HOWLETT, Charles, 10 May 1870 - 27 May 1894

HOWLETT, GILLEY

Posted By: Mary E Boyer (email)
Date: 10/31/2006 at 09:12:03

cf. Possibly "Odds and Ends", a Wesleyan paper

Charles HOWLETT was born in Marengo twonship, Iowa county, Iowa, May 10, 1870, and died at the home of his parents - on the farm that was his birth-place - May 27, 1894, aged 24 years and 17 days. The circumstances of his death were peculiarly sad. He was working for a neighbor, and went home on Sunday to take dinner with the family. Going out to water his horse at an open well, it is supposed that as he leaned over his watch fell out of his pocket, and in attempting to catch it he lost his balance and fell headlong, striking his head upon the wall in his descent and stunning him so that he sank to the bottom of the well and was drowned without a struggle.
Some time later his brother John went to the well for water, and on drawing up the bucket found Charley's watch in it. Hastily seizing the well-hook he reached down, and , catching it in some of the clothing, drew the body to the surface and held it there until his father and brother Thomas came at his call of distress and assisted him in taking the body from the well. A doctor was quickly broutght, but life was sholly extinct. The shock to the family was overwhelming; and, indeed, the entire neighborhood was very deeply affected, for Charles was respected and loved by all. For over five years he had been a faithful member of the Fairview Wesleyan Methodist Church, and his place in church and Sunday school was seldom vacant.
Quietly, unobtrusively, he went out and in before the people, with consistency of life and uprightness of charactoer. In a family of eight, of whom Charles was the oldest, this is the first visitation of death. The funeral services were conducted at Fairview church by Rev. S.A. Gilley, in the presence of a sympathetic audience that over flowed the house, forming a procession over half a mile in length when going to the cemetery, thus bearing testimony tot he general regard for the deceased and his afflicted family.
The text was: II Peter i:14. "The putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly." (R.V.) Loving hands decorated the church, and the song service was especially appropriate.
The family have the sympathy of the whole community; and they sorrow "not as those without hope."