Submitted by: John McCartney
Eliza (Unknown) Egbert obit
St. Joseph Valley Register
24 Dec 1868, Page 3
South Bend, Ind.
DIED.
At Monona Clayton Co. Iowa, at 8 A.M. December 4th, of
disease of the Liver and old age combined, ELIZA, relict of the
late PAUL EGBERT of Monona, aged 72 years.
The deceased was confined to her bed for many months, by a
kind of paralysis or decline which terminated her life. She
anticipated the Great Teacher, Death, without a shudder or
complaint cheered by the presence of an all affectionate family
of children and grand-children, supported by the best medical
talent obtainable, and consoled by a firm faith in the blessings
of futurity. Long a consistent but not a pretensious [sic] member
of the Methodist Church her confidence in the Saviour and a
blessed resurrection, made sickness less painful, and Death less
to be dreaded. Hope that reaches beyond the grave is the most
desirable of all hopes that can be named.
The writer knew the lamented dead since 1836 -- She was
born in 1796 in New Jersey; moved to Preble County, Ohio, where
she was married; thence to Warren County where she raised a large
family. In 1832 the family moved to St. Joseph County Indiana at
that time a wilderness of prairie and forest, Indians being
almost the only inhabitants -- After a life of usefulness,
running through twenty years, Iowa was selected as a final home,
and the old folks came to Monona. She was the mother of twelve
children. Five were buried in Indiana. The remaining seven, in
time, removed to the side of their parents -- an evidence of
family attachment not always seen. The deceased was the only one
in the world I could call by the sacred name of “Mother.”
Personal affairs do not always interest strangers, but when it is
true that eight of her children were once my pupils in an Indiana
school room -- long long ago, it seems to me -- and that my
identification with the family by marriage and by thirty years of
intimate associations is nearly as the “tie of blood”
could make it, the reader will pardon me for remembering so
vividly the kindness and virtue of the deceased and for referring
with more than ordinary feeling to the loss we have sustained.
Peaceful be thy rest good Mother.
The funeral services were conducted by Rev. Mr Wood of the
M.E. Church, assisted by Rev. Mr Polley of the Baptist Church. A
large audience of sorrowing relatives and sympathizing friends
listened to a most impressive and affecting sermon by Mr Wood
from John XIV 1.2 3.4
[Eliza’s maiden name isn’t yet known.]