How I have been left in
the world,
By Father, Mother, brothers and sisters.
By G.W.S.Ware.
August,2,1938.
- - - - - - -
I lost my Father, in 1860, 78 years ago; my Mother, in 1869, 69 years ago; brother
Williamson, in 1835, 103 years ago; sister Clarinda, in 1837, 101 years ago; brother
Julius, in 1864, 74 years ago; brother Louis J. in 1867, 71 years ago; sister Sallie, in
1894, 44 years ago; sister Mary, in 1914, 24 years ago; sister Jane in 1921, 17 years ago;
brother Robert G. in 1938, 6 days ago.
Some of those dates I approximated, but most of them are correct. Father was 49,
Mother, 61, Williamson, 5, Clarinda, 3, Julius 19, killed in battle at Jonesboro, Georgia,
Louis J. 27, sister Sallie, 40, Mary, 84, Jane, 86, Robert G., 90.
All of them were baptized on a profession of their individual faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, as their personal Saviour; except Williamson and Clarinda, both died too young to
know right from wrong; Hence, are saved by the Lamb of God (John 1:29).
A few years after life began in my Father’s family, death came along over 100
years ago, and began to take its members out of this world. The shortest interval between
visits was hardly an interval, Tradition says, Death used scarlet fever to take them, one
right after the other. The longest distance between two visits of death, was between
brother Robert and sister Sallie, 44 years. Not often does death stay out of a family that
long; which is over the average of a generation of men.
With data at hand, my Father’s family began in 1829, 109 years ago, when he
married Miss Harriet Fortune of North Carolina. He was raised in Rutherford County, same
State. Now after 109 years, I can sympathize with Elijah (1 Kings 19:10,14); but I am the
last of my parents family.
