The following information was provided by contributor janicet (#47361005)

MRS. MARIA ARTLYSIA BOBLIT TRACY is very highly regarded in the county of York. She is one of those Nebraska women who have come through great tribulations, and enjoys peace and rest at last, with the prospect of faith beyond. She has raised a numerous family, has parted from her husband, who was first to hear the angel's call, and has great riches laid up on high.

Mrs. Tracy was born in Athens county, Ohio, October 27, 1842, and was four years old when her parents, Noah and Mary Boblit, moved to Ross county, in that state, where the remaining years of their life were spent. Her father died at the age of seventy-seven, outliving her mother by three years. It was there that the subject of this sketch first met John Edward Tracy. He was the seventh child of Joshua and Rachel Tracy, and traced his ancestry in a direct line to the Mayflower colony. They were married from her father house, in 1857, and immediately moved on a rented farm close by and labored there for the next three years. Mr. Tracy, who had been a teacher, collected money which he had invested, and bought the farm. He held it for a year, and then sold out at good advantage, and moved to Illinois, where he rented a farm in McLean county. This was in February, 1865, and for the next seven years he continued the cultivation of the black Illinois loam. By that time he had accumulated a considerable sum of money, which he thought would render him quite independent in a new country. He accordingly sold out a second time and came into Nebraska, where he bought a farm in Richardson county. He tried to hold it against the grasshoppers, but after a war of three years he lost two crops, and could see no signs of improvement. A fair offer was made for his land. He accepted it, and located in York county. Here, under the homestead and timber claim acts, he secured one hundred and sixty acres of land. This was the last move for them. Here their children grew up to maturity. Here they secured the opening of a district school, and here they welcomed the advent of the pioneer Congregational preacher and the inevitable Methodist circuit rider. Here, for twenty-one years, Mr. and Mrs. Tracy walked side by side, never shunning the duties and responsibilities of life, trusting God and doing their duty, as he gave them strength and opportunity. One evening Mr. Tracy came home from the village apparently as well as ever, sat by the fireside reading the family papers until the hour of retiring, and then went off to bed. In half an hour he was dead. This was on April 28, 1896. It was a great sorrow, and yet it had the consolation of freedom from prolonged suffering. The physician attributed the sudden death to congestion of the lungs.

Mr. and Mrs. Tracy were a peculiarly congenial couple, and their married life was of the happiest character. Wherever she could she would help him on the farm, and he would always assist her about her housework. They had seven children: Mary M., Rachel R., Olivia A., Amanda H., Isaiah W., John W., and Charles. James Talbott, having become acquainted with the oldest daughter Mary, while she was in Richardson county, followed her to their new family home in York county, and was married to her from her father's home. They are now living on a farm in Johnson county, Iowa. Rachel married Lew Weeks, has her home in the city of York. Olivia is Mrs. Plummer, and is a resident of North Platte.

Amanda married Granville Woolman, and is in Julesburg, Colorado. Isaiah wedded Miss Maria Rails, and lives in the old home with their mother. John W. was married to Miss Mary Russler, and has a home on the same section with his mother. Charles became the husband of Miss Lizzie Shepherd, and rents a farm six miles to the east. Thus Mrs. Tracy, in her old age, is most happily situated. She has a farm of two hundred and forty acres, highly improved, and well provided with farm buildings, which she received from her husband. Her sons and daughters are close at hand, and her grandchildren gather about her knees to love her, and care for her with tender ministries.

SOURCE: "Memorial and Biographical Record .... Butler, Polk, Seward, York and Fillmore Counties", Geo. A. Ogle & Co, Chicago, 1899
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