Newspaper Page Text
412 THE
Marriages |
Chason-Trafford.?At the home of the
bride, Faceville, Ga., Feb. 28, 1910, by
Rev. E. B. Witlierspoon, Dr. J. D. Chason
and Miss Meda Louise Trafford.
Blackburn?Langston.?At the residence
of the bride's sister, Mrs. Eugene
Carter, Greenville, S. C.f March 16, 1910,
by Rev. E. P. Davis, pastor of the Second
Presbyterian Church, Mr. Robert H.
Blackburn and Miss Lolla R. Langston,
both of Spartanburg, S. C.
Hobgood-Martin.?At Bogalusa, La., on
March 17, ,1910, by Rev. Edmond LaVergne,
Mr. Andrew J. Hobgood and Miss
Meliza Martin.
Obituaries
Hobson.?Dr. V. H. Hobson, of Richmond,
Ky., died on March 15 from a fall.
He leaves a wife, who was a Miss Reed,
of Louisville, and five children. A devoted
husband, kind father and zealous
Christian. Sudden death to the Christian
is sudden glory.
D .H. S.
MRS SARAH C. BIRD.
Widow of Major Wm. Edgeworth Bird,
died at her home, 22 Mt. Vernon Place,
Baltimore, on the morning of February
28. Mrs. Bird had been in failing health
for some months, but her old age was
passing peacefully and comfortably when,
in January last, the death of her only son,
Mr. W. Edge worth Bird, prostrated her,
and from this blow sbe never recovered.
Mrs. Bird was born in Georgia, and
spent her girlhood at Athens, where she
was a great favorite in a circle remarkable
in that day for culture, refinement
and old-fashioned hospitality. Sht was
married in 1848 to Mr. Bird, and the country
home which they made for themselves
near Sparta, and which they called Granite
Farm, will long be remembered with
pleasure by those who were fortunate
enough to be their guests. After her
husband's death, in 1867, she returned to
her mother's home in Aihona or>a ?r.
1869, she moved to Baltimore and established
the home on Mt. Vernon Place in
which she spent the remainder of her
long, happy and useful life.
As the direct or indirect consequence
of her residence in Baltimore, a number
of her relatives gathered in that city, and
thus she became the center of a considerable
family group. Always an earnest
Christian, she identified herself with the
Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, and
her zealous work, her ardent devotion to
the Church, her faithful attendance upon
its services and. above all. her lnvtnr or.
dent spirit unade her one of its most
prominent atid beloved members. As
Corresponding Secretary of the Ladles'
Benevolent'Society of Franklin Street
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU'.
Church, she was known during the many
years in which she held that ofllce to a
large number of the ministers in the
Southern Church
Besides her church work, she has taken
an efficient part also in many of the phil
autuiuiiiu cuierynses 01 ine city; ior
example, in the first Art Loan Exhibitions
and in the Confederate Bazaar of
1885 She was one of the first Board of
Managers of the Decorative Art Society.
Almost at the beginning of her residence
in Baltimore, she entered with great zeal
and energy into the work that was being
done at that time by the women of Maryland
in aid of the impoverished and downtrodden
people of the Southern States.
Her rare individual charm, the breadth
of her interests, the spontaneity of her
sympathy, her conversational gifts, made
for her in her early days a large circle
of friends and admirers, and, although
she never overstepped the hounds of
home life, her name was well known
throughout the state of Georgia. When
she moved to Maryland, she carried her
atmosphere with her and soon, in the
city of her adoption, she had almost as
many friends as in her native state.
Among the characteristics that went
to make up her vivid personality, the
most striking was her intense vitality.
Underneath thi3 vitality were such sterling
qualities as redeemed it from mere
vivaciousness. She had a clear, vigorous
intellect; she was accurate and efficient
in business; she decided quickly and
rightly what to do in emergencies; she
was possessed of solid acquirements, was
graceful and skillful with her pen, was a
wise mother and good housekeeper. But
the distinguishing trait that gave her her
own peculiar charm was that she was
OA + ? ?? 1 olll'ft f** ? * * "
ou u auic. nci acuve mma and Intense
soul took In and keenly enjoyed all
that is good and beautiful in this world.
