Mary S. Collins
Utica Saturday Globe, May 1915
Mary S. Collins
1874 - 1915
Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]: The accidental death of Mary S. Collins from asphyxiation at her home on Westcott street Monday night caused a great shock to her many friends in the city. Mrs. Collins was a forelady in one of the departments of the Norwich Pharmacal Company and had been about her usual duties Monday. Upon returning home at night she had visited with some of the neighbors before retiring to her apartments on the second floor of the house where she was born and which had always been her home. When last seen she was apparently in her usual health, but during the night became very sick and nauseated. She went to the kitchen and presumably, in her illness, leaned against the gas range and accidentally opened two of the burners, allowing the gas to escape freely. Leaving the kitchen she went into the dining room adjoining and lay down on a cot. The deadly fumes followed, filling the rooms and caused her death, and that of her pet cat, which shared her fate. Tuesday morning her father, Charles A. Collins, whose home is on Court street, went to the pharmacy with a parcel for his daughter and was surprised to learn that she had not reported for work. He hastened to her home and on entering the front door encountered the odor of gas, which filled the front hall so completely that he with difficulty reached the rooms above, to find the bodies of his daughter and her pet with life extinct. Coroner Wilcox was notified and other aid was summoned, but no spark of life remained and nothing could restore her. The coroner pronounced it a case of accidental death. Deceased was born April 2, 1874, the daughter of Charles A. and Mary Byington Collins. Her mother died in 1883. Mary was a graduate of the Norwich High School and a regular attendant of the Congregational Church. Besides her father, she is survived by a brother, Charles M . Collins, of Brooklyn. Funeral services were held Thursday afternoon, Rev. Paul Riley Allen officiating, the services being held from her parents' home on Court street to which place the body was removed the day of her death.
Dr. O.E. Noble
Afton Enterprise, March 13, 1885
Died, in Dundee, Yates county, N.Y., Dr. O.E. Noble, aged 81. His death marks the close of a long and useful life. A ripe sheaf gathered in. He was ripe in years, ripe in the gathered treasurers of christian attainment and christian usefulness. He was a son of Deacon I. Noble, long and favorably known in Oxford and Norwich. The subject of this sketch united with the Baptists of Norwich when a boy of 12 years, at the time of the great revival in 1816. He was married to Sabrina Humphrey, daughter of James Humphrey, Esq. Her death occurred seven years ago. He practiced medicine about 40 years. In Oxford and Binghamton eight years. In the later place he changed his practice and became a homeopath. Most of his active life was spent in Penn Yan, N.Y., where he gained a large practice and held it for 20 years till failing health compelled him to give up his ride. He then removed to New York city; and did medical business for seven years, when he retired from his profession, and went to reside with his son, Dr. Geo. Noble, where he remained till he passed peacefully away. Dr. Nobel was emphatically a Christian man. While in full practice he was seldom absent from the house of worship on the Sabbath. He was a close student of the Bible, and was and was ever loyal to its teachings. When inquired of as to his feelings he repeated in a feeble voice, 1 Thess. 4: 13, 14, and 2 Tim, 1 10. These were he last words. He leaves two children, G.Z. Noble, druggist and practicing physician at Dundee and Cerepta D., wife of Rev. Dr. Norton, of Central Park church.
