PICKETT, Henry B - Putnam

Henry B. Pickett was born near the town of Lexington NC on the 14th day of August 1807 and died at his late residence near Reelsville, Indiana on the 12th day of February 1893 being the last of 10 brothers and sisters.  In 1829 he emigrated with his widowed mother and five brothers to Putnam County locating near the present site of Groveland where they were largely instrumental in subduing the woody wilderness to a region of productive farms and comfortable homes.  On the 14th day of March, 1839 he was united in marriage to Louisa, daughter of Enoch and Mary Write, deceased with whom he has lived as a most faithful and devoted husband for nearly 54 years.  To them were born 11 children, all of whom except one, survive with the wife and mother to mourn for him, their best earthly friend.  In the spring of 1864 he removed from his first home in Putnam County to the home where he died which made him a citizen of Putnam County for about 64 years.  Preceding interment a short service was conducted at the residence consisting of appropriate songs and the following memorial was read by Miss Bella Cromwell of the ME Church at Reelsville.  “He has often expressed his wish that no funeral oration should be pronounced over his remains other than the simplest statement of his faith and the briefest facts of his unostentatious life.  He was reared in the Baptist faith and for many years believed in the doctrine of predestination or election, although he never united with any church.  During the last few years of his life his original belief merged into the doctrine of universal salvation and the complete triumph of the Redeemer over evil, sin and death by which faith he was sustained as he went down under the heavy burden of physical suffering.  His only pang was the mortal not the future, beyond.  Happily for him his last few hours were passed under the painless influence of nature’s anesthetic and he sank to rest without a struggle.  The chief characteristics of his life as known to all to whom he was known were that he was a most devoted and faithful husband and kind father whose desire was the honest prosperity and morality of his children: a mind not vacillating but ready to accept the truth when intelligently presented; firm in his purposes but careful in considering the surroundings before his purposes were formed; his desire and efforts for peace was a principle of his life, yet he was fearless and outspoken against what he conceived to be wrong.  He was never willing that a destitute wanderer should be turned from his door unfed or unwarmed and has taken in many sick and cared for them without remuneration except that feeling of pleasure which comes to all who perform good actions. The idea of a debit and credit account between himself the God in whom he believed was repugnant to his faith in the infinite and universal mercy of that God through his Son.  “Whatever his failings, they were neither intentional nor great and under the general and highest principles of his life may the good wife and their children remember him.”