Obituary.

Tribute to the memory of Harriet Cooke, from her children:

Our mother, around whose remains we have gathered today to pay the last tribute of respect, was born at Somerton, Belmont county, Ohio, April 20, 1813, and died June 7, 1884, aged 71 years, 1 month and 17 days. She was married to Johnathan Cooke, Jan. 7th, 1830, and together they traveled life's journey until the year 1860, when the husband preceded her as did, also, three sons and two daughters. Unto these parents there were born eight children, of whom two daughters and one son are still living, with many grand children and other relatives who are left to mourn her loss.

Mother Cook has long been a resident of this village, having farmed the ground upon which the business part of the town now stands, and has seen many ups and downs in this community. She was a grand neighbor and an influential member of society. She knew nothing and cared less about trouble, and the foolish parade of much that is called modern society. She was genial and pleasant, but without hypocrisy, and although able to entertain company she preferred the place of a listener. What a change for the better there would be if society had many more like her.

As a wife she was affectionate, attentive and faithful in all her household duties. She kept her house in order. She was not a woman to be loved and admired only, but she was a helpmeet indeed. She answered well to Solomon's description of a good wife, in the 31st chapter of Proverbs; she always delighted to open the door to the knock of God's weary and honored ministers, and often did she prepare for them a palatable and refreshing repast and make ready their resting bed. As a mother, Oh, how gentle, tender and patient, how solicitous of her children's present and eternal welfare. She governed them so as to win their respect, love and obedience, caring for their religious training and culture, often gathering them about her knee and reading to them out of God's word and enforcing at the same time, its teachings upon their youthful minds.

Mother Cook was raised in the Society of the Friends, or Quaker faith, but was not a member of any church. A number of years ago she gave her name to the Methodist church on probation, but she told the writer of this article that she was never taken into full membership with that branch of the church. She was a daily reader of the bible, and a faithful teacher in the Sabbath schools of our village. Her place was never vacant in the house of the Lord when she was able to get there.

M. E. Cook, the only son now remaining, of this family, said to the writer: What a shock this was to me! I cannot get over it when I think our mother is not there; her precious dust is there, but our mother is in heaven. Oh, I shall think of that form that is moldering there among the dead, and it will be a mournful comfort to come at times and think of the mother that was once the idol of my heart. As I stood at her grave and looked down upon the pale sleeper, her kind teachings flowed afresh into my mind, and her wise counsels and tender admonitions are more distinctly remembered as the tears dim the eyes and a voice whispering in my ear: 'Your mother is not there but she is in heaven.'

She was afflicted for many years, but bore it all with christian patience. Her death was caused by neuralgia of the heart. Calmly and quietly the sun of her life went down and with her the battle of life is over, and to her has come the eternal Sabbath. Two daughters, one son and many other relatives and friends are still with us and deserve the sympathy and prayers of all christian people. The family home has been broken, out may be rebuilt in heaven, where our holy Christianity brings severed ones together, and invests human nature with a grander life than it can possibly have here.

Her funeral took place at the M. E. church, Rev. J. T. Pope officiating, after which her body was laid in the Florida cemetery, while her soul has gone to join those classmates in that better land and now sings the songs of the redeemed, and is safely housed where the storms of life cannot reach her and where the infirmities of old age will no longer burden her. And may he, who has promised never to forsake us, comfort the motherless children, and may they all prove faithful in the church militant and at last greet her in the church triumphant.

Of't have we been called together,
As the past few years have flown,
And sometimes a dear ones missing,
They are gathering round the throne.

While here we sadly miss them,
They are better off than we;
And to wish them back among us
Would be wrong for you and me.

Neath you gently sloping hillside
Our mother now doth rest;
Ever free from pain and anguish,
She has joined the truly blest.

Yes, our mother sweetly sleepeth,
Close by husband, neath the sod;
And their spirits, supremely happy,
Roam together now with God.

Who will be the next one summoned,
From here to that heavenly realm?
They can never come to us,
But we all may go to them.

Joseph Weible