Sams, Susan Evaline Humphreys - 1824-1902

BAYLESS, BLEVENS, BROILES, CARDEN, EDEN, GLAZE, HARDENBROOK, HILTON, HOUSTON, HUMPHREYS, JOHNSON, LACEY, LE FEBER, MCLAREN, MCNABB, PARKS, PORTER, SAMS, SCOTT, TIPTON, TURNER, WARNER, WILES, WOODS

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 7/13/2021 at 21:35:27

Extract from “In Memoriam – John Sams (1813-1891) and Susan Evaline Sams (1824-1902)
Memoirs of Susan Evaline Sams
Susan Evaline Humphreys, daughter of Moses and Rebecca Humphreys, was born in Carter County, Tennessee, near Elizabethtown, May 10th, 1824. Died August 19, 1902, at her home with her son Alfred, near Mingo, Iowa, after an attack of acute dysentery of six days’ duration. Age 78 years, 3 months and nine days.
This good mother was of mixed English and German extraction on her father’s side, and Scotch-Irish on her mother’s. Her paternal grandparents, Elisha and Susan (Broiles) Humphreys, came from Culpepper County, Virginia, to Carter County, Tennessee, where they lived and died, rearing to respectability a family of twelve children and __ grandchildren, as follows:
John,
Moses, born October 1st, 1792, and died at Harlan, Iowa, July 23, 1874.
Elizabeth (Glaze), born June 16th, 1793.
Eleanor (Houston), born October 4th, 1796.
Jacob, born June 12th, 1798. Died at Melvern, Kansas.
Jane Broiles (Scott), born July 10th, 1800.
Jesse, born April 9th, 1803.
Arry Blevens, born April 29th, 1805.
Susan (Carden), born December 8th, 1808.
Jefferson Madison, born January 17th, 1811.
Bluford Washington, born December 6th, 1812.
Mary Lorina (Woods), born December 16th, 1813.
Mrs. Lytle Woods, “Aunt Polly,” as she is familiarly known, resides at Melvern, Kansas, and is the only surviving member of this large family. All lived to an old age except Bluford and Jesse, who were smothered in a cave in their prime, along with two comrades. Her maternal grandparents, John Boyd, of North Caroline, and Mary (Tipton), of Tennessee, lived in the same county as her paternal grandparents, rearing a family of nine children and __ grandchildren, as follows:
Rebecca Porter, born November 11, 1801, and died near Greencastle, Iowa, December 31, 1872.
Samuel.
William.
John, father of W. M. Boyd, of Colfax, Iowa.
Susan (Eden), born July 14th, 1809 and died near Greencastle, Iowa, May 1st, 1857.
Elizabeth (Boyd), born 1822. Died near Greencastle, Iowa in May 1882.
James.
Albert.
Jane (Lacey), wife of Isaac T. Lacey, born November 24th, 1925. Died at Mitchellville, Iowa, April 11th, 1902.
All have gone to their eternal home, and most of them in the sunset of life. Albert Boyd was thrown from a horse and killed in middle life.
Her ancestors, though living in a slave state, were opposed to the traffic in human flesh. The most of them were engaged in agricultural pursuits, many of their farms being adjacent to each other. They were in politics (the most of them) old line Whigs, and in religion Baptists and Methodists. The military record of her people shows a representative in each of her country’s conflicts. Her maternal grandfather served in the Revolutionary war, her father in the war of 1812, her brother John in the Mexican war, enlisting in Febr’y 1847, in company K, 5th Regiment of Tennessee Volunteer infantry, and her stepson in the Civil War. All were pensioners. The soubriquet, “Happy go easy southerners,” defines their dominant traits.
Deceased was the eldest of a family of eleven children, four of whom survive her, viz: John Boyd Humphreys, of Welsh, Louisiana, born April 24th, 1829; Newton Jasper Humphreys, of Long Pine, Nebraska, born April 29th, 1847; Mrs. Sarah Ann Parks, wife of William Parks, of Anderson, Mo., born January 19, 1836; Mrs. Jane Camaline Johnson, widow of H. W. Johnson, Okoboji, Iowa, born January 14th, 1826, (surviving her sister only 27 days, dying September 16th, 1902); Wm Randolph Humphreys, born July 4, 1831, died at Quenemo, Kansas, April 11th, 1893; James Francis Marion Humphreys, born April 24th, 1839, died November 2d, 1897, at Roanoke, Louisiana; Mrs. Mary Elizabeth McNabb, wife of T. C. McNabb, born July 18, 1833, died January 12th, 1899, at Fenton, Louisiana.
Two brothers died in infancy, and her sister, Ellen, was burned to death at the age of 11 years. The subject of our sketch was afflicted with asthma from early childhood. This limited her school days and deprived her of many amusements so dear to every child. She was married in July 1840 to Robert Smith Hilton, which happy union was severed by his death twenty months thereafter, leaving her with a babe of eight months, Valeria Adelaide, born July 10th, 1841. Being an artist with needle and scissors she now turned her talents to account, and thus supported herself and child for eleven years.
Her after used to say of her that she could make anything but a watch. In 1852 she went with her parents overland to Sangamon county, Illinois, driving her own team. On February 3, 1853, she was united in marriage to John Sams of Lincoln, Logan county, Illinois, who had three children. In June of that year they came to Iowa, locating on the homestead on which she lived until her death – a period of 49 years. Seven children were born to her in her second marriage, viz:
