Obituaries (May 18)

John P. Sawyer

Utica Saturday Globe, June 30, 1906
 

John P. Sawyer

John P. Sawyer, of Edmeston [Otsego Co., NY], was killed instantly while working in the woods near that place Tuesday.  With four companions he was engaged in felling trees when one of the falling trees lodged against another, breaking the dead top off of the latter, and before Mr. Sawyer could escape the top fell, striking him on the forehead and crushing his skull.  Mr. Sawyer was about 73 years of age, and was born in the town of Butternuts, Otsego county.  During his early life he engaged in the cooperage business in that place, until his business place was destroyed by fire.  Afterward he was engaged in the same line of business in New Berlin for a time.  Later he came to Norwich and for many years conducted an extensive cooperage works in this village, first in partnership with Silas Brooks, in the building now occupied by William Breese as furniture warerooms, on Front street, and later with his brother under the firm name of J.P. & S.E. Sawyer, in buildings that formerly stood on the present site of the Norwich Pharmacal Company's works on Piano street.  Fifteen years ago he moved to Edmeston, and had since been engaged in farming and the lumber business.  Mr. Sawyer was twice married.  His first wife was Miss Hannah Hammond, of Butternuts.  She died May 24, 1884, and about two years later he married Mrs. Elizabeth Bemis, of Edmeston, who survives.  He also leaves two sons, John H. Sawyer, of Edmeston, and Samuel C. Sawyer, of this village, and two daughters, Mrs. Charles Pendleton, of Oneonta and Mrs. Charles Denslow, of Norwich.  One brother, William H. Sawyer, also survives. The funeral was held from the late home in Edmeston, Thursday afternoon, and the remains were brought to Norwich and interred in Mt. Hope Cemetery this (Friday) morning.

 

Lucy C. (Rose) Rexford

ca 1792 - 1873

ROSE:  In Utica [Oneida Co., NY], May 27th, 1873, Mrs. Lucy C. Rose, widow of Zinah Rexford, aged 81 years.  Passing over her early history she is remembered by some now living in Sherburne as one of the converts in that memorable revival in 1861 under the preaching of the Rev. John Truair.  On the first Sabbath in June in that year, she, with about seventy others, was received into the Congregational Church in Sherburne.  She has lived in other places, but most of her life has been spent in Sherburne [Chenango Co., NY], and in covenant relation with aforesaid church.

Adaline Olivia Knapp

1825 - 1873

KNAPP:  In Oshkoah, Wis., on Tuesday, May 14th Mrs. Adaline Olivia, wife of Deacon A.B. Knapp, aged 50 years and 6 months.  The above brief announcement chronicles the passing away of a patient sufferer, a devoted wife and mother and a noble Christian woman.  Mrs. Knapp was born in Sherburne, N.Y. [Chenango Co.], in 1825, and removed with her husband to Oshkosh in 1855.  For more than six months past she has been prostrated by sickness and death came at last as a relief from intense suffering.  Through all her sickness she was patient, contented, and even happy, sustained by that unfaltering faith which leads to the brighter shores beyond -- Oshkosh Northwestern

Deacon William Neal

 ca 1819 - 1873

In north Pitcher [Chenango Co., NY], April 13th, 1873, Deacon William Neal in the fifty-fourth year of his age.  Mr. Neal had passed all his life save the earliest years of childhood in this community.  He was a man of untiring industry.  His well tilled farm and pleasant home remain as fruits of his toil, tasted by him and still to be enjoyed by his widow and their children.  They cherish the memory of one who was most affectionate and faithful, and very many friends mourn with them at his common loss.  The Congregational Church will feel his death very deeply for he was a pillar in it.  Among the resolutions adopted, when on Sabbath morning they heard that this brother had thus fallen asleep at dawn of day, was this:  "Resolved, that we hereby express the high esteem in which we hold this brother, beloved by reason of his purity of character, his uprightness of life, his devotion to the Master and his fidelity in seeking to sustain and promote the interests of the Church."  -- Pastor

Melvin L. Youngs

Chenango Union, August 28, 1902

Most Worshipful Melvin L. Youngs, Grand Custodian of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Wisconsin, died at his home in Milwaukee recently.  He was born in Chenango county, N.Y., in 1826, and went to Milwaukee in 1856, where he has since resided.  He was one of the founders of the Masonic Tidings, of which he was editor at the time of his death  He was Grand Master of the state in 1866 and for forty-five years was Grand Lecturer, a fact which establishes his reputation as one of the best informed Masons in the United States.  He was well known in Masonic circles throughout the United States and his death will be sincerely mourned by the Fraternity far and wide.

