"Isabel Phelps"
Mrs. Isabel Phelps died at the home of her son, George Phelps, on Ford's Prairie, on Monday, May 24th. The cause of death was old age, coupled with dropsy. Funeral services were held on Wednesday afternoon from the family residence, interment being made in Butterworth's cemetery on Ford's Prairie. Rev. Robt. J. Reid was the officiating clergyman.
Deceased was born in New York on August 15th, 1820, and would have been eighty-nine years of age next August. Mrs. Phelps was married in Scott county, Iowa, in 1843, her husband, dying about fourteen years ago on Ford's Prairie. Eight children were born to this union, three of whom are now living. They are George Phelps, of Ford's Prairie; Mrs. Polly Garrison, of Ford's Prairie, and Albert Phelps, of Fairview, B. C.
In the year 1861 Mrs. Phelps, accompanied by her husband and family, came to Centralia and located on Ford's Prairie, where she has resided ever since. At that time there were about six Indians to every white person, and the language spoken was almost entirely the Chinook jargon. Mrs. Phelps was among the first white settlers to come to this part of the country, coming right after the Indian wars, about five years after the block house on Ford's Prairie was built. She numbers among her friends, who will mourn her loss, practically all who were living on the prairie at that time and those who have moved there since.
Source: The Centralia News Examiner, 28 May 1909, page 14.
Transcribed by Diana Smith. Her name was spelled Isabell Phelps in the WA State Death Index. Diana has no further information on this individual.