From the Moville Mail, Moville, Iowa, Thursday, June 3, 1920: This community lost a good woman and a pioneer on Friday when Mrs. Mary Vermilyea passed away at 9:20 PM following an illness of about a year. Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at the Baptist church in Climbing Hill. Interment was in the Climbing Hill Cemetery. Mrs. Vermilyea united with the Baptist Church in Indiana when a girl and transferred her membership to the U.B. Church in Moville in 1918. She was a loving mother and a true Christian woman.
Mary Sophia Barnum was born in the state of New York February 1, 1851, and died at Moville, Iowa May 28, 1920 aged 69 years, 3 months, 27 days. She came with her parents to Indiana when nine years of age. On March 19, 1870, she was married to Joseph C. Vermilyea and to this union was born one son and one daughter. They came to Woodbury County in 1882 locating on a farm near Climbing Hill. Mr. Vermilyea died in 1895. Mrs. Vermilyea moved to Moville in 1911 and had since made her home here.
Deceased is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Jessie Lyons of Climbing Hill; one son Forest A. Vermilyea of Climbing Hill; one brother Platt Barnum of Gladstone, Michigan; one sister Mrs. Iona Whybrew of Escanaba, Michigan, a stepdaughter, Mrs. May Gesaman of Gascon, N.D.; 8 grandchildren and four step grandchildren.