Hastings, Joel Smith 1818 – 1891

HASTINGS, CHAMBERLAIN, BURNS, DUERDIN

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 12/17/2014 at 09:55:29

Iowa Plain Dealer April 9, 1891, P5 C3

OBITUARY.

HASTINGS.—Joel Smith Hastings, died Saturday, March 28, 1891.

The deceased was born in Amherst, Mass., September 18, 1818, In early life he was a book-binder by trade. His chief education and knowledge of the world was gained from such books as he bound; and while he bound books for other men in leather and cloth, he stored the best thoughts of the same books in his own mind, and trained himself for business. The matter of some of these books was as fresh in his mind on the day of his death as though they had been read and bound but yesterday. He was a man who demonstrated the folly of forgetfulness. He NEVER FORGOT—whether it were a business engagement or the substance of a book he read.

He was married June 26, 1839, in Ashfield, Mass., to Elizabeth Chamberlain; came West to Jefferson county, Wisconsin, in 1842, where he lived continuously till 1882, when he removed to Lime Springs, Iowa, where he died. His good wife, whose praise is on every tongue in the community, died here six years ago.

The departure of the deceased was very sudden, but not unexpected. A little grandson, going into his room about 6:00 p.m., found him just as he might have dropped to sleep while reading, his glasses on his newspaper dropped by the {sic} of the couch on which he lay, his handkerchief held loosely in one hand every feature betokening a painless death.

He leaves but two children, Mrs. C. W. Burns and Mrs. W. E. Duerdin. Their multitude of friends filled the Methodist Church at Lime Springs on Monday, March 30, when the funeral sermon was preached by the pastor from Heb. 9:27, “It is appointed unto men once to nie,{?} but after this the judgment.” Immediately following the discourse the remains of the deceased were laid away by the side of his wife in Pleasant Hill Cemetery. COM.