John Wesley Birney & Carrie Lee
(Parents of Ada Lee Birney, Mother of Marie Mae McGonagle, Mother of Nelada Marie Grant)
(Parents of Ada Lee Birney, Mother of Marie Mae McGonagle, Mother of Nelada Marie Grant)
He
was a member of the Methodist Church. He was a loving husband, a kind father an
esteemed neighbor and a friend to all. He was a man who read much and the Bible
was his text book. He had no Commentaries, but he had a knowledge of the work
of God. As a citizen he took great interest in the affairs of his country, and
his council was good both in regard to state and nation and the church.
His faith was firm in God, his
fellowman and his community where he is remembered as an ideal man worthy of
imitation. His honesty, usefulness and cheerfulness have erected to his memory
a higher monument than friends could make.
Mr.
and Mrs. Birney moved to Nebraska, April 11, 1891, and located in the
neighborhood of Bethel Church, northeast of Cozad. When they moved into the
neighborhood a little Sunday School was held in the Puff School house. Mr. and
Mrs. Birney worked in this little Sunday School, and at last saw their dreams
realized in the building of Bethel Church. And here with their neighbors, many
of whom have gone to their reward, they labored for Christ and His kingdom. She
was steward of this church for twenty years, and also superintendent of the
Sunday School.
During sickness and death in those early days
when doctors were scarce and nurses almost unknown, Mrs. Birney administered to
they that needed help and many families recall the loving acts of kindness. In
1903 a cyclone passed over the Bethel neighborhood and destroyed the church and
several homes. Mrs. Birney, seeing a neighbor's house destroyed, waded in water
to her knees as she went to help them. And when the people felt that they could
not re-build the church again, it was Mrs. Birney who went out the work.