Obituaries (August 27)

-?- Mix

Chenango Telegraph, February 8, 1860

A Mystery Unraveled -  A Murder Not a Murder

Many of our readers will remember an excitement which prevailed in this vicinity some fifteen years since occasioned by a report that a man named Mix had been murdered a short distance above Smithville Flats [Chenango Co., NY].  The facts were that Mix had been to this village with a load of flour which he sold and started on his return to his home which was in Locke, Cayuga County.  Mix did not return home, but his wagon and horses were found in the road somewhere near Smithville Flats.  Every circumstance conspired to convey the idea that he had been murdered for his money.  The whole community turned out in a vain and fruitless search for the body of the supposed murdered man.  Woods and swamps were searched, ponds dragged, houses ransacked, but no trace could be found.  Several remarkable dreams were related pretending to throw light upon the matter and suspicion pointed strongly at certain persons.  Suspicion which has not been removed from the minds of many to this day, and it has since been currently reported that one of the suspected parties made a confession of the murder on his death bed.

 

We have reliable and responsible information that Mix is now living in one of the interior towns of this State.  He has been to California, but has returned, and our informant knows his whereabouts.  We will give the necessary information to any person desiring to investigate this matter for the purpose of clearing up character, or for any other legitimate purpose. no doubt some of those people who spent days and weeks in the swamps of Smithville, endeavoring to find his body would like to get a sight at it now.

 

Lathrop Rosbrook, Esq.

Chenango Telegraph, February 8, 1860

To the Editors of The Chenango Telegraph--The funeral exercises of Lathrop Rosbrook, Esq., deceased, a prominent citizen of this town [Norwich, Chenango Co., NY], were held in this place, at the Baptist Church, on Tuesday of last week.  The church was filled to its utmost capacity; the services being conducted by Rev. B.S. Williams, Pastor, who preached as appropriate discourse for the occasion.  At the conclusion of the religious exercises, Dr. Beecher made some appropriate remarks, a sketch of which, by request of friends and citizens.  I herewith enclose for publication.  M.B.L.,  North Norwich, Feb. 6, 1860

 

Dr Beecher spoke substantially as follows:  I don't know but it is out of my place and improper for me to say a single word upon this solemn occasion--amid the solemnities of this hour, in which we have so truthful and mournful an illustration of the frailty of man.  But before we go from this house to that narrow house appointed for all the living, I cannot do justice to my own feelings or the memory of the dead in refraining from adding a few words in connection with what has already been so well said from the desk with reference to the deceased.

 

For over forty years--for nearly half a century--Mr. Rosbrook has been a resident of this town [Norwich, NY], and for a large portion of this time has been engaged in active business amongst us, and beknown probably to most of you as well as myself.  Of many of you certainly this is true.  But during my residence here I have had an opportunity of seeing much of him in his family, much of him aside from his family, much of him in the various relations of domestic social and business life and in all of these relations I can bear willing testimony to the truth that he has acted the part of an honest and an honorable man, an affectionate husband, a tender and indulgent parent, a loving brother, a worthy citizen, a kind and obliging neighbor, a well tried and faithful friend.  I have seen him amid reverses of fortune.  I have seen him in prosperity and adversity.  I have seen him when bound down like a bulrush beneath the well nigh overwhelming load of affliction and sorrow.  I have seen him when death has entered his dwelling and suddenly almost without a moment's warning snatched from his embrace a darling child and presently almost as unexpectedly taken from him a beloved companion and consigned them almost together to the silence of the tomb.  Yet not a murmur, not a repining word escaped from his lips.  His fortitude, his patience and his forbearance considering the severity of the stroke was to me at the time and ever has been truly remarkable.  Such, I am sure, as are exemplified nowhere else except in the life of the real Christian--those who amid the trials and conflicts of earth are comforted and sustained by the Christian's promise and the Christian's hope.

 

Mr. Rosbrook, as you well know, was free to express his opinions and possessed prominent and well marked traits of character peculiar to himself, well marked and strong in life, strong in sickness, and strong in death.  Yet notwithstanding his peculiarities, which, without doubt, were many times prejudiced to his worldly interests and produced an unfavorable impression against him, he possessed many excellent qualities and commendable virtues as any man it was ever my good fortune to know.  And his somewhat irritable turn of mind, more noticeable in the latter part of his life, was the result, I am satisfied, not so much of an unhappy temperament, naturally as those who were acquainted with him  in early life and in health, will bear me witness as it was of painful and protracted disease which was undermining his constitution wasting his strength, rendering his life, at best, a burden and bearing him steadily yet surely down to the grave.

 

Of his sufferings for years, none of us can know.  And for the last few weeks of his life, especially even his faithful and ever watchful attendants, and even his physician, who to gratify his wishes and afford all the relief in his power, remained with him as much as possible day and night cannot realize or describe that anguish worse than death itself which more than once led him to exclaim "I want to die.  Oh let me die"

 

"Why can't I die?"  That malignant, insidious and sooner or later usually fatal malady cancer had completely destroyed the action and functions of the stomach, changed its fine and delicate tissues into a mass of corruption, rendering it almost impossible for him to receive into it either food or medicine for the space of nearly four weeks.  The liver likewise to a considerable extent had taken on the same diseased action, its functions became impaired and extensive adhesions formed between it and the stomach and the side. The wonder is not that he died, but how with so much disease he lived so long.  It was hard, indeed for him to give up and it was not till some time after others had abandoned all hope of his recovery, that he came to the conclusion that he could not long survive. While sufficient strength lasted he conversed freely in relation to his disease and seemed anxious to know the opinions of others and the probable result.  After becoming especially weak with a strong determination, he managed to sit up some times for hours till with a very few days of his death, for a good deal of time in fact he was obliged to keep an erect positon either in his chair or on his bed for his distresses were too great to lie down.

 

But his sufferings are ended, his sands of life are run, he has gone, and the places that have known him here will know him no more forever.  He will be sadly missed in this community--he will be missed in his place of business, he will be missed in the social and private walks of life, he will be missed in the benefactions of charity, he will be missed in this house of worship, he will be missed from among his kindred and friends, over all and above all, he will be missed and mourned in that little family, that little household, now made forever desolate.  Now that he is gone and can no more return unto us, let us, my friends cherish his good qualities and his many virtues, copy his example in as much and as far as it is worthy of imitation, and bury with him his errors, for such doubtless he had, as all of us have and his faults and foibles in the grave in which he will presently be forever hid from our sight.