Obituaries (November 15)

Marshall E. Nearing

Morning Sun, Norwich, NY, December 31, 1902

 

Marshall E.  Nearing

Utica Saturday Globe, January 1903

Coroner E.W. Wilcox went to Smyrna [Chenango Co., NY] Tuesday morning and viewed the body of the late Marshall E. Nearing, who suicided the evening before by hanging himself in the barn at his home in that village.  An inquest was deemed unnecessary.  Dr. Wilcox inquired into the matter and made a brief inventory of the personal effects of the deceased.    A slip of paper found in his pocket gave the combination of the safe, referred to some money matters and a few parting words to his father.  A sum of money was also found upon his person.  Mr. Nearing was about 55 years of age.  His wife died last February after a long and painful illness, during all of which time Mr. Nearing was her constant attendant.  He never recovered form being separated from his life companion, and, as stated by a personal friend of his, he believed that "Marsh" Nearing, while perhaps laboring under a great mental strain, took his own life with the one desire of again being reunited to his wife.  Despondency and poor health led to the sad termination.  "Marsh" Nearing was well liked by a wide circle of friends.  He had a heart abounding in sympathy for those in trouble, and now a wave of sympathy and forgiveness goes out toward him from these self-same friends.  Deceased is survived by his aged father, Horace T. Nearing with whom he lived and a niece, Mrs. Frank L. Campbell of Earlville.  An uncle Percival D. Nearing resides in Middletown.  Funeral services will be held in Smyrna, Thursday at 2 p.m.

 

Daphna Carter

Chenango Telegraph, Greene, NY, February 11, 1846

Died, in Pitcher, Chenango Co., on the 3d inst. Miss Daphna Carter, in the 25th year of her age.

 

The grave, the last abode of all living, hath received a mortal and terminated a life of active usefulness and unblemished integrity.  By the death of this amiable young lade, society has been deprived of one of its brightest gems.  Possessed of abilities unsurpassed, of a lovely disposition, cheerful and pleasing manners, she secured the esteem of all who knew her.  Her virtues show still more among her kindred; as a daughter and sister, she may have been equaled, but never excelled; her sun of life hath set before it attained the meridian. But nothing can "sooth the dull, cold ear of death."  After a severe and short illness, which she bore with Christian fortitude and resignation, she hath made her way home to mansions on high, there to range the fields of immortal bliss long as ages on ages roll.

Chilled by the wintry blast of death,

The summer rose hath ceased to bloom;

Life's latest eve is but a breath,--

Its early close was Daphna's death.

Nathan Whitmore
Chenango American, Greene, NY, January 17, 1861

We extract the following from the Tioga (Pa.) Agitator.  The subject of this obituary was the father-in-law of Rev. C.F. Barnet, of this town [Greene, Chenango Co., NY], and was a resident of this town from 1808 to 1818.  Few indeed survive to the great age attained by this veteran:

 

Died, in Westfield, Tioga Co., Pa., Nov. 17, 1860, Mr. Nathan Whitmore, aged 107 years and 10 days.

 

Mr. Whitmore was born in Vermont, Nov.7, 1753, and I am informed he made a profession of religion when but twelve years old; and by what little information I could elicit (as I drove to the house only a few minutes before the time to repair to the church for the funeral services) he has lived a soldier of the cross since, or 95 years.  He was also in the Revolutionary War a short time.  Were I able to trace him through his long pilgrimage, many important and interesting incidents could be recorded, but I am not.

 

Throughout his long life he retained his mental faculties, also his bodily strength, in a wonderful manner.  His conversation exhibited a strong and retentive mind.  He was also enabled to labor at light mechanical business until very recently, and also to walk about the village with an activity surpassing many at the age of sixty.  I could not but think of changes that had taken place and revolutions, that had convulsed the world during his life.  Empires and kingdoms have risen and fallen; our nation has burst from its connection with, and the oppression of, its mother country and has risen to what it is.

 

Many nations of ancient renown have fallen to ruins; warriors have risen from infancy and drenched the earth in human gore and than away; improvements have advanced, the wilderness and solitary places have been converted into cities, and many spires now point heavenward where the lofty forests waved before the breeze, since more than half of his life was passed.

 

Where now are the companions of his childhood?  Ah, they are gone, and their children have grown grey headed and passed away, and their children's children are now controlling the destinies of our nation.  New countries have become old.  Commerce has doubled an hundred fold, and every ocean and sea, and every navigable river and lake has been converted into highways of nations, developing the vast resources of the world.  Generations have passed away; still he has lived on, and lived on amidst the dangers that have threatened him and the warnings that have threatened him and the warnings that have reached him.

 

The brilliancy of youth had long since left his brow, his step had lost its elastic spring, until finally, worn down with cares and the weight of over five score and seven years, he peacefully fell asleep to awake no more till Gabriel's trump shall arouse the slumbering millions of the dead.

 

His funeral solemnities were attended in the village of Westfield on the 19th ult, at 10 o'clock A.M., where remarks were made by the writer, from Luke 23 and 28, "weep not for me," to an attentive audience.      Simon Cleaveland

 

Death Notices

Chenango Union, September 28, 1864

 

In Cortland [Cortland Co., NY], Sept. 21st, Hon. Joseph Reynolds, aged 79 years.

 

In the U.S. General Hospital at Clarysville, Alleghany county, Maryland, Sept. 1, 1864, of typhoid fever, Eugene [Blanchard], youngest son of George and Susan Blanchard, of Bainbridge, Chenango county, N.Y., aged 17 years and 3 months.  He belonged at the time of his death to company B, 5th Regiment Heavy Artillery, N.Y. State Volunteers.

"Away among strangers and far from his home,

No kindred or relative nigh,

He met the contagion and sank in the tomb,

But his spirit has ascended on high."