Mack, Amos B. 1833-1905

MACK, LITTLE, HEIDEL

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 4/3/2012 at 20:26:28

The Grinnell (IA) Herald; Tuesday, Aug. 15, 1905

OBITUARY.

The earliest American ancestor of Amos B. Mack came to Connecticut from Inverness, Scotland, in the 17th century.

The family chiefly remained in New England. Mr. A.B. Mack was born in Lennox, Mass., in 1833 and died in Grinnell on August 9, 1905. It was at Lennox that he married Miss Libbie S. Little in 1865. Three years later he removed to Grinnell, and after remaining here a few years, he spent several years with a brother in Canon City and then returned here in 1887. He was one of a family of seven brothers and two sisters of whom only one, a brother still lives. In his own family there were three children, a son who died in infancy, a daughter Minnie, who lived to be twenty-six, long enough to win all our hearts and to cause all to have a sense of personal loss when her earthly life closed, and Mrs. Mary M. Heidel. His church membership was in a Baptist church in Connecticut, and then in the Congregational church here.

"He was a man of deeds and not of words." He held clear-cut and decided opinions but was cautious about thrusting them upon others. Remarkably retiring in all that he said or did, he was more ready to give than to receive in all home relations, and happy in doing his full share, or more than that, in all efforts for others farther away. He was a man of honor in business, of integrity in speech, sincere in his religion, in sympathy with all that is best. While waiting calmly for the end, his family, his Bible, the presence of his brother, his sister-in-law and his little grandson as well as every token of affection from every quarter were a perpetual comfort to him.

Funeral services were held from the home Friday afternoon at four o'clock and were conducted by Professor L.F. Parker. Beautiful music was furnished by a quartette composed of Messrs. P.E. Somers, O.F. Parish, E.B. Brande and H.S. Miller. The pall bearers were G.H. Crosby, C.F. Ricker, J.A. Stone, G.L. Sanders, W.O. Willard, and C.F. Childs. The body was laid to rest in Hazelwood cemetery. L.F.P.

The HERALD desires to add just a word to express the personal loss which is felt in the death of A.B. Mack, a man whom we have come to regard as one of the truest and most manly characters it has been our privilege to know. There are probably few men in Grinnell of whom it could be said equally as truthfully that they had no enemies. Nor was this because he was lax in standing firmly for the right but because in so doing he was so just and kind that he won men's hearts by his sincerity and honesty.

There are a few men with whom we always associate when thinking of them, the commendable trait of tending to their own business well and never to anyone's else. One of these men was Mr. Mack for we never heard of his saying or doing anything to the detriment of any other person or of acting so as to do a fellowman wrong.

Although the deceased was not an old man still he had lived more and worked harder in his seventy-two years than most men who live to a greater age. In this work he was always faithful and his life is a testimonial to the dignity and worth of honest, faithful toil which finds to the pleasure of work well done its own reward.

In losing Mr. Mack Grinnell has lost a man whose example was of great value and whose life was and will be a constant reminder to his fellowmen of the serene beauty of of a simple Christian life.