Wilson, Sarah J. (Amereni) 1838-1906

WILSON, PRICE, AMERENI

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 2/4/2005 at 08:45:23

Every hour there are partings thought to be only for a season but which prove to be forever. How few of us thought during our last interview with Mrs. Wilson that it was the last. That never again would we hear her pleasant voice, feel the kindly hand press or see again the smile with which she greeted her friends and bid them goodbye. Yet this is so. She who loved the good and true, who always brought out the kinder, better nature, has, between the evening of one day and the evening of another, left his life we know forever. Death has come suddenly and set her feet in paths unknown. But as her life had always been an honest, simple one, and to the last she was loyal and faithful to the principles of Christ’s teachings, death had no terrors for her. It was just taking another step, and that step was taken, as she had expressed hope it would be, quickly.

The day before she was taken ill, the hours were spent getting ready for the future days. Almost the last thing she did before preparing for the night’s rest was to set out some garden plants that had been left at her home by a friend during her absence that afternoon. About nine o’clock she was stricken with apoplexy. She was very ill, but conscious until 11 o’clock that night, when she became unconscious and death released her at eight o’clock the next morning.

Sara J. Amereni was born at Marysville, Union County, Ohio, May 6, 1838. Had she lived until Sunday she would have celebrated her sixty-eighth birthday.

It was about thirty years ago that she became the wife of J. C. Wilson and came to reside in this city, to care for his two motherless boys and bring into the home a woman’s love and care.

Mr. Wilson died August 26, 1901. The happiness of the home was broken when the husband died, but she bore the sorrow and loneliness with Christian fortitude and in speaking of it she would say with a smile, “It will some time be over.”

All her life she has been a Christian and since residing here has been an active, earnest worker in the Presbyterian Church. For years she was the Sunday school superintendent of the primary department. At the regular church services, in the prayer meetings, missionary societies and the social work of the church she will be sadly missed. Her warm hearted ways made all her friends, and many are better for having enjoyed her gracious friendship.

She was an active worker in the woman’s relief corps of this city, and a large number of this order attended the funeral in a body.

Mrs. Wilson was one of a family of eleven children, of which but two survive, Mrs. Margaret Ann Price of York, Nebraska and Mrs. Catherine L. Caldwell of Washington, Iowa. Besides these two sisters she leaves two sons, I. Frank Wilson of Seattle, Washington and James P. Wilson of Chicago, Ill.

The funeral was held this afternoon from the Presbyterian Church, and was attended by a large number of people who gathered to show their respect to the one they loved dearly. The flowers were many and beautiful. The service was conducted by her pastor Rev. R. F. Chambers, who took the thirty-fourth verse of the fifth chapter of Mathew, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom of God prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

The beautiful songs, “O Morning Land,” “Go to Thy Rest in Peace,” “The Christian’s Good Night,” were sung by Mrs. R. F. Chambers, Mr. and Mrs. Will Carrier and Mr. T. G. Bryant.

Those acting as pallbearers were C. W. Campbell, H. S. Morrison, C. W. Winn, S. G. Russell, I. B. Carne and M. A. McCord.

Besides her son James Wilson and family of Chicago, there were present to attend the funeral from out of town, a brother-in-law and wife, Mr. and Mrs. I. P. Wilson of Rock Island, Illinois, a sister and husband, Mr. and Mrs. S. B. Price of York, Neb., and her nephews, E. McKee of Warrensburg, Mo., John Belville and William Caldwell of Washington, Iowa, and her nephew Eddie Amereni who for five years made his home in this city with his aunt, now of Colorado Springs, Col.

The interment was in the cemetery just north of our city. ~ The Newton Daily News, Friday, May 4, 1906, Page 4, Column 3