“Matriarch Mrs. Martha Pinney Is 90 Years Old” from the November 4, 1954 Door County Advocate
By Myra Rieboldt
Matriarch Mrs. Martha Pinney Is 90 Years Old
By MYRA RIEBOLDT
Mrs. Martha Pinney, one of Door county’s oldest residents, celebrated her 90th birthday Nov. 1. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Pinney, Evergreen, were hosts at an open house held all day Monday for over 150 relatives and friends. They were assisted in receiving by Mrs. Tom Pinney. The guest book was in charge of granddaughters, Elizabeth, Martha and Patsy Pinney.
Mrs. Martha Pinney
Plants and cut flowers which had been sent to Mrs. Pinney furnished decoration for the rooms. Serving was done from the dining room table which carried out a “golden chain of memories” theme. The centerpiece of golden Fuji chrysanthemums was surrounded by a chain of ninety-gold-paper links. Outside of this chain was a circle of cards on which were printed high points in Mrs. Pinney’s life, the last sixty-five years of which have been spent in Sturgeon Bay.
Good Education
Miss Winnie Cocroft, Mrs. Charles Schaus, Mrs. A. O. Bayley, and Mrs. Theodore Lundy poured coffee and served birthday cake in the afternoon. In the evening Mrs. Wallame Ives and Mrs. John Pinney Jr. poured.
Mrs. Pinney was born Martha Kingston in Muskego Center, Wis., November 1, 1864, to Thomas Kingston and Elizabeth Clark Kingston, natives of Ireland. Orphaned by the time she was fifteen, she, two younger sisters and a brother were reared in the large, close circle of sisters and brothers, who saw to it that they received the best education available at the time.
After a few years of teaching, further schooling at Carroll college and at as business college in Milwaukee, Miss Kingston became the first stenographer in Door county when she accepted a position with the George Pinney Nursery (Now the Evergreen Nursery company), a position she left to marry the son of the owner, John H. Pinney in 1892.
Owned the Democrat
For the next 19 years Mrs. Pinney lived in Sturgeon Bay as the wife of the editor and publisher of the Door County Democrat. The home they occupied is presently owned by the Elmer Bohns. Of six children born to them, four survive: John J. Pinney of Ottawa, Kans.; Mrs. William Tallman (Martha) of Marcellus, N. Y.; Tom and Clarence Pinney, both of Sturgeon Bay.
Upon the death of her husband in 1909, Mrs. Pinney sold the Democrat and moved to Evergreen, where for the next 20 years she managed the nursery, which had been established by her father-in-law. Learning the business by the trial and error method she built it up so that it furnished a good livelihood, and a means of educating her family.
When her sons Tom and Clarence took over the active management of the business, Mrs. Pinney dropped her business career and resumed her place in the community which she had been forced to leave up the death of her husband. For many years she allied herself with the temperance cause, being president of the WCTU. Attendance at WCTU conventions gave her an opportunity for travel which culminated In her being sent at a delegate to the International WCTU convention in Sweden in 1934.
She has also enjoyed many shorter trips by ship, car, train and plane to Cuba, through the Panama Canal, to Canada, and to every section of the United States.
The Martha Circle of the Congregational guild is named in honor of her.
The Same Church
As Miss Kingston, Mrs. Pinney first attended Hope Congregational church the day after she had come to Sturgeon Bay by stage from Green Bay on the last lap of her journey to her new job from Milwaukee. Last Sunday, 65 years later, Mrs. Pinney attended the same church in the same building, this time with sons, daughters, grandchildren and nieces who had come to do her honor.
For 25 years Mrs. Pinney has been a member of the Woman’s club of Sturgeon Bay. She is a member of Eastern Star, and of the Study Guild of her church. She carries on a voluminous correspondence with family and friends; has a keen and penetrating interest In affairs of the day; enjoys wide and varied reading, and is truly matriarch of a family of 22, respected and loved by all with whom she comes In contact. She has always been a friend of the poor and homeless and has done much work in missions, helping many families who needed food, shelter, clothing as well as spiritual assistance. They could always turn to “Grandma” Pinney.
Guests Were Many
Among out of town guests were the following: Mrs. Maud Ludwigson, Miss Nettie Knudson, Mrs. Charles Judd, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Church, Mrs. Arthur Kollatz, Mr. and Mrs. Emery Porter, Mrs. Chester Fletcher, Mrs. Oscar Conrad, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Conrad, Curtis and Collen, and Mr. and Mrs. Andy Graf, all of Milwaukee; F. M. McCullough, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mrs. Hans Pederson, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. William Tallman, Marcellus, N. Y.; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Schaus, Miss. Winnie Cocroft, Sandusky, Ohio; Mr. and Mrs. Willard Mathews, Burlington, Wis.; Mr. and Mrs. Harold M. Kippers, Mukwonago; Mrs. A. O. Bayley, Waterford; and Mr. and Mrs. John J. Pinney and daughter Elizabeth of Ottawa, Kans.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive