Mrs. Northam Rites Slated For Saturday
WEISER — Services will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Northam-Jones chapel for Mrs. Emma Holgate Northam, 85, widow of one of the founders of the funeral home, who died Wednesday evening at a Weiser hospital. The Rev. Floyd Bailey will officiate. The OES will conduct services at Hillcrest.
Mrs. Northam was born March 2, 1875, at St. Paul, Minn., the daughter of Robert and Mary Hayes Holgate. She was married to Lloyd C, Northam at Leed, S. D., June 30, 1889, where the couple lived for seven years as Mr. Northam worked in the Homestake mine. They spent 1896 and 1897 in Butte, Mont., engaged in mining.
In 1905, the couple moved to Caldwell, where he was employed in a furniture store for several years and where he first engaged in the funeral service field.
Mr. and Mrs. Northam moved to Weiser in 1910, when Mr. Northam entered into partnership with the late James T. McCann, later of Boise, in forming the Northam-McCann Funeral Home and furniture store at the corner of State and Commercial streets, present site of the Globe Furniture Company. The partnership was dissolved in 1926, and the furniture business discontinued, with Mr. and Mrs. Northam remaining in the funeral home, with a chapel on West Idaho street, where the Elks lodge now is located. Mr. Northam died Oct. 16, 1943, at Ontario. Mrs. Northam continued to operate the funeral chapel for many years, with A. S. Jones as a partner. She had retired gradually from the business.
She was a member of the Congregational church of Weiser since 1910 and was affiliated with a number of organizations, being a member of the Martha and Mary society of the church; a member of the Twentieth Century club, the Outlook club, served as president of the Garden club in 1940, was a Pythian Sister of Weiser, and assisted in the beautification of Hillcrest cemetery.
In 1940, she was presented with a gold loving cup as the outstanding woman of Washington county.
Surviving are two foster daughters, Mrs. E. A. Taylor, Boise, and Mrs. Robert St. Clair, Idaho Falls; several nieces and nephews, including Mrs. Ruth Thompson of Myrtle Creek, Ore., and a grandnephew Robert Thompson, of the Oregon side near Ontario.
She was a member of Loyaute chapter Order of Eastern Star.
