Talitha Ann (Johnson) McArthur (1876)

MCARTHUR, JOHNSON, LANE

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 8/11/2007 at 16:47:29

Winterset Madisonian - November 2, 1876
Winterset, Iowa
page 7

DIED

MCARTHUR - in Greenfield, Adair county, Iowa, October 27th, 1876, Talitha A., wife of B. McArthur, after ten days sickness of obstruction and inflammation of the bowels. Aged 30 years.

(Mrs. McArthur was formerly Mrs. Lane, of this city, and for several terms a teacher in one of the rooms of our public school. She has many warm and admiring friends here who mourn with the husband her loss....ED.)
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Winterset Madisonian - December 7, 1876
Winterset, Iowa
page 4

OBITUARY

At a meeting of the Winterset Public Schools, it was resolved that some appropriate action be taken with regard to the death of Mrs. T. A. McArthur. E. R. Zeller was appointed to prepare a paper expressive of the feelings of the teachers. He has seen fit to give this paper the shape of an obituary, rather than a series of resolutions, as is usual on such occasions.

DIED - On Friday, Oct. 27th, Mrs. T. A. McArthur, nee Johnson, in the 31st year of her age.

Seldom has this community been called upon to part with one in whose life it had been more interested than in the subject of the above brief obituary, which recently appeared in our city papers. She was connected with the Winterset Public Schools since 1869; with the exception of one year, she was during that time continuously at her post of duty and responsibility. It may be candidly and truthfully said, that during those seven years, more interests centered in, and more influence radiated from her, than any other person, who either in a public or private capacity allied himself or herself with the destiny of our city. So acceptably and efficiently did she work in the interests of the community that her efforts never failed to meet with the most cordial appreciation. Seven years is a long probation for a school teacher, and yet during those seven years, it is a fact that she never forfeited the respect of a single child, nor the confidence of a single patron.

Hundreds who confided to her their dearest interests--their offspring--in the most critical period of life--childhood--learned to trust her with a confiding resignation which well nigh precluded even solicitude.

The power she exerted over the minds and hearts of children was marvelous; it was readily noticeable even in the personal behavior of her pupils by those who never visited her school. Children confided in her instinctively. The love and respect begotten in the childish heart were too deeply rooted to be effaced by subsequent associations. Scores of ladies and gentlemen, boys, and girls, from the high school down to the primary, felt their eyes moisten with the grateful tear of silent sorrow, when the sad news of her death fell upon their ears. But this feeling was not confined to the schoolroom, it was manifested around the fireside by many fond parents when first realizing that the gentle spirit of her who had so patiently toiled with the darling pet of the household, had fled from the busy scenes of life. The people of Winterset, however, can never realize what they owe to the memory of this noble woman. The rays of light which emanated from the cheerful spirit penetrated many bodes of poverty, where the eye of respectability never gazed. Although dead, the sphere of her influence is still widening, and like the tidal wave set in motion in the southern Pacific, it affects hundreds who are ignorant of its origin.

In the death of Mrs. McArthur, we have another illustration of the truthfulness of the saying, "The good die early;" we are also forcibly reminded of the fact that "To live long not time but actions tell." When we take a hasty review of the work she accomplished, it seems almost incredible that she had not yet theached her thirty-first birthday; and we were also impressed with the sad fact that hundreds live a fullness of years and die without having performed a modicum of her work.

And again, the world has erected monuments over the graves of many who have died martyrs to a much less worthy cause than the one to which she sacrificed her life. There are stories of pilots who steered a single ship around the perilous rocks of a treacherous coast and landed the cargo of life and property safely at the harbor; in what book shall be written the story of this brave faithful woman who piloted so many hundreds through the perilous voyage of childhood? Let it be the book of memory where we, her former colaborers will cherish the remembrance of her virtues, and be it our highest ambition to emulate the example of her life.