YOUNG, Esther Elderkin d. 1925

YOUNG, ELDERKIN, BURGESSER, HANCOCK

Posted By: Michael Kearney (email)
Date: 6/22/2002 at 08:53:22

The Clinton Herald March 1925
Mrs. William J. Young, pioneer resident of Clinton, passed away at her home, 337 Seventh avenue, Monday afternoon. Private funeral services will be held at the late residence Thursday afternoon and will be conducted by the Rev. S.C. Bronson of the Garrett Biblical Institute, Chicago, who was Mrs. Young's pastor during his ministry at the First Methodist Episcopal church, Clinton. Following the services, the body will be placed in the family mausoleum in Springdale cemetery. Friends are requested to kindly omit flowers. Mrs. Young was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of John and Esther Elderkin, and had been a resident of Clinton since 1858, in which year she was married to the late William J. Young. Coming to Clinton from the east that year, they established the family home that has remained here since Mr. Young engaged in the lumber business and becoming one of the most prominent lumbermen in the Mississippi valley. Surviving Mrs. Young are five sons and daughters, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The sons and daughters, all of whom were in Clinton at the time of their mother's death, are William J. Young, Jr., Mrs. Esther Young Burgesser, Mrs. Mary Young Hancock, Edward A. Young and Courtland H. Young. Mrs. W.J. Young The qualities for which Mrs. Young is memorable are rare in any age, rarest of all perhaps in ours. They were the qualities of essential womanhood as it was understood in the days before feminism became synonymous with unrest. Eager always in private benefaction, and efficient in all she undertook, she brought to every cause a heart brimming with sympathy, manners of simplest and most gracious a mind the sure comprehension of which was softened and illumined by infinite subtlety and charm. All this was obvious to those with whom she came in contact, the humblest no less than the most discerning; yet one conspicuous trait was recognized by comparatively few. It was the originality and the energy of the pioneer - no movement for the care of the sick and the weak, and especially of children, appealed to her in vain. The keeness of her sympathies and the peculiar originality of her mind found perhaps their happiest and most forcible expression in quiet deeds. Her conversation was remarkable alike for high intelligence and for the plano f humoresque fancy. Doubtless this city has its own precious qualities, but with Mrs. Young has passed one of the few remaining personalities of nineteenth century Clinton.