Elizabeth H. Cook

COOK, HATHAWAY, WILSON, HOSKINS, HIRST

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 12/6/2018 at 13:53:52

22 March 1917 - West Branch Times

Mrs. Ida Hathaway, a cousin of the deceased, and Isreal Wilson, a nephew, attended the funeral of Elizabeth H. Cook which was held on Tuesday, March 20th, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. O. W. Hoskins in the vicinity of Oskaloosa.

For a number of years the deceased with her husband, Joseph T. Cook and family resided on a farm in the Hickory Grove neighborhood. Later as some in this vicinity will recall, the family home was a half-mile north of Oskaloosa, opposite the old Meadows farm. In order to be near their children, the parents removed to Oskaloosa fifteen years ago.

The following statement prepared by the family in regard to the mother was read at the funeral.

Elizabeth H. Cook passed away during the night of Saturday, March 17, 1917, after an illness of about six months. Today, March 20, had she remained would have been mother's 77th birthday. Her parents were John and Mariah Hirst of Belmont county, Ohio, the locality of her birth. In 1862 she was joined in marriage with Joseph T. Cook of the same vicinity. The family home was soon after established on a farm in Cedar county, Iowa.

Father departed this life about 10 years ago. Of this union there were three children, two of whom remain: ?. W. Cook and Mrs. O. W. Hoskins. Mother's home these later years was with the latter. The second son, J. H. Cook, husband of Anna Stratton Cook, passed away about 7 years ago. Of the mother's original family only a brother remains, Wilson C. Hirst of near Barnesville, Ohio. There are six grandchildren: Clifford J., Willard H., Roscoe, Eloise and Walter I. Cook; and Joseph Cook Hoskins.

Mother was a birthright member of the Society of Friends, her sympathies being with the more conservative. She was a student at both Westtown and Mt. Pleasant boarding schools, institutions generally familiar in a Friend's community. She used the plain language and observed other customs after the manner of Friends. She was familiar with their literature and called to mind readily and frequently numerous scriptural passages that are a part of their doctrinal foundation.

The departed was a real mother. The family home was the center of all. Her warm mother love, however, for those given into her care was not allowed to lessen a rigid and kindly sense of disciplinary duty. Life to her was a reality. She was not given to visionary, or superficial. Hand in hand with her husband in the early days, she pioneered on these western prairies, and with others of that noble but vanishing company had little use for those unwilling to do a full part.

After father and brother passed, and near together, the strong physical power that was mother's earlier heritage, began to break. As recent events became more plainly foreshadowed, her interest in things temporal diminished. She was willing to rest.

At the end of the week, and the close of the day; at a punctuation point in the routine of seasons, when winter is about changing to spring, mother departed while she slept. The lines that link us to the beyond are strengthened. We revel in reminiscence of a life that passed peacefully. As we meditate upon its activities, its quiet accomplishments, its final reward, we are reassured. Pleasant memories soften the sadness of the vacant chair.