BLACK, Sarah 1857-1921

BLACK, TOWNSEND

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 1/8/2015 at 17:15:07

Mrs. James Black Passes Away

Death Came to Her Relief Thursday Morning, Funeral Saturday

Mrs. James Black passed away at 2:20 this morning at her home in this city.

Mrs. Black had been in poor health for the past four years, and since the first of last August has been gradually failing and her death was not unexpected.

Besides her husband, Mrs. Black leaves two daughters, Mrs. J. C. Ramsey, of Reinbeck, and Mrs. Fenton Lynn, of near Grundy Center. There are also several brothers, sisters and other relatives left to mourn her death.

Mrs. Black was a lovable woman and was highly respected by all who knew her. Her death will leave a vacancy not only in the home, but in the community that never can be filled.

Funeral services will be held from the Presbyterian church on Saturday afternoon of this week at 1:30. Interment will be in the Morrison cemetery where a son is buried.

Owing to sickness in her family Mrs. Ramsey was not able to be here during her mother's last hours.

--The Grundy Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 1 December 1921, pg 1

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Sarah Barbara Townsend was born to Thomas and Mary Townsend on the 8th of August, 1857, their eldest daughter and child of the Covenant, at the family home at Clinton, Ontario.

She passed from our midst to be with God on the 1st of December, 1921, at the home of her husband, James Black, in Grundy Center, Iowa, aged sixty-four years, three months and twenty-two days.

She grew to sweet womanhood in a family of brothers and sisters, a joy to her parents and a helper and guide to the younger children in the home. On the 20th of February, 1881 at Glenelg, Ontario, she was married to James Black of Morrison, Iowa, and leaving the Dominion with her husband, a new home was created there, under the Providence of God. To them were born three children, one son, Thomas J., who is not, for God took him to be with HIim, while yet an infant; Mabel Mary Ramsey, of Reinbeck, and Sadie Adene Lynn of Grundy Center. These together with her husband lift up their hearts in sorrow to rejoice in a blessed memory of wife and mother and truly as of old, "Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." Six sisters and two brothers are left to sorrow with us: Mrs. Fannie Roberts of Fort William, Ontario, who for many weeks, has been a loving and constant nurse in a ministry of comfort to one whom love and care could not keep on earth; Mrs. Thomas Jack, of Loreborn, Saskatchewan; Mrs. Thos. Dunn, of Port Arthur, Ontario; Mrs. Bert Shimer, of Morrison, Iowa; Mrs. Geo. Furneaux, of Hudson, Iowa; Mrs. John Mason, of Dallas, O.; John Townsend, of Dysart, Iowa and Thos. J. Townsend, of Shoal Lake, Manitoba.

The good life of the diseased need not be recounted here, for it is known to those who knew her as a mother, wife and friend she brought many blessings where she went. Early in life Mrs. Black gave her heart to the Lord Jesus, witnessing to the faith in her girlhood home in Canada in the Methodist church and later at marriage becoming a member of the Presbyterian church at Morrison, Ia., and later still of the First Presbyterian church of Grundy Center.

Others will tell of her good work which do follow her. Let us remember her abiding faith in the Son of God and her dependence upon the great and previous promises of God's Word which made her wise unto salvation.

She particularly loved the resurrection assurances of Jesus in the eleventh chapter of John, the promise of the heavenly mansions in the 14th of John and stayed her heart on the universal experiences of those who, like Paul, "have fought a good fight, have finished the course, have kept the faith and await the crown of life which the Lord shall give to all those that await His appearing."

The funeral services were held at the First Presbyterian church of Grundy Center, on Saturday, Dec. 3, and conducted by her pastor, Rev. Earl William Benbow and she was laid to rest in the family lot in the Morrison cemetery.

Those present from out of town were: Mrs. B. H. Shimer, Mrs. Geo. Furneaux and John Townsend, sisters and brother of Mrs. Black; also Mrs. Jas. McGlashen, Mrs. Frank Johnson and Robert Black, sisters and brother of Mr. Black, all of Minnesota; Mrs. William Black of Renwick. Owing to distance and sickness the rest of the family was unable to be present.

--The Grundy Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 8 December 1921, pg 6