Benjamin Schoonover (1921)
DAUM, FERRIER, FLEMING, SCHOONOVER
Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 10/30/2014 at 17:32:26
Earlham Echo
Earlham, Iowa
Thursday, July 28, 1921Death of Mr. Benjamin Schoonover
The past week recorded on the pages of time the passing of another good Earlham citizen, who for over twenty years has cast his lot with ours. They are going fast, these men of another generation. The past year has seen an unusual number of the older people of the town move on to complete that inevitable cycle which begins with life and ends in life on a still higher place, whose character it is not given us to fathom. This time it was Mr. Benjamin Schoonover. At about ten o’clock Saturday night when the week-end activity of the town had reached its highest pitch, his tired heart gave up the struggle.
Funeral services were held at the home Tuesday morning at 8:30, permitting the departure of the funeral party on the morning train. A gathering of sorrowing neighbors and friends far exceeding the capacity of the dwelling was present to pay the last tribute. Rev. Chas. Lescault conducted the service in his unusual effective manner. Very appropriately, sacred music was furnished by Mr. Schoonover’s phonograph, an instrument in which he took an interest surpassed by no other, unless it was his love of fishing. A man of few words and a reserved outlook on the activities of his fellow men. Benjamin Schoonover became a boy again through his enthusiasm as a fisherman and the magic which lived in the cylinders of his phonograph.
Following funeral services at Earlham the body was taken to the old home at Durant, Iowa, by the children and there interred after a service at the grave.
The following obituary was read by Rev. Lescault at the service here:
Benjamin Schoonover, son of James and Thankful Schoonover was born April 24th, 1849, near Stockton, Muscatine County, Iowa.
He was married to Charlotte Daum on August 26, 1870 at Blue Grass, Scott County. To this union were born six children, three boys and three girls. Two of the boys died in infancy and one girl at the age of thirteen. The wife and mother departed this life on November 6th, 1915.
The family moved to Madison county, Iowa in 1898 spending the first ten years on a farm near Earlham, but since that time the home has been in Earlham.
Mr. Schoonover was converted and united with the M.E. church at the age of nineteen years and was a faithful member until the time of his death.
He was blest with a cheerful, happy disposition and always found the greatest pleasure in bringing a bit of sunshine into the lives of others. He was kind and loving in the home and was a good neighbor.
He came of the early pioneer parentage, his grandparents having come to Iowa in 1839.
He departed this life on the evening of July 23rd, 1921 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Marion Fleming. Altho in failing health for some time he kept up and going until about one week ago, when he was taken to his bed. He leaves two daughters, Mrs. Fannie Ferrier of Des Moines, Sadie Fleming of Earlham, and one son, George, of Zearing.
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Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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