 West Hill Cemetery Sherman, Texas
 The Sunday Gazetteer Sunday, January 10, 1904 pg. 4 SOCIETY Mrs. S.E. Leecraft is seriously ill. MRS. LEECRAFT IS DYING The many friends of Mrs. Susan E. Leecraft will regret to learn that she is lying at the point of death at her home on Bond Street. Her children are all at her bedside. The Sunday Gazetteer Sunday, January 17, 1904 pg. 1 "There is a reaper whose name is Death, And with his sickle keen. He reaps the bearded grain at a breath, And the flowers that row between." The above truth has been brought home to the pioneers of Denison as it could have been brought in no other way, as one after another of their number has been summoned beyound the river of death in the past few months, the frequency of the passing being almost startling, and the gathering of the thinning ranks to pay their last tribute to the honored dead, most pathetic. And now to the majority on the other side is added the name of Mrs. S.E. Leecraft who passed away at 12:10 a.m. Saturday, January 9, leaving loved ones behind, to join loved ones gone before. In death she was surrounded by children, grandchildren, step-son, daughters-in-law, who loved her as their mother, and an only surviving brother, Mr. C.L. Stowe, of Sherman, only loving hearts and kindly eyes witnessed the closing drama in the life that had reached its close. Susan Elizabeth Stowe as born in Gaston county, North Carolina, April 18, 1846. She was a daughter of Col. S.N. Stowe, a famous southern leader, who resigned his seat in congress to give his services to the southern cause, and Margaret Holland Stowe, a representative of a fine old French family who immigrated to the old North State in colonial days. Both grandsires were Revolutionary heroes, and the granddaughter showed herself a worthy descendant by her devotion and unwavering fidelity, even to the hour of her death, to the cause of her beloved southland. True to the fighting blood inherited for generations, she turned her back on college honors - she would have graduated in a few weeks - and hastened to her home, there to enter heart and soul into the preparations going on everywhere with feverish haste for the defense of southern principles. At the close of the war she and Capt. Benj. Leecraft, a famous fighter, who at his own expense equipped the 1st company of confederates raised in the state, were married. Facing westward from their ruined home, they came to Texas, settling in Grayson county, in 1873. Capt. Leecraft was a widower with two small sons, Benj. and Carroll, the small family arriving here, the broken threads were picked up and they faced the future bravely, first trying life on a farm. Not being successful, they moved to Sherman, where the eldest born of the union, a son, was laid to rest 27 years ago. Soon after, the family moved to Denison where it has since resided. Five other children blessed the union, three sons, Arthur of Colbert, I.T.; Albert of Dallas; Walter of this city; and two daughters, Mesdames Bessie Dumas and Daisy Moody who also reside here. Twenty-five years ago the companion on whom she depended, laid life's burden down and Mrs. Leecraft was left to fight the battle alone. How bravely and heroically she met the hard conditions is best told by the family she leaves behind, the members of which, by a mother's aid and teaching, have made an honorable place for himself or herself. And not only to her own was she true and helpful, the friends she leaves behind and who sorrow that the true and beautiful life has ended, are equaled in number only by her acquaintances. She was genial, kind, spontaneous, and it would be hard indeed to estimate the other lives that have been touched by the closing of this one. To her fellow church workers and to ex-confederates she has been an inspiration. She was a member of the Presbyterian church which she joined in early girlhood, but her influence and example cannot be circumscribed by denominational lines, her warm and loving heart was big enough to embrace all mankind. While working for her own, as only women of her temperament can work, she never failed in recognition of others. Her energy was exemplified in the part she took in raising funds for the building of the new church, in which it seems almost the irony of fate, that her funeral services should be the first held after the dedicatory services, being separated by but a few short minutes. It was to her the plan to induce all couples married in the old church to contribute to the erection of the new, was due, and to her also the success of the plan was largely due. Next to her home and her church, she gave herself to the keeping alive principles of the southern cause, a cause which can never be anything but sacred and right to her and those like her, and which claimed loyalty and devotion and will claim it, to the latest breath of all those who experienced the terrible four years of war. She was a member of the local chapter "Daughters of the Confederacy," and had she lived, would have been its next president. She gave of her time, of her talent which was great, to the upbuilding of the chapter and to the advancement of the Confederate veterans to whom she was ever devoted. She was widely known and beloved by ex-Confederates all over the state and in other states. She knew and revered many of the leaders and was beloved by them as a personal friend. Her pen could find no more congenial theme than in reminiscences of the southland she loved so well, and of its heroes she had known. Under a non de plume, many are the incidents that have been rescued from oblivion to live in song and story of the aftertime. Nor were her writings confined to the subject that was to her above all other subjects, but covered a wide range, ever on the side of the right. Her scorn of wrong, her love of right is the key note of all she has written, of all that she has done. The funeral service was held from the First Presbyterian church at 12:30 Sunday and was conducted by Revs. H.S. Little, Arthur F. Bishop and Mr. Leach. A double quartette of the regular church choir sang, "Lead Kindly Light," and "One Sweetly Solemn Thoughts." All being personal friends of the deceased added solmenity and beauty was given the service. M.H. Hanna, A.J. Mosse, H. Alexander, J. Brutsche, W.S. Hibbard, and W.E. Brown were the pall-bearers. The coffin, carried between files of Confederate veterans, was hidden beneath the wealth of starry flowers, and followed by the Daughters of the Confederacy, and members of the Presbyterian Ladies Aid society, each bearing a like tribute to her whom they had loved in life. The ladies formed the guard of honor at the home also. The magnificent auditorium of the new church was filled to overflowing by the large concourse of friends assembled to pay tribute to the honored dead. Many from Sherman were in attendance. The interment was at West Hill Cemetery, Sherman, beside the husband, and little son she laid beneath its soil a quarter of a century ago. The cortege went overland and was joined at Sherman by many sorrowing friends. The service there was conducted by Rev. Dr. Clyce, president of Austin college, an old friend of Mrs. Leecraft. If anything could soften the blow of death, in this case it would be the thought that a beautiful, well spent life, had been rounded out, that all of its trials and difficulties had been nobly met and conquered, and that rest should come to crown it ere yet the hand of decreptitude or decay had been laid upon it. She died as she had lived, calmly facing the future. West Hill Cemetery Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