Alfred Lytle, born August 5th, 1858, and residing at the old home near Mingo, Iowa.
Alice Bellvadore, Sr., born November 1st, 1857. Died June 4th, 1858.
Alice Bellvadore, Jr., Colfax, Iowa, born March 13th, 1859.
Emily Ann, Butte, Nebraska, born November 13th, 1860.
Francis Marion, Sr., born November 13th, 1863. Died February 20th, 1864.
An infant son, born November 10th, 1865. Died November 13th, 1865.
Frances Marion, Jr., Healdsburg, California, born March 22nd, 1868.
The family circle was lessened by marriage as follows:
Margaret to J. B. Humphreys, March 20th, 1856.
Adelaide to J. R. Boyd, September 4th, 1856.
David to Esther Arminta Le Feber, October 16th, 1865, who died March 8th, 1874. Age 28 years, 11 months, 15 days.
Sarah to George McLaren, August 5th, 1858.
David to Eunice Hardenbrook, May 24th, 1874.
Alice to Dr. L.C.S. Turner, October 21st, 1878.
Emma to Dr. A. S. Warner, February 24th, 1881.
Francis to Lucinda Wiles, April 10th, 1889, who died October 26th, 1897. Age 29 years, 2 months, 29 days.
Alfred to Cordia Bayless, September 5th, 1889.
She leaves twenty grandchildren, eight having preceded her. April 9th, 1891, another happy union of thirty-eight years was severed, and she was left an invalid and a widow again for eleven years, having contracted a chronic bronchial affection as a sequel of measles. On November 11th, 1901, she sustained a fall which confined her to her bed until the final transition came. She was a womanly woman, medium height and weight, dark hair and eyes. Home was her Eden and the harmonious relation and well being of her household were her one aim. Love, justice and mercy so tempered her acts that her stepchildren honored and loved her as their own. She was not only a home-keeper, but also a home-builder. In her pioneer days in Iowa she spun, wove and made all her own carpets, blankets and the every-day wearing apparel of her family, made her own beds, candles, sorghum and soap, and knit all the hosiery and mittens that her family used.
“Blessed is the memory of an old-fashioned mother.” Other faces will be forgotten, but hers will shine on till the light fro heaven’s portals will glorify our own. She was not a church-goer, but loved to read her bible at home, and had read it attentively from Genesis to Revelations many times. In August 1898, she went to Harlan, Iowa, and spent one year with her daughter, Adelaide. While there she read the new Testament through seven times. For many years she had mingled little with the social world except as the hospitalities of her home and her affectionate nature drew her friends to her. The sermons of the late Dr. Talmage printed weekly in the newspapers, she read and discussed in her home, and they seemed to supply to her nature the food others get from direct contact with spiritual leaders. She early in life united with the Baptist church, but on her removal to Iowa become a Methodist, in which faith she continued until her death. In her last years her little grandchildren in the home were her greatest charge, and she often said God spared her to them. She could not be prevailed upon to leave them and the old home till b beckoning angels called her to her Father’s house. Her three eldest children were with her to the last, dispensing faithfully to her wants. Her youngest daughter came too late to clasp again in life the loving hand of “Mother,” but she had terminated a pleasant visit of a week, only ten days previous to her sickness. At 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, August 9th, after seven hours of unconscious existence midst turbulence without – though but rainfall from loving eyes within – her spirit took its flight.
“To that shore where billows never break or tempests roar.”
Sympathizing friends and neighbors who had been at the home during the afternoon were hurriedly called, by the threatening storm, to their own hoes. A large willow that she had planted near the house many years ago gave up its life in the tempest that claimed hers.
The funeral was held at the home at two p.m., Thursday, August 21st, conducted by Rev. Charles C. Wilkins, pastor of the M.E. church at Mingo, Iowa, and outlined as follows:
Opening Song – “Nearer, My God, to Thee”
Prayer.
Song – “Sweet Peace.”
Scriptural reading: Rev XXI, 1-7.
Obituary.
Song – “My Faith Looks up to Thee.”
Sermon – Texts: Psalms 116-15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.
Rev XIV, 13. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.”
Concluding songs: “Beckoning Hands,” and “Meet Me There.”
Song at the grave: “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.”
The music was by the Methodist choir of Mingo. Interment was at the Sams cemetery beside her three children and the companion of her later years. Beautiful floral offerings surrounded the casket, and a large concourse of relatives and friends assembled to pay their last tribute of respect to this noble pioneer mother.
“She is not dead, but entered upon the activities that are not succeeded by weariness.”