Obituary

Again we are call to record the death of one the old land marks; one by one they are slipping from us, a mother here and a father there; until the ranks have grown thin.
The faces of these loved and respected ones are going from us and soon only memory will hold them.

Mrs. Lucinda P. Tanner, wife of Charles Tanner, died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. F. C. Woodburn, of North Byron, July 3, 1887, in the 69th year of her age.

Mrs Tanner was born in Weedsport, Cayuga County, N.Y., Sept 23, 1817. She was converted and united with the Baptist Church at the age of 17; was married to Charles Tanner May 9, 1851. They immediately started for the West and her in our own little town made their home and here have always lived.

Mrs. Tanner was the youngest of a family of seven children and the last link of the family chain. She had been suffering from dropsy and heart trouble for some years but did not realize her condition. Since last spring she has been gradually growing worse; and about three weeks previous to her death, was prevailed upon by her friends, to leave her home and go to the country home of her daughter for a visit and rest; all to no purpose. She failed day by day, and told her daughter that her work was done and she must leave her. All was done that was possible by physicians and friends to try to delay the disease in its rapid course, but they soon knew that all effort was in vain. Her sufferings were intense, but borne with the fortitude of a true Christian; she talked many times and with perfect calmness, of dying. One day she was in a hurry to go; that she wanted to meet the loved ones on the other side, there were so many more there than here.

Again she said to one standing by, “He said He would go to prepare a place for us that, where He is, there we may be also.” During her last hours, she several times called to her mother, who had been dead many years. She seemed to speak as though she were with her, and who shall say that when earthly friends had gone as far as possible down the banks of the dark river, she was not met by those loved ones of whom she often talked. She leaves a husband, one daughter, two grand children and many friends to mourn their loss.
Over the river they bore her away,
Away through the mist to the unseen shore
She has passed from our sight in the “twilight gray.”
We shall catch the sound of her voice no more
We know not if angels met her there,
As down to the dark water’s brink she trod;
Mother and sisters and loved ones so dear,
Bearing her home to the mansions of God.

Byron Express, Jul. 22, 1887, p. 1

Contributed by Bob Hutchins

Return to Ogle Co. Genealogy Site