The Daily Gazette, Sterling-Rock Falls, Illinois

April 16, 1927 - Saturday, pg 6, col 1 

ELIZA  JANE  (Bunker)  HIXSON 

Many Friends Pay Tribute To Mrs. E. J. Hixson - Funeral of Pioneer Wife and Mother At Tampico On Wednesday 

Tampico, Ill., April 16 -- (Special).  The funeral services of Mrs. Eliza J. Hixson were held at the residence of her son, E. B. Cummings, on Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock. 

The service was in charge of Rev. I. A. Woodrow, pastor of the M. E. Church, who took for his text, Zech. 5:14, speaking briefly on the subject and bringing out the thought that if one believes in God's word, "he is not dead... but sleepeth." and at "evening time there is life."   Homer Turner of DeKalb, close friend and former neighbor of the deceased, sang "Sometime," and "Somewhere."   Mrs. R. F. Woods accompanied him on the piano. The floral offerings were many and beautiful and were a living testimony of the esteem in which the deceased was held. 

The casket bearers were:  E. R. McKenzie, R. H. McKenzie, Freeman Foy, Willis Brown, Glenn Steadman and L. W. Denison.  Interment was in the family lot in the Tampico Cemetery. 

Life of Mrs. Hixon 

Eliza Jane Bunker, daughter of William and Jane Bunker, was born May 25, 1838, in Cato township, Cayuga county, New York, and passed away at the home of her son, E. B. Cummings in Tampico, April 11, 1927, aged 88 years, 10 months and 16 days.  

In 1855 she came west with her parents, settling at Grass Lake, Mich., where they resided one year.  They then moved to Galesburg, Ill., where they made their home for two years, then moved to the Bunker homestead, west of Yorktown, where she resided until her marriage to Hiram Cummings, January 28, 1859. 

To this union two sons were born, Emmet B. and Sherman T. Cummings, the latter preceding her in death Jan. 4, 1912.  In 1880,  Mr. and Mrs. Cummings left their farm northwest of Yorktown and moved to Tampico, where they lived until the spring of 1887, when they returned to the farm.  They retired from active farm life and moved back to Tampico in 1900, and here Mr. Cummings passed away in September of 1905. 

She was married to J. W. Hixson in 1906.  For the past five years she had made her home with her son, as her health did not permit her to longer assume the duties of keeping house. 

She was the only daughter in a family of five children, two of her brothers, John and Tave Bunker, having preceded her in death.  She leaves to mourn her loss, her husband, one son, Emmet B. Cummings, two brothers, James E. Bunker of Yorktown and Hulbert C. Bunker of Dover, Col.;  besides a number of more distant relatives and a large number of close friends. 

Mrs. Hixson was a home loving woman, finding her greatest pleasure in keeping her home and in ministering to her family and looking after their welfare.  She was a faithful member of the Tampico Methodist church, of which she was a regular attendant as long as her health and strength permitted.   One of the pioneers of this western country, she had her part and did her share in transforming the prairie lands of that early day into what is now one of the richest and most desirable farming districts in the land, and a community in which it is a pleasure and privilege to live. 

To the pioneer wives and mothers, such as Mrs. Hixson, much credit is due for their work in sharing the burdens and privations of those early days, and proving such worth and capable helpmeets to the pioneer settler of this great west.