Eliza Jane (Stewart) Saunders (1823 - 1910)

STEWART, SAUNDERS, RICE, NOBLE, MAIKEN, MILLER, HALL, SHOEMAKER, GRANT, DAY, BATCHELDER

Posted By: DJ Scieszinski
Date: 6/15/2018 at 11:58:30

The Albia Union
Tuesday, February 8, 1910

PASSING OF A PIONEER
Mrs. Henry Saunders Laid at Rest in Oakview Cemetery

The following worthy eulogy was read by Rev. Rice over the bier of this worthy woman yesterday:

Eliza Jane Stewart was born at Greensburg, Indiana, May 23, 1823, and passed to her long home Feb. 5, 1910, aged 86 years, 8 months and 12 days.

She was married to Henry Saunders in Greensburg, Aug. 7, 1844, with whom she lived just fifty years, Mr. Saunders dying in this city in 1894. To this marriage there came seven children, five daughters and two sons, all of whom are still living and reside in Albia. They are Mrs. Ione Noble, Mrs. Anna E. Maiken, Will P. Saunders, Mrs. Inez P. Miller, Mrs. Ida M. Hall, Evander Saunders, and Mrs. Ada Shoemaker. There are thirteen grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

Mr. Saunders was engaged in stock buying and merchandizing. When the war came he raised the first company of volunteers in Monroe county to go to the front and left with them as their captain. The only survivors of that company in Albia are acting as pallbearers in this service.

Captain Saunders served in the army three years and was in Gen. Grant’s command. This house has been the residence of Mrs. Saunders for fifty years. During the war Mrs. Saunders was here at home caring for the needs of her six children, an example of true patriotism surely. Mrs. Day, her sister, died in Paxton, Ill., three weeks ago. Of this death her friends thought it unwise to tell her. One sister remains in Danville, Ill.

Mrs. Saunders united with the Presbyterian church during the pastorate of Rev. Batchelder, a good many years ago, her husband being a member of the Christian church. On account of the infirmities of age she had been unable to attend any public services of the church for several years, but her interest in it knew no change.

This aged servant of God was distinguished by more than ordinary intelligence. She was a constant reader. Shut away from the world both by age and loss of hearing it was a daily blessing for her to be able to read. She was deeply interested in the Word of God and had made this her careful study for years. It was her stay and comfort and her guide. But she was specially interested in the affairs of the world. Nothing was there which did not enlist her notice, and her reading. She was delighted to read in these declining years the papers which were brought to her each day. The 121st Psalm was her great delight.

It is customary to write over the brow of every old soldier when he dies the name of Patriot. Let me write the same name to-day upon the brow of a captain’s widow. Caring for six children here upon the home field, spending weary, anxious days and weeks and months, three whole long years, while her husband was at the front defending the flag, it does seem to me that she was a real patriot as well as he. It detracts nothing from his war record nor from his fame to link the name of every soldier’s wife with his own, for both were really working for the maintenance of the union and the safety of Old Glory.

More than once Mrs. Saunders went down to the camp to visit the boys. She was an unusually welcome visitor. She did not hold herself aloof from the boys, and helped to repair their clothes while she visited, and upon one occasion they shouldered her up and marched through the camp shouting and singing, showing their admiration and affection for her unselfish heart and life. And none but God knows how much her prayers and the prayers of other souls like hers helped the boys at the front to overthrow the rebellion and maintain the union: All honor to the brave men who bore arms in the ranks; and a like honor to the women who toiled and prayed and wept on the home field.

Mrs. Saunders had unusual social qualities - a warm welcome for every one, child and adult alike, who came within the compass of her presence, a smile and a kind word for every one. She will be sorely missed by every relative and friend, but most of all by the children of these families who are here as chief mourners this day. Simple and childlike in her tastes and spirit, she could enter fully and quickly into the desires and pleasures of the young and they were always welcome to her home and to her heart.

A few weeks ago obliged to take her bed she showed at no time a disposition to complain. Only a few days ago she cried out “Let me go, “ as if some one were restraining her. Asked what she meant, she said in a clear voice, “Let me go to heaven.” That was a desire of a fervent and prepared heart longing to be at home with its Lord. Such a desire is surely now fulfilled and “at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”