She loved flowers, and they were her
delight in time of joy and her comfort in
the hour of trouble. She revelled in the
beauties of nature, found pleasure in all
growing things, from the hyssop that
grows on the wall to the cedar of Lebanon
. She found her best refreshment in
the "dim sweet woods" or beside the
great ocean.
Pew women who love society and adorn
it as she did care also for books; but she
was many-sided She loved the outside
of books and the possession of them, and
she was a constant and discriminating
reader. She had a true appreciation of
poetry and a correct taste, but perhaps
her greatest enthusiasm was for music.
She herself was an accomplished pianist
and played with great ease, with an ac
curate, ana yet sympathetic touch.
crowning all her other gifts was her
remarkable capacity for friendship. She
had a loving and compassionate heart,
and saw the good in many kinds of people;
and so entered into the hearts of
the high and of the lowly.
She knew Intimately a large number
of the distinguished men of the South;
and her discrimination is manifest in the
fact that she established the tie with
many of these men when they were yet
*
rH. March 30, 1910.
unknown to fame. The poets, Henry
Timrod and Paul Hamilton Hayne, were
friends of her early life, and after she
moved to Baltimore, Sydney Lanier and
Jas. R. Randall, author of "My Maryland,"
were iamniar guests in lier home. Sydney
Lanier's lectures on the English
Poets, the material of which was afterwards
embodied in his book on Shakespeare
and his Forerunners, were first delivered
in her parlors. She always preserved
intact the blackboard which he
used at this time, with his last illustrations
uneffected. The statesmen, Robert
Toombs and Alexander Stevens,
were her frequent visitors at Granite
Farm, and there it was that, at
the close of the war between the States,
Gen. Jno. C. Beckenridge disbanded his
staff, and, as a souvenir of her hospitality,
presented her with the field-glasses
that he had carried during his campaign.
The well-known author, Col. Richard Malcolm
Johnston, the diplomatist, Dr. J. L.
M. Curry, the scientist, Dr. Joseph Le
Conte, afterwards of the University of
California, Gen. Tlios. R. R. Cobb, Howell
Cobb, Governor of Georgia?these and
many others were her intimate frionric
Such was the gracious spirit now gone
from earth. Mrs. Bird, although she received
so much admiration, though her
life was so full and her face turned toward
the sunshine, was ever an humble
Christian One who stood by her side
when her last great sorrow came in the
death of her beloved son, can bear testimony
that, when the waves and billows
went over her head, her feet were planted
upon the Rock of Ages, that she took
comfort in the certain hope of re-union
after death and that her faith never failed
in the love of him who doeth all things
well
M. G. M.
JOHN ALEXANDER BLACK.
Passed peacefully away at his home
in Union county, S. C., on February 10,
1010, after an illness of four weeks.
He was ninety-two years and two weeks
of age, having been born January 27, 1818,
and his entire life was spent at the old
homestead. His father was William Black
and his mother was Mary McDowell, who
was born in Ireland.
Truly a servant of God and a veteran
in the Christian army has gone to his reward.
Early in life he united himself
with Fair Forest Presbyterian Church
and served as ruling elder in this church
for more than forty years. He had the
privilege of seeing all his children and
ol uis granacnuaren united to tne
Church of his love.
He was the eldest son of a large family,
all of whom passed away many years
ago. His father died when he was eleven
years of age leaving him to support a
family of eight brothers and sisters. With
unwearied diligence he devoted himself
to this arduous duty, then reared a large
family of his own. Leaving them and his
Wl fa to i- *
Iiimiagc 111C mime, lie Weill. IULl?
the War between the States, and served
through the four years of the bitter struggle.