Charles W. Decker
Afton Enterprise, June 5, 1919
This community has lost one of its oldest and most prominent and highly respected citizens by the death of Charles W Decker, which occurred at his home on the East Side Afton [Chenango Co., NY], on Sabbath morning, May 25, 1919, after a lingering illness. Mr. Decker was the son of Mr. Selar Decker (one of the founders and charter members of the Presbyterian Church of this place forty years ago). He was born in Eminence, Schoharie county, N.Y. on May 18, 1847, and had therefore just passed his seventy-second birthday. The family came to Afton in 1866, and lived in the old home a short distance below the village on the east side of the river, now owned by his son, Frank B. Decker, of Colesville. He was married to Miss Rachel A. BeVier, who survives him, as do also their three children, George F. Decker, Frank B. Decker, and Lillian May (Mrs. George W. McKee), and six grandchildren, and also by his only brother, Joseph A. Decker, all of Afton. He was a devoted member of the Presbyterian Church ever since his boyhood, and of the Church in Afton for nearly forty years, and a faithful and active Ruling Elder in the Chruch during nearly all that period and his benignant presence will be sadly missed by both the pastor and people. His last days of illness were characterized by the quiet and unfaltering patience and faith in the Savior, which had marked his life. Like a tired child he fell asleep, passing away as sweetly and gently as he had lived, and in the first few moments of the Sabbath morning, with his beloved wife and children all by his bedside, he entered into the rest, which remaineth for the people of God. The funeral services were held in the home which he loved so well, on Thursday afternoon, May 29, conducted by his pastor, Dr. J.J. Francis, and attended by large numbers of his neighbors and friends. Among the many beautiful floral tributes which lay upon his casket, brought by many loving hearts and hands, there were three which seemed peculiarly appropriate, one from "the loved ones of his own family," one "From the Presbyterian Chruch," and one bearing the card "From his Neighbors." On the afternoon of an almost perfect summer day, beneath the blue sky and the lovely flowers, we laid [him] to rest in peaceful Glenwood Cemetery, overlooking his earthly home. and the beautiful scenes of the Susquehanna Valley, in the midst of which all the years of his manhood were spent; feeling that his life has been a blessing and a benediction to many of us. J.J.F.
Martha Graham
Afton Enterprise, August 22, 1918
On Wednesday, August 14, 1918, at one o'clock in the afternoon, at her beautiful home on Spring Street [Afton, Chenango Co., NY], after a few hours of final failure of her remarkable physical powers, Miss Martha Graham, one of the most widely known and highly respected, as well as probably the oldest resident of Afton, entered peacefully into her rest, in the ninety-second year of her age. Miss Graham was born in Franklin, N.Y. [Delaware Co.], April 18, 1827. She lived many years in Meridale, and afterwards for a few years at Davenport Centre, N.Y. For ten years she owned and conducted a fancy goods and millinery store in Delhi, N.Y. In April, 1882 (36 years ago) she came to Afton and bought the old Merlin Jackson residence of Robert Paddock, where the store of Charles Hill & Son now stands and where she established a store and continued in business until the "big fire" in Afton in August 1884; and then for some years afterwards on the second floor of the new building in the same location. In 1888 she retired from active business and purchased her late residence on Spring Street, where she has lived for thirty years. Martha was a daughter of James Graham who was born in Roxburyshire, Scotland, in 1788, and who, with his father, John Graham, came to Bovina, Delaware County, N.Y., in 1800; and of his wife, Jane Rice, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, of that fine Scotch Irish stock which has figured so largely in the struggles of human liberty. The greater portion of their married life was spent in the towns of Franklin and Meredith in the county of Delaware, where there were born to them fourteen children (ten sons and four daughters) three of whom died in infancy. The parents both died in Meredith at a ripe age. During her active life Miss Graham was a shrewd, wise and successful business woman, and a strong character in every respect, and was honored and trusted by everyone. She was a faithful and devoted follower of Christ, always steadfast and true in her religious faith, and active in all Chruch work. She was a Christian and a Presbyterian. During the last year of her life at the age of ninety-one years, she was present at several of the devotional and social meetings of her church. In the year 1892 she presented to the Afton Presbyterian Church of which she was a member for thirty-six years, the fine bell which hangs in the church belfry, and on which her name is engraved, and which was tolled on the day of her funeral ninety-one times. For twenty-five years past her life has [been] one of great physical infirmities and often great sufferings, which she bore with marvelous courage and patience. In recent years she has been cared for by her nieces and nephew, Mrs. S.A. Grant, Mrs. Jennie England, and Mr. and Mrs. Marshall G. Hill, and at times by other friends. The funeral services were held at her late home on Friday morning, August 15, and were conducted by her pastor, Dr. John J. Francis, two favorite hymns, "The Lord's My Shepherd" and "Asleep in Jesus." being sung by Miss May Squires, Mrs. Ed. L. Weeks, Miss Lucy Scott and Mrs. George l. Chruch, of the Presbyterian choir. The burial was at Delhi, N.Y., at 1:30 the same afternoon in charge of Henry A. Norton, an Afton undertaker, The commitment service at the grave was by the venerable Rev. Frank H. Seeley, D.D., of Delhi.