Hartwell N. Slater

Chenango Union, August 28, 1902

Mr. Hartwell N. Slater, formerly a prominent resident of the town of McDonough [Chenango Co., NY] and more recently a resident of Oxford [Chenango Co., NY], died at his home in Oxford on Saturday, aged 74.  He had been in poor health for several months and the end was not unexpected.  Mr. Slater was born in the town of McDonough on September 6, 1828, and lived the greater part of his life in that town, occupying the farm where he was born until his removal to Oxford in 1901.  He is survived by his wife and one daughter, Mrs. A.S. Eddy of McDonough, and one brother, Augustus Slater of Preston.

Deacon Henry Nelson Marenes

Chenango Semi-Weekly Telegraph, November 7, 1903

Deacon Henry Nelson Marenes, who died in this village [Norwich, Chenango Co., NY] November 2, 1903, was born in Oneonta, N.Y. [Otsego Co.], in January, 1824.  A portion of his life was passed at Harpursville, N.Y.  He came to Norwich [Chenango Co., NY] about half a century ago, where he has since resided.  In 1856 he was married to Emily A. Mudge, who survives him.  He was a member and deacon of Calvary Baptist church  from its origin, and before that of the First Baptist church.  Deacon Marenes was, above all things else, a Christian.  One could not work with him long without knowing it and without his telling one of it.  He never made his religion offensive nor obtrusive.  Up and down the lines of the Ontario & Western railway, where his work as carpenter took him for many years, he was known as the praying carpenter.  His very presence among the men helped raise their standard of morals and he was always respected and loved by his fellow workmen. The writer, who has known him for forty years, does not know a man more sweet and even tempered in disposition and happier than he, in spite of many great troubles.  If his opinions did not agree with yours, he never spoke harshly or unkindly.  Zealous of the truth and hating wrong, he was never abusive and had charity for all.  A Baptist in principle, he was catholic in his conduct, and appreciated and helped along a good work wherever he saw it.  No fence of creed ever narrowed his field of work  Whenever a movement was on foot that promised good, whether in his own church or the Methodist or through the Salvation Army, he was ready to help.  He had unusual natural ability and attractiveness as a speaker in religious meetings, and no small part of the strength of his late son, Rev. B.H. Marenes of Newburgh, in that direction was undoubtedly inherited form the father.  He had not been favored with a college training, but his language had a picturesque and effective natural beauty and grace that the polish of schools might not have improved.  But above the words it was the life and the great, loving heart back of the words that always told.  Whether on the canal or on the railroad, both hard testing places of the mettle in one's character, he always had the true ring.   Since he became a Christian he has held many series of meetings, principally in school houses and at out stations, but sometimes helping pastors in their churches.  Some of the more important of these meetings were held in this vicinity upwards of thirty years ago.  One was held at East Norwich thirty-seven years ago last winter which resulted in a large number of additions to the Baptist church in this village, and another in a school house in the west part of the town a little later had a similar result.  A life like this shows what good may be done by one in the humbler walks of life and by good we don't mean just a belief in any standard set form of words but a making of men really better in act and life.  Looking at his life from this point of view, the preacher who said, "A great man has gone," was not wrong.  He was anxious to help in religious work to the end, and on Sunday, a week before he died and when he himself expected to live but a few days, took his horse and drove Rev. Jabez Ford of Camden, over to Springvale to preach.  His home was crowded with friends at the funeral on Wednesday, and his pastor, Rev. S.J. Ford, was assisted in the services by Rev. J.L Ray of the First Baptist church, Rev. Wilson Treible of the M.E. Church, and presiding Elder C.H. Hayes.