosh Henry. Her father was a farmer, had a large orchard, and also kept several hives of bees. She was united in marriage to John McDonald on February 21, 1884 at Clarinda, Iowa. They moved to western Kansas before coming to Oklahoma for the opening of the "Cherokee Strip". In 1928 John and Anna moved to Caldwell to make their home. John and Anna were blessed with seven children ~ five daughters and two sons ~ Henry Edmond was their first son who lived only six days, Glenford Ercille, Anna Elizabeth, Mary Lula, Ethel May, Ellen Leora and Gladys Faye. John passed away on April 22, 1950, shortly after the couple had celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary. Anna was converted at the age of 18 years at a Free Methodist Revival at College Springs, Iowa. After coming to Oklahoma for the opening of the Cherokee Strip, Anna help organize the first Sunday school in their community at the Mound Valley school in Grant County. After searching her Bible daily to understand the word of God, she was ready to accept the truth of the Church of God when it was brought to her community by Otto F. Linn in the spring of 1921. She worshiped with members of the church at the Sunnyside school until the church was built in Caldwell in 1948. John and Anna went through many hardships. When they came to Oklahoma to the opening of the Cherokee Strip, John didn't have a very good pony. He said when he saw water he would stake his claim, so only run a mile, and found water at a spring that has never gone dry in all the years afterwards. Many people said they were going to the salt fork near Pond Creek, and many came back without getting land. They would stop and ask to spend the night. Anna said they fed so many people when they had so little for themselves. The first year was a drouth and they had raised nothing. They put out a large orchard and we always raised big gardens as long as I remember. One day Anna was out in the pasture, a hand was laid on her shoulder and a voice told her to go to a home where an old man lived with a small boy. She looked around and no one was there, so she knew it was God talking to her. She went at once and found the little boy had died. Anna was called so often to homes where there was sickness or a baby being born. We were nine miles from a doctor, and in the horse and buggy days, that took a long time. There were no telephones. We grew up through childhood without doctors. Anna had a doctor book and would doctor her children. John and Anna did real well after they came to Oklahoma. They had their bad years with crops and their good years. They had cattle, hogs and chickens which also helped. When they left this world, they left each one of their children a quarter section of land.

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A VERY "SPECIAL HEARTFELT THANK YOU" TO Diddy & Doodle FOR SPONSORING ANNA'S MEMORIAL...PAULA, YOU ARE SO VERY THOUGHTFUL AND SO VERY SWEET...YOUR KINDNESS IS SO APPRECIATED. MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS.
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