Afton Enterprise, May 1, 1885
Where Are Wicked Folks Buried
"Tell me, gray-headed sexton," I said, / "Where in this field are the wicked folks laid? I have wandered the quiet old graveyard through, / And studied the epitaphs, old and new; / But on monument, obelisk, pillar, or stone / I read of no evil that men have done."
The old sexton stood by a grave newly made, / With his chin on his hand, his hand on a spade; / I knew by the gleam of his eloquent eye / That his heart was instructing his lips to reply. / "Who is to judge when the soul takes its flight? / "Who is to judge 'twixt the wrong and the right? / Which of us mortals shall dare to say / That our neighbor was wicked who died today?
"In our journey through life, the further we speed, / The better we learn that humanity's need / Is charity's spirit, that prompts us to find / Rather virtue than vice in the lives of our kind.
"Therefore, good deeds we record on these stones; / The evil men do, let it die with their bones, / I have labored as sexton this many a year, / But I never have buried a bad man here."
Truth Seeker
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Mr. John L. Colburn, of New Berlin [Chenango Co., NY], and Miss Ester A. Maine, of Rockwell's Mills [Chenango Co., NY], were united in marriage by Rev. B.B. Carruth, of this place [Afton, Chenango Co., NY], at the home of the bride, April 22d.
Two young women, by name Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Merrill, and a four-year-old child were drowned two miles below Athens, in the Susquehanna River, on Tuesday. They were out in a row boat. The latter was found after having passed over a dam, but the circumstances of the accident will probably never be known.
HINMAN: In Afton, N.Y. [Chenango Co.], April 11, 1885, Mrs. Mabel Hinman, widow of Moses Hinman, aged 91 years, 3 months and 22 days.
Sister Hinman was born at Fly Creek, Otsego County, N.Y. Moved to Upper Lisle, and there married and lived till May 12, 1836, when she moved on the farm where she died. Twelve children have blessed the home, nine now living. She has thirty-two grandchildren, twenty-three great-grandchildren, making seventy-six in all. She was a woman of fine taste and a cultured mind, stored with all the topics of the day, for she was a great reader; was a fine Bible student, and her loving, motherly nature with the truths of the Bible taught her that God is love, and no doubt passed through her mind but that every child of God would in the realms of the beyond forever remain in the presence of our Father in Heaven. What a pleasure it must be to the children, as they think of the large number of friends who met to pay the last tribute of respect to one whom they loved, as their tears showed the respect they had for "Grandma," as they so familiarly called her. She was placed at rest in the Universalist cemetery in Afton, by the side of her husband, who passed on some twelve years ago. Funeral services were conducted by Rev. O.K. Beardsley of Hopbottom, Pa.
Afton Enterprise, May 8, 1885
Geo. Woods, of this place [Afton, Chenango Co., NY], received a telegram from Minn. Monday, announcing that his brother, residing in that state, was dead.
Wilkins Settlement [Chenango Co., NY]: The funeral of Edward Warren, of West Coventry [Chenango Co., NY], was observed on Saturday last. He had been ill for several years.
Willkins Settlement [Chenango Co., NY]: Mrs. Gilbert Phillips died last week.
Afton Enterprise, May 15, 1885
Albert Woods, of Minnesota, formerly of this place [Afton, Chenango Co., NY], was run over by the cars recently, cutting off one leg from the effects of which he died.
Philo Kirby, an old gentleman who resided between this place [Afton] and Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY], was found dead near a spring on his premises, last Saturday. He was 84 years of age and owned a valuable farm of 640 acres. It is supposed he had a fit and died where he fell.
Afton Enterprise, May 29, 1885
Mrs. Ida M. Lyon, wife of Willard Lyon, aged 20 years, died last Thursday and was buried Saturday.
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