Vital Records, Otsego County, NY (1861)

 Oneonta Herald, Oneonta, NY, August 7, 1861

Death

In Oneonta [Otsego Co. NY] Aug. 4th, Mercy M. Ballard aged 26 years.

Yes, Mercy is gone. / She has passed from our sight. / Yet, she will ever be cherished in our hearts. / But now she sleeps in yonder grave. / Her sufferings are all o'er; / Oh may we one day meet her, / On Caanan's Happy Shore.

Oneonta Herald, Oneonta, NY, August 21, 1861

Marriage

In Oneonta [Otsego Co. NY] at the M.E. parsonage on the 19th inst. by Rev. George Parsons, Miles N. Ader of Bovina, Delaware Co. [NY] to Miss Sophia Smith of Davenport, Delaware Co. [NY].

Death

In Oneonta [Otsego Co. NY] Mr. Henry Bornt in the 35th year of his age. The deceased was injured by his horses getting frightened while loading hay in the field about four weeks since and throwing him against a stone well.  Shortly after he was attacked with typhoid fever, which terminated his mortal existence.  He leaves a wife and two children, together with a numerous circle of friends to mourn his loss.

News Item

The Schoharie Republican says that Peter M. Murphy the Captain of the Otsego and Schoharie Cavalry Companies, is grandson of old Timothy Murphy the great Indian killer in time of Revolutionary.  Old Murphy - for by that name he is spoken of to this day in the Schoharie Valley [NY] - was originally from Virginia and attached to Morgan's celebrated rifle corps.  He was a terror to the Indians who thought him possessed by the evil spirits from the fact of shooting twice with his double-barreled rifle - a weapon then unheard of by them - while apparently loading but once. Peter is a chip off the old block.  Sportsmen in these parts know his unerring aim too well to even undertake shooting with him at a mark, either with rifle or pistol in shooting matches about the country in the winter season.  Peter was always the lucky man, bringing home with him from those places plenty of chickens and turkeys and usually a quarter of beef.  He is well inured to hardship, having seen life in California in all its variable changes and traveled thirther both by sea and land - is well acquainted with the fortunes of the gold seekers of Pike's Peak and knows the western and southern country as perfectly as any man in the army.  Withal, he is a kindhearted man, prompt and reliable and we believe he will make a most excellent officer.

Oneonta Herald, Oneonta, NY, August 28, 1861

Deaths

In the forenoon of Thursday, the 15th inst., Mrs. Thomas Clayton of this village [Cherry Valley, Otsego Co. NY] went to one of the neighbors for a pail of water, leaving one of her children, a little girl about three years old, in the house.  She was absent but a short time, but on her return found the child's clothes on fire and almost burned off her body, and the child frightfully burned, both externally and internally.  She died in the afternoon of the same day.  It is supposed her clothes took fire from the stove., Cherry Valley Gaz.

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In Oneonta [Otsego Co. NY] on Sunday morning, Aug. 18th, Julia Maria Osterhoudt, aged 4 years and 9 months.  "Little Julia." for one of her age, exhibited rare endowments and in memory of her kind and lovely manners and her genteel and womanly deportment many a sign of mourning will be heard and many a tear of sorrow will course its way down the cheek of sympathizing and mourning friends.

The Lost Jewel

As a shadow, she passed from thee gently away. / As a dew drop caught up by the morning's first ray. / As a pearl in its ocean bed, lovely and pure, / And her smile will illumine thy pathway no more. 

Yet mourn not, fond mother (thine anguish of heart, is seen in the fear that unbidden doth start) / She is gone from a world of allurements and fears, / where the path of the blest is a pathway of tears. 

Tho' they placed her cold form in the ground, in the grave, / And above her the storm winds of winter will rave. / Tho' the tempests may rave with a maniac's mirth, / They'll not harm thy oved one, she is not in the earth.

Thou'll see her in the daydreams and dreams of the night. / She will seem ever near with a smile of delight; / And at last when thy spirit is heavenward borne, / Thou wilt see thy loved one in her own happy home.

Then view in this Providence, Heavenly art. / And prepare for the mansions where kindred ne'er part, / Here Jesus to make Heaven seem to thee dear, / Hath placed thy Lost Jewel, thy little one there.

Lillie Linden