OGLE COUNTY REPUBLICAN
OREGON, ILLINOIS
Jan. 13, 1910

ONE BY ONE OUR PIONEER CITIZENS ARE SUMMONED

News spread rapidly about this city and through the surrounding county on Monday of the death of Uncle ?ne Fearer and it was only the fulfillment of what had been anticipated by family and friends for several weeks.
Thomas J. Fearer was born January 15th, 1823, in Garrett Co., Maryland, and had he lived five days more would have reached his eighty-seventh birthday, nearly a score of years more that the time allotted man - taken by reason of good measure, by the all wise Ruler of the Universe.
When a lad of 14 years he came west with his parent's family and resided for a few years in Bureau County where in those early days Grand Detour was one of the principal trading points of the immediate neighborhood for thirty or forty miles around and it was during a visit to Grand Detour to get family supplies the elder Fearer met some Maryland people and learned there was quite a colony of them in Ogle County. This determined him to leave Bureau County and come with family to Ogle County, locating on a fine farm seven miles north of Grand Detour and four miles west of Oregon, which remained the family home during the lifetime of the parents and later was purchased by - ?-ine Fearer which was his home for nearly sixty years, assuming management of the farm in 1843 at the death of his father, when at the age of 19 years.
Mr. Fearer was united in marriage Feb. 6, 1849 to Margaret Dick, a resident of Pine Creek Township, though a native of Washington Co., Va. Mr. And Mrs. Fearer enjoyed happy companionship for more than fifty years. Feb. 6th, 1899 they were permitted to celebrate the golden anniversary, in company with their children, Ellen A. Boswell, Blanch Strong, Jennie Trueblood and Wm. P. Fearer. Three years later, May 16, 1902, the wife and mother was claimed by death. A year later Mr. Fearer left the farm and came to Oregon where he erected a lovely home, which has since been resided over by his daughter, Mrs. Strong, who has ministered faithfully to his every want.
It may be truthfully said of the deceased that none ever entered his home without a warm neither welcome nor left without feeling the warmth of a genuine hospitality. Disease did not destroy the charm of a kind, indulgent disposition or old age diminish his unselfish solicitude for friends and loved ones. He was ever blessed with splendid health - not an ache nor a pain and often remarked that he had no fault to find with the country nor the people in it - he loved them both. But his heart was ever centered in the old farm home and he enjoyed driving out there nearly every day since leaving the farm, until stricken with a severe cold, four months ago, that he was unable to throw off, heart trouble followed, which terminated in a stroke of paralysis that came to him last Thursday, notifying the children and many friends that the end was close at hand.
The deceased for many years let a conservative Christian life and for more than 65 years was a faithful member of the Mt. Zion United Brethren Church near the old home and was one of three surviving charter members of that church.
The funeral service was conducted from the late residence on North 4th Street at 2:00 p.m. yesterday by Rev. Brooke, President of Western College, Toledo, Iowa, a former resident of Pine Creek and who has held the deceased in high regard for many years. Rev. W. O.Bellamy, pastor of the Methodist Church of this city assisted in the service. Burial was made in the family lot in the cemetery adjoining Mt. Zion Church by the side of his beloved companion and where sleep five children of this union who passed from life in early life. The funeral was largely attended by neighbors and friends of the deceased who always held him in high regard.

OGLE COUNTY REPORTER
Jan 12, 1910

ANOTHER LANDMARK GONE

The death of Thomas J. Fearer early last Monday morning at his home in this city, severed another link in the chain connecting the present period with that of a rapidly receding epoch. Had the deceased survived until Saturday of the present week he would then have attained his eighty-seventh birthday and at an age bordering on four score years and ten had enjoyed the perspective which ripe years allied to health and active mentality, can alone bestow. The cycle of his experience joined the early primitive conditions of this section to the more recent years of modern surroundings and modes of living - and his was a temperament capable of profoundly appreciating the fullness of such an experience.
Thomas Jenipher Fearer was born January 15, 1823, at Selbysport, Maryland,and came with his parents to Illinois in 1837, locating first in Bureau County and ultimately what became the Fearer homestead in Pine Creek Township. He was married to Margaret Dick, February 6, 1849, to which union nine children were born, five of whom died in childhood. Those who survive are: Mrs. Ellen A. Boswell of Beatrice, Nebraska, Mrs. Blanche Strong of Oregon, Mrs. Jennie Trueblood of Decatur and attorney W.P. Fearer of Oregon. The death of Mrs. Fearer occurred May 16, 1902. Mr. Fearer was a member of the United Brethren denomination for more than sixty-five years and actively identified with the work of Mt. Zion Church in Pine Creek and a regular attendant at the church services as long as his health permitted.
Since his retirement, in 1903 from the active cultivation of his farm in Pine Creek Township, which change was induced by failing health, he had kept almost constantly in personal touch with the affairs of the neighborhood which for so many years was his home. He was a man of genial nature and throughout his declining years continued to maintain the fraternal associations developed during his long life. He was cheerful and hopeful until the very last and although rendered helpless by a stroke of paralysis suffered by him a few days prior to his death, insisted upon trying to communicate with those about him. The funeral service will be held from his late home in this city, at two o'clock this (Wednesday) afternoon, interment to take place in the church cemetery at Pine Creek.

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