Martha Eliza (Mrs. Arthur G.) Gunnison was born Martha Strickle in Plattsburg, New York, March 8, 1865. She soon moved with her family to Wisconsin where her father farmed in the Fond du Lac area. Later the family moved to Waupun where they operated first a hotel and then a boarding house. Between 1880 and 1884, Martha lived with her Aunt and Uncle Tyrell in Brandon, Wisconsin. In November, 1886, Martha, known as Mattie, married Arthur G. Gunnison in Waupun, but about 1914, Arthur Gunnison left her for unknown reasons. She stayed in Waupun, continued to operate the boarding house with her mother (Her father had died about 1906.), and was very active in several women's clubs. After her mother died in 1938, Mattie found she disliked living alone and moved to Kentucky to live with her oldest granddaughter, Mary (Mrs. Raymond) Baruth (the daughter of Arthur Gunnison's daughter by a prior marriage). They soon moved to Detroit and later to Clarendon Hills, Illinois. Mattie's lifelong frugality enabled her to travel frequently in her later years and she paid many long visits to relatives all over the country. She died in her sleep in January, 1960.
