The following information was taken from the Bloomington Record - March 28, 1917. ========= Mary Ann Lord was born one-fourth mile south of the Red school house, in the celebrated Bunker Hill neighborhood town of Bloomington, March 12, 1847. Her parents Horace and Betsy Lord were leading citizens of the community, and took an active interest in all its affairs. Mr. Lord was postmaster of the Bunker Hill post office and Mary was his deputy, doing most of the work of the office, because her father was quite busy. The mail was carried over from Prairie du Chien to Patch Grove three times a week and there was a route from Patch Grove to Cassville via Bunker Hill once a week. The people were so anxious for their mail that Mary would ride a horse to Patch Grove and bring it home quite frequently. During the critical periods of the Civil War she would also make the trip two or three times a week. The office served a wide community at that time. The Bunker Hill community was quite a social and intellectual center. They had a circulating library of about 400 good volumes and an active literary society. In this pleasant environment Mary grew to womanhood. She married John E. Connell March 31, 1867. They were of congenial temperament and their married life has been a happy one. Three children were born to them-- Roah (Mrs. Albert Schreiner), Mrs. Roxa Pohle, deceased, and Milton, at home. Commenting on the changes occurring in fifty years, Mrs. Connell said that the changes in people were the most impressive to her. Of all the older people that she knew in her community, Uncle Henry Lord is the only one remaining, and of the young people with whom she associated, Mrs. Marshall Scott is the only one with whom she can review the happy days of youth from personal experience. As a member of various religious and social orders Mrs. Connell is a leader, always ready to meet the demands of the occasion. To have obtained from life a full measure of the pleasure and no more of the sorrow than is common to the generality of humanity and to have arrived at the full three score and ten years in the possession of very fair health, with a capacity for enjoying and appreciating all of life's blessings, should be considered an achievement and a privilege, in comparison with which all others are of secondary importance. ========= John E. Connell was the brother of my GG-grandmother Elizabeth Connell Harrison. - Submitted by Kathie Harrison (Lancaster Co. Coordinator, NEGenWeb Project). E-mail: NelliBlu28@aol.com This biography is also located on Kathie's web site HARRISON ROOTS & BRANCHES - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~irishrose/index.html