Deaths – Schuyler County, Illinois

Died – Aaron F. Wright – on Monday afternoon, 9^th inst., of consumption, at his residence four miles southwest of Rushville, Rev. Aaron F. Wright.  His funeral was preached in the M. E. Church in Rushville, by the Rev. W. D. Lemon, on yesterday afternoon, and his remains were accompanied to the grave by a large concourse of friends.  Mr. Wright was universally respected, and our community sensibly feels his loss.  We expect an obituary notice next week.  The Schuyler Citizen, April 11, 1860.

Rev. Aaron Wright made a glorious exit on the 9^th inst., from this to a better world, exulting in the triumphs of faith and full assurance of a blessed immortality; leaving a beloved wife and two children, and a large circle of sympathizing and endeared friends to mourn his loss.  His gracious revival going on at the time, giving the writer a favorable opportunity of improving the occasion to a dense congregation of attentive hearers, from Psalms XXXVII 27, after which they were conveyed to the Rushville Cemetery to their last earthly resting place, there to repose till summoned by the archangel’s trump to scenes where glory, love, joy and bliss forever reign.  Thus sleeps our departed brother Wright.  Brother Wright was born on July 5, 1808, at Jordan, Onondaga County, New York, where he resided till his 39^th year.  In 1832 he experienced the blessing of justifying grace and joined the M. E. Church.  Before the expiration of his probationary term he was appointed leader of his class, and has since filled every subordinate office in the church with great acceptability and usefulness.  In his 38^th year he was licensed to preach the gospel, and this year afterward, emigrated to Illinois, where he purchased a farm in the vicinity of Rushville, which he made his permanent residence till he died.  He traveled on the Mt. Sterling circuit in 1855, under the appointment of the presiding elder.  In 1856 he joined the Illinois Conference, and traveled severally, the Chili, Columbia, Astoria and Rushville circuits, last fall he took a location and returned to his little farm, where he ended his days.  Truly it may be said of him, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors and their works do follow them.”  W. D. Lemon, Rushville, April 26, 1806.  The Schuyler Citizen, May 30, 1860.

Died – Mrs. Hanson Marlow – we are pained to learn that the wife of our esteemed citizen, Hanson Marlow, living about ten miles from Rushville, on the Camden Road, committed suicide by hanging, on the night of Monday, 30^th of April.  Mrs. Marlow was about sixty years of age, was a member of the Methodist Church and universally esteemed in the neighborhood.  About five days since she exhibited signs of mental derangement.  Her family felt no particular uneasiness, however, as she has been partially insane on religious subjects at times for several years, while on all other subjects she was perfectly rational.  The day before her death she remarked several times that her work was almost done, that she was going to heaven.  On Tuesday morning, her husband happened to wake about 3 o’clock and missed her from the bed.  At first he supposed she had gone out to pray, as she was often in the habit of doing.  After searching for her for some time, she was at last found suspended by the neck in an out-house with her knees just touching the ground.  She had probably been hanging there some time, as life was entirely extinct.  We extend our sympathies to the bereaved husband and family in this great trial.  The Schuyler Citizen, May 2, 1860.

Died – Gabriel Nall – at his residence three miles north of Rushville, on the 305^th of April last, Mr. Gabriel J. Nall, aged 72 years and 15 days.  Mr. Nall came to this county in 1835 and always enjoyed the respect and esteem of all who knew him.  He was a member of the Baptist Church and was fully prepared when his change came.  The Schuyler Citizen, April 23, 1860.

Died – Mrs. Margaret Elder – in Augusta, Hancock County, Illinois, on Tuesday evening, the 15^th inst., Mrs. Margaret Elder, sister of Samuel McCreary, Esq., of this place, in the 62^nd year of her age.  We deeply sympathize with her only son in this sad bereavement, one doubly afflicting to him from the fact that he was not present to smooth his mother’s pillow in the hour of her death – arriving from a short absence to find her a corpse.  It is but a few days since this writer spent a night under the hospitable home of Mrs. Elder and her son, and then we little thought her end was so nigh.  But we know her well enough to know that “all was peace”.  The Schuyler Citizen, April 23, 1860.

Died – Fanny Lyman – death, the most common of all events, at every season, and in whatever form it comes, is solemn and affecting, but its appearance in the scene before us was altogether singular and uncommon.  On the 27^th, being the last Sabbath in the month of May, its relentless hand laid hold on one in the morning of life – sixteen summers had served to unfold the loveliness of the bud, and in the midst of the liveliest hopes entertained by numerous friends that were yet to inhale its fragrance during another, the cold frosts of death destroyed its life, and the dark, cold grave hides it forever from their vision.  On the day above named, as the last glimmering rays of the sun were yielding to the bright orbs of the night, the writer was permitted, together with many others, to stand by the dying bedside of Fanny Lyman.  Oh what a solemn moment!  Language falters in an attempt to describe it.  A fondness of life is one of the most useful and important sentiments implanted in our nature, and death, the necessary end of us all, is an event mercifully, and in wisdom hidden from our eyes.  If Fanny desired to live it was no fault, for her fondness of study and her brilliant mind would soon have elevated her.  If by the severest scrutiny of her associated it could e discovered that she possessed a fault, that fault was enclosed by the robe made appropriate to her charnel house.  And ere that, it was buried in a profounder and mere silent tomb of gentle and forgiving hearts.  But without any immediate allusions to the aching void produced in her ordinary associations, let us return to the scene of her last moments.  Who are there?  Friends, neighbors, old and young, two skillful physicians, father and mother, a sister and brother, all clad in grief, with despair resting upon every countenance.  No arm of flesh can avail.  The parting spirit hurries to obey its solemn summons.  Now she is gone.  We take this method of expressing our sympathy for the family in their sad and melancholy bereavement; with a confident assurance that they alone are not the sufferers, but that we, too, have sustained a loss, which no change in life can ever repair and no vicissitudes of fortune can erase from our hearts and memories.  How true the sentiment in a dying moment, “this is the last of earth”.  R. Birmingham, Illinois, June 1, 1860.  The Schuyler Citizen, June 6, 1860.