Maj. Bernard McKiernan & wife obituaries

COLBERT COUNTY, ALABAMA
OBITUARIES

MAJ. BERNARD McKIERNAN, 1858

and his wife

Mrs. Mary A. (Waters) McKiernan

Contributed 22 Jun 2004
by Lee Freeman

From the Moulton Democrat (Lawrence Co., AL), Friday, March 19, 1858, p. 3..

DIED--- At his residence in this county, on Wednesday, after a severe illness, Maj. BERNARD McKIERNAN, an old and highly respected citizen.---N. Alabamian.

From, “Personal,” the North Alabamian, June 24, 1881, p. 3.

Mrs. Bernard McKiernan who spends most of her time with her son Maj. Charles McKiernan, is visiting relatives here. Although eighty-eight years old, she is as cheerful and entertaining as she was many years ago, when she dispensed the most liberal and cordial hospitality to a host of friends. She was always fond of the society of young people by whom she was greatly beloved. Although suffering from a fall received several years since, she is in fair health which we hope she may enjoy for a long time yet.

From the North Alabamian, Friday, February 13, 1885, p. 2.

A Remarkable Woman.

A remarkable woman, Mrs. Mary A. McKiernan, died on Friday last, at the residence of her son, Maj. C. B. McKiernan, not far from Florence, Tuscumbia and Leighton, in Colbert County, Ala. Mrs. McKiernan was born in Maryland, March 9, 1792, and her maiden name was Mary Anthony Waters, a sister of Dr. John Waters, an esteemed and wealthy citizen of Nashville many years ago. She came to this city in early life and lived in the family of Dr. Felix Robertson, who married her sister, and was married at his residence in 1814 to Bernard McKiernan. Several years after their marriage they removed to Alabama when the county was inhabited by the Indians. Her husband opened a cotton plantation in what is now Colbert County, and was a successful planter. He was afterwards a commission merchant in New Orleans, living there in the winter, and spending his summers on his plantation. After the death of her husband she lived with her son, Maj. Charles B. McKiernan. She was the mother of eight children, one of whom was Judge McKiernan of Memphis, who died there many years ago. Two of her sons were buried in the clothes bought for their wedding garments, their deaths occurring before their marriage; two years apart, however. One of her daughters was a noted belle in her days, and was married to Gen. Hugh Dunlap, of Louisiana. Another daughter was married to W. M. Jackson, of Florence. Mrs. George W. Donigan, of this city, is a granddaughter of the deceased. All her relatives were highly respectable people.

The memory of the deceased was wonderful. Ninety-three years of age, a physical wreck, yet with a mind as vigorous and clear, and her memory as retentive, both as to past and present events, as it was seventy years ago. Scarcely such another case is on record. Only one month before her death that evidence was taken to prove the death of an old citizen of her county, who died sixty years ago. She gave the history of the family, the names of the children, to whom they were married, when the old man died and where buried, with as much minuteness as though it had occurred at a recent date. She signed her name plainly to the deposition, and the attorney said it was the most remarkable case he had ever witnessed.

Her burial took place on Sunday last, at 11 0’clock in the presence of numerous relatives and friends and a number of old servants, all of whom were devotedly attached to the good old woman. She passed away to the spirit land calmly, peacefully, quietly. She rests from her labors and her works will follow her. A very large circle of relatives and friends in Alabama, Tennessee and other States will mourn the departure of this aged saint.--- Nashville American. Feb. 10.

From the Florence Gazette, Saturday, February 14, 1885, p. 3.

On last Friday evening, that sweet-souled lady, Mrs. Mary C. [sic] McKiernan sank to her unending rest, “as dies a wave along the shore,” at the ripe old age of 92 [sic], at the residence of her son Maj. Chas. B. McKiernan, of Colbert county. She was a native of Maryland, but had lived for a lengthy period in the past, in this State, and had been for some 60 years a consistent member of the Methodist church. Her loving daughter, Mrs. William M. Jackson, was with her, beside her dying bed.