Mrs. Collingwood was not a farmer's wife. She was a city woman born and reared in Cincinnati, Ohio. She heard that land could be had for the asking in Kansas and here she came with her family that she might get the land for her sons. She reached Hutchinson, November 18, 1872. She stayed for two weeks while she looked for land for herself and sons. They had driven overland from Indiana a long drive for a woman and nine children. She homesteaded and built a house. She established the only boarding house between Hutchinson and Medicine Lodge. She was appointed the postmaster of Pretty Prairie in 1873, when the stage line was established. Collins wanted to name the new town after Mrs. Collingwood but she objected and suggested the name it now bears Pretty Prairie. At first Mrs. Collingwood refused to make a charge for her meals, but no traveler would ever receive the hospitality of Mrs. Collingwood without paying for it. With a building fourteen by sixteen feet in dimensions with nine children, all strangers who stopped at the hotel had to sleep in their own wagons. Some amusing incidents occurred in her house. A party of buffalo hunters from the east, some business men, and some professional men were storm bound by a bad blizzard that struck them when they reached Pretty Prairie. The storm was so severe that the party had to stay several days at Mrs Collingwood's hotel. There was only one stove in the house. The fierce wind blew through the house and the only way the people could keep warm was to be close to the stove. There wasn't room enough around the stove for all the visitors and the family to keep warm, so the men made up a purse and paid two of the younger children, Ella now Mrs. Sam Demorest and Frank, the younger brother a dollar and a half apiece a day to stay in bed, so they could get close enough to the stove to keep warm.

In her early life, Mrs. Collingwood, worked in her husband's boot and shoe factory. She could make every part of a shoe except putting on the soles. Had she been a man she would have made a great general or been at the head of some big business enterprises. As mother she was far more than a general. Her children never questioned a thing that Mother did. She counseled with her children advised with them and there never was a moment when their respect and love ever questioned her decision. She was a typical pioneer the kind that have transformed the former buffalo range to a thickly settled community, the kind that laid the foundation for the great prosperity that so generously blessed the labor of her hands. She passed to her reward the end of a long life of labor and love being reached on February 12, 1916. The memory of her deeds of kindness will be recalled by her neighbors and friends the inspiration of her life will lift other lives and will be a blessing to her sons and to her daughters as long as they live.

Daughter of Abner and Elizabeth (Arbigast) Newman.


Obituary provided by FAG'er TAYLOR (#47701928)