The only example of eccentricity cited by Henry was the fact that some years prior to his death, Jacob cut a walnut log on his farm, had it turned into lumber and then commissioned a coffin for himself that was stored away to await the end.
Sadly, Henry concluded, "he never got to sleep in the box as he died away from home." Jacob died at the home of a daughter, Mary Pierce, in Colorado and his cased remains were shipped back to Russell for burial a couple of days later.
As it turns out, however, Henry was wrong. An update in The Leader of Sept. 27 reads, "The Leader was in error somewhat last week in the statement that the late Jacob Lemley was not interred in the coffin that he had had made years ago and laid away for the eventual day. When his remains were brought from Colorado, it was found by measurement that the case would fit into the walnut coffin, so without disturbing the remains it was placed therein and entombed."
So now we know that however Jacob might have felt about Henry spreading his virtues and foibles across the front page of a Chariton weekly, he had the last laugh --- tucked away in his walnut box.
Here's the text of the obituary Henry published under the headline, "The Passing of a Pioneer."
+++
Jacob Lemley, of Washington township, died on last Thursday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Will Pierce, at Eaton, Colorado. For several years he had been in failing health and during the past two years his mental condition was such that he needed constant attention --- in fact he had almost entirely lost his faculty of reason, his mental condition seemingly a thoughtless stupor.
Several months ago he was taken to Colorado to be cared for by his daughter, his large family of children being widely scattered and few of the family left here. Mr. Lemley was well advanced in years, his age not being far from 80.
He was a native of Greene county, Pennsylvania, and came to Iowa not far from 50 years ago, locating in Washington township, there enduring privations and hardships and poverty, raising a large family of boys and girls.
In after years, he was one of the most active and prosperous businessmen of that section and as a farmer had many broad acres and was one who took the initiative in the more modern methods of agriculture. In business matters he was thoroughly honest and was ever ready to help others. These are his virtues. His faults have died with him.
In character, he was extremely eccentric, caring nothing for the customs of the time, and was perfectly oblivious to the evolutions of affairs or neighborly criticism.
As one example, a few years since, realizing that his life's journey was nearing its end, he went out into his woods and with his own hand felled a walnut tree, sawed a length, hauled it to the mill and had it cut into lumber. He then employed I.N. McKinley to make him a coffin like they used in the early days, which he stored away to await the final summons.
However, he never got to sleep in the box as he died away from home. But a romancer seized upon this out of which to construct a story and wrote that after he had builded his coffin, he changed his mind about death, got married again, fashioned rockers to the box and sang lullabies instead of dirges.
This grew out of his eccentricity and sounded quaint abroad. Many who knew him in his active and better days will learn of his death with unfeigned sorrow.
+++
Jacob was born May 9, 1828, in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and apparently married there in the mid-1840s Margaret Bell by whom he had at least nine children and who accompanied him to Iowa. She died during 1880 and was buried in the Russell Cemetery.
He was 56 when he married again --- on July 20, 1884, to Cavilla Horner, then 21. They went on to have five children together, but were estranged although not divorced at the time of Cavilla's death during 1902. So she is buried elsewhere in the Russell Cemetery.
Jacob, double-boxed, was interred by Margaret's side.
No comments:
Post a Comment