The Sayings, Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Wednesday, March 10, 1897

Saturday, The Sayings made the sad announcement of the death of Mrs. Susan Lyen, Friday, fore-noon, at the home of her son, Mr. W. C. Lyen of Lexington.  She was brought here, Saturday evening for interment.  The casket was taken to the home of her brother, Mr. Smith Hansford, where it remained until 1:30 o’clock p.m. Sunday when it was removed to the Christian Church.  Here the house was packed by a concourse of sorrowing friends who met to pay their tribute of respect and to mourn over the loss of one they had known and loved.  But they did not grieve without hope for every one believed she had received the plaudit “well done good and faithful servant”.  If “pure religion and undefiled before God, and the Father, is to visit the fatherless and widows, in their affliction and to keep one’s self, unspotted from the world”, she was a Christian indeed.  For more than half a century she had been a member of the Christian Church and ever manifested her love for her Savior by words and deeds of kindness, to one and all regardless of circumstances.  She was born in Crab Orchard, sixty-four years since and was the second of the four children of John S. and Harriet Farris Hansford.  When only fourteen she became the wife of Rev. Jared Swift, a professor in Georgetown College, who in less than one year died of consumption.  Her little son, too, was soon taken from her.  Her second husband was Mr. Daniel Lyen of Keane, Jessamine County.  Twenty years ago he died leaving her with one son, William C., who with his wife and two daughters, Mary, aged 2, and Margaret 8, survive to call their mother and grandmother blessed.

The wind storm, Friday, that stopped the hands of our town clock, at 10:15, reached Lexington about 11:00, and Mrs. Lyen and little Margaret went upstairs to close the window shutters.  So soon as she had closed the window, turning to the child she calmly said, “I believe I am dying.”  Before little Margaret could summon her mother, the spirit of Mrs. Sue Lyen had winged its flight to that mansion, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  The funeral was conducted by Dr. C. K. Marshall, pastor of the Christian Church, and the interment was in Spring Hill Cemetery.  The long cortege that followed the hearse to the grave showed the esteem of the many friends of the deceased.  The pall-bearers were:  Messrs.  H. C. and George Bohon, W. J. Poteet, F. P. James, Bush W. Allin, Sr., and C. M. Dedman.