SAYRE, Paulina 1831-1902

SAYRE

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 1/1/2011 at 22:05:53

Paulina Jane Sayre was born November 9, 1831, in Indiana, and two years later her parents moved to Mercer county, Illinois, and in the wilds of a frontier forest, with stout hearts and willing hands, commenced to hew out a home for the maintenance of themselves and family.

Here she passed the earlier years of her life and grew to womanhood. On January 1, 1850, she was united in marriage to Salmon B. Sayre and to this union was born nine children, six boys and three girls, two boys and one girl dying in infancy.

They purchased an eighty acre farm in the adjoining county, where they resided until the close of the civil war, and it was only through the devotedness to her little flock that this patriotic woman resisted joining Lincoln's volunteers and going to the front ranks where she might assist in caring for the sick and wounded.

In the fall of 1866 the family emigrated to Iowa, and on October 15 of the same year, settled upon their present home in Melrose township, Grundy county, where they started anew to subdue the soil and make a home for themselves and family.

It is in this new field that we know most of the life of this noble woman. She has been a faithful member of the M. E. church since early womanhood and did her part in organizing the first class on the Melrose prairie. She was an efficient, able worker in the church and ever pleaded at the throne of mercy for the wayward and down fallen with ardor and zeal that carried conviction to the hungering soul.

She was a lover of the beautiful and found some of her most pleasant hours in nature's field training and nourishing her flowers, and today, were every kind act and noble deed of hers to be symbolized from nature's field, she would sleep 'neath a bed of roses.

She was ever ready and willing in caring for the sick and afflicted, and found some of her warmest friends among those whom she had aided in time of their afflictions. And as we consign her remains to the silent tomb and pay our last tribute of love and respect we can but feel that truly she hath done what she could.

Funeral services were held at the Melrose church, Monday, December 15, conducted by Dr. Crippen, formerly presiding elder of the Marshalltown district of the M. E. church, assisted by Rev. J. B. Eaton, of Whitten. The singing, which was very impressive, was rendered by a male quartet composed of Messrs. Guild, Brock, Burton and Whorrall, of this city. The floral offerings, which were numerous and beautiful, completely covered the casket, being sent as loving tributes from friends and relatives far and near.

Rev. Eaton, in referring to his last visit to her home just before her death, said: She expressed the hope that no eulogy would be made over her at the funeral service. She said the people know me; I have done what I could. And surely the people knew her and what she did, for they were present from miles around to pay their last tribute of love and respect and to drop a tear upon the grave of the noble woman who had done what she could.

The family desire to sincerely thank the friends who so kindly assisted them during the last sad hours, for the beautiful floral tributes, and for the quartet's valuable and much appreciated service.