Vital Records, Otsego County, NY (1880)

 Freeman's Journal, Cooperstown, NY, January 29, 1880

Marriage

In Springfield [Otsego Co. NY], on the 20th inst. by Rev. L. C....., Willis A. Cook of Middlefield [Otsego Co. NY] and Miss Emma J. Ough of the former place.

Deaths

At Westville [Otsego Co. NY], Dec. 26 of congestion of the brain, Frances M. Saxton aged 22 y'rs.

In Middlefield [Otsego Co. NY] Jan. 11th, Mary C. -?- wife of D.M. -?- in the 31st year of her age.

Near Fort Wayne, Ind. Sunday, Jan. 18 Elizabeth [Cook] wife of Jacob Cook, aged 40 years.  Mrs. C. was a daughter of the late Thomas Pegg(?) of East Springfield, she leaves a husband and six children with many friends to mourn her loss.

At Mt. Vision [Otsego Co. NY] Thursday Jan. 22 of cerebral disease, Corienne Eugenia Millman [Greene] third child and only daughter of Herman E. and Fannie Hillman Greene and great-grandchild of Dr. M.P. Byran of this place [Cooperstown, Otsego Col. NY] aged one year and sixteen days.

"The weary soul has closed its house of clay, / Has drawn the curtains down and fled away, / From out the pearly gates a whispered call, / A flutter of swift wings - and that was all"

Nathan Clark of Athens, N.Y. [Greene Co.] has been an occasional visitor at the home of his son, Mr. Edward Clark of this village [Cooperstown, Otsego Co. NY], where some of our citizens have met him.  He died at his home in Athens on the 15th inst. in the 93d year of his age.  He was in many respects a remarkable man, for more than 50 years extensively engaged in business, retaining his sound judgment throughout his long life.

News Item

The Elizabeth Bunn Memorial

Our readers will recall the sad death in January 1878 at Wuchang, China of the wife of Dr. Bunn, who went there from Morris in this county [Otsego Co. NY].  In remembrance of her and of her "good works and alms deeds," there has been opened in that city "The Elizabeth Bunn Memorial Hospital for Women and children." A letter from a resident missionary there thus describes the opening ceremonies:

"It was a memorable occasion, that opening service.  Two hundred Chinese Christians took part in it, and uniting in prayer and song, begged that the Great Physician would bless the work undertaken, and praised His name, the Forgiver of all sins and healer of all infirmities.

"Staying after the service for exchange of kindly greetings, many of the people gathered with expressions of great interest around a boy thirteen years of age who was the first patient of the new Hospital.  He had been operated upon but a few days before for cataract in both eyes, which had rendered him blind since infancy. The operation was successful and his eyes being unbandaged, the first public gathering the lad had ever seen was this goodly number of Christians.

"To appreciate how wonderful such an operation may have seemed to these people, one needs to remember that their ignorance of surgery is as complete as that of the man in the Saviour's time, who asserted, probably without contradiction, 'Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.'  Thus, pleasantly though in a very small way, the first Women and Children's Hospital in that part of China was started and from its beginning it has been considered a decided success.

"The hospital was sadly needed at Wuchang.  In China, women receive absolutely no treatment for diseases peculiar to their sex.  In childbirth, the mortality is one half as great as that from typhus fever in Great Britain.  It is well known that a fearful slaughter of the innocents, but of female children only, is cruelly and constantly wrought in all parts of China.  Investigation has shown that it is very common at Wuchang.

"To combat disease and the superstitions which increase ten fold its horrors, to teach the laws of health, to provide for these neglected ones, and to enforce the equal claims of suffering women and men upon benevolent hearts; to do all this for Christ, and as a direct aid to the spread of His gospel, are the aims of this Hospital. By it many will be reminded of her who was made in God's hands the instrument of inviting others to help in this work of love and consolation, undertaken to the honor, love and glory of the Great Physician's name."