Obituaries (October 3)

On Sunday evening, Jan. 19th [1902], Mr. Don A. Gilbert passed away at his home on Kirby street [Bainbridge, Chenango Co., NY].  His death brings to a close a long and very active career.  For the last few years Mr. Gilbert has been much broken in health and his friends have been pained to see his former erect figure so bent and his once buoyant step becoming so slow and uncertain.  For many months past his heart gave him great trouble and although he walked to the post office and back the day preceding his death it was apparent that this exertion was accomplished only with great effort.  On Sunday morning the spoke of going to church, but was persuaded to remain quietly at home.  The end came after retiring at night, in an instant and without warning or premonition on his part.  Mr. Gilbert was born at Stamford, Delaware county, on December 30th, 1838.  When a boy of eighteen he came to Bainbridge and remained identified with the life of the village until his death, thus the whole productive period of his life, nearly half a century, was passed among us.  He began life here as a clerk, but his active mind and progressive spirit soon led him out of the employ of others into business of his own.  About 1860 he became interested in a foundry business which he continued for a number of years, first at a site near the old May's Mill, afterward on the site now occupied by the casein factory.  In 1879 he started a lumber business with saw mill with became a very busy place and to which he added a general wood working establishment.  in 1883 he organized the sled factory which owing to his skill and ability as an organizer grew rapidly becoming the most flourishing industry of the village.  While Mr. Gilbert was energetic and progressive in his business life he did not limit his activities to this sphere.  During his long career he was interested in all matters pertaining to the public weal and was actively concerned in nearly every question of public import that has come before the people for the last forty years.  he was a member of the first Board of Education, serving during the important period during the erection of the first Academy building.  He served the village as President, the town as supervisor and held the office of Post Master during the term between 1885-1889.  In church as well as in town life he was most active and useful.  He united with the Presbyterian church about the year 1860, and during his forty years of membership was interested in all its departments of work.  For thirty years he was clerk of the Society and the conciseness and neatness of the records remain a tribute to his ability and to his interest in the church.  For twenty years, with perhaps one or two terms of intermission, he was Superintendent of the Sunday School and up to the time of his death a much valued teacher in that school.  He was a man of great energy and had to a remarkable degree the power of a long sustained exertion both mental and physical.  He was optimistic in temperament, a fact which made him a most agreeable companion and popular in all society in which he moved.  He was a well informed man and a clear thinker.  He was gracious and courteous to all, a thorough gentleman both in feeling and deportment.  He will be greatly missed in the home, in the church, and in the town, and his death is mourned today by a large circle of personal friends who learned to respect and honor him.  Arthur Spaulding.

 

Mrs. Jane M. Gilbert, widow of the late Dr. H.D. Gilbert, died at the residence of her daughter, in Butte, Mont., on Feb. 26 [1902], aged seventy-four years.  The deceased was a daughter of the late John Shelden of McClure [Broome Co., NY], and passed her earlier years in this place.  She is survived by the following children:  Martha J. Gilbert, Frederick A. Gilbert and Anna G. Robinson.  The Butte Miner says of her:  "The deceased was a highly respected lady who came here to live with her daughter.  About six months ago she buried her husband in Nebraska City, Neb., and came to Montana to live near her children."

There died at the county house Saturday, February 22 [1902], a man who was known in Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY] fifty years ago as Ben Dalton, or "Bloody Dalton," son of a family who lived at the lower end of South Main street at that time.  The Norwich Sun gave his age about seventy years but he must have been nearer eighty.  Funeral services were held at the county house and his remains were brought to Norwich Tuesday for burial in the soldiers' plot in Mt. Hope cemetery [Norwich, Chenango Co., NY].  The members of the Norwich E.B. Smith post, G.A.R., acted as bearers.  During the Civil War Dalton was an orderly to late Colonel Samuel R. Per Lee of the one Hundred Fourteenth regiment.  He has acted as porter at various hotels in Norwich and elsewhere since the war, and as he drew a pension he was not dependent entirely upon the county for his living.  He was married and his wife and two children resided in Norwich at one time, but their present place of residence is not known. 

 

Mrs. Ada Helen St. John, 87, widow of A. Gaylord St. John, died Saturday at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Sheldon G. Edgerton, at Delhi.  Death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage.  She had been in failing health for about two years.  [Bainbridge News & Republican, July 1, 1943]

 

John Milton Spencer, veteran of the Civil War, died at his home in Pleasant Mount, Wayne County, Wednesday afternoon, June 23, after a month's illness.  He observed his 100th birthday last October.  Mr Spencer was born in Pleasant Mount and had always lived there.  He served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  [Bainbridge News & Republican, July 1, 1943]

 

Robert B. St. John, 71, one of Walton's [Delaware Co., NY] best citizens, died at his home in that village June 28.  The Reporter in reviewing his life says:  "Robert St. John was a great soul.  Largely self-educated, he was a truly cultured gentleman with a finely developed taste and appreciation for beauty in nature, literature and art.  Having no children of his own, he was interested in the welfare of the young people of the entire village, many of whom owe to him educational advantages which he himself was denied."  Bainbridge News & Republican, July 8, 1943]