Mrs. Robert BELL, ????-1922

BELL

Posted By: Volunteer-Betty Hootman
Date: 9/13/2012 at 11:22:28

IN MEMORIAM

At our last meeting the death angel was hovering over us and that night claimed one of our most faithful and beloved members. In due respect and devotion I deem it a duty and a privilege that we recall her virtues and good deeds.

We have sent her flowers while living, laid them on her casket as the last loving act but they have withered. “Kind word” it is said, “can never die” and as my mind searches for some tribute to our beloved sister, it turned to the words of the Wise Man uttered some three thousand years ago.

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”

In Mrs. Bell we found this virtuous woman. We can measure her worth in her home, in her church, in the community where she spent her earlier life., or in the town where her declining years were passed.

She was a worker in the W. C. T. U. and at her place whether it was caring for the church or there for devotion prayer meeting or Sabbeth school.

“She considereth a field and buyeth it; with fruits of her hands she planteth a vineyard.”

In Mr. and Mrs. Bell’s days of prime they provided for their declining years. The farm they improved and lived on for forty years stand as a monument to their industry and thrift. It was there they raised their family of four daughters and two sons in the admonition and fear of the Lord and there they spent their happiest days.

Not having known Mr. Bell as long as some of you I can not speak with the same knowledge but some remarks made in my hearing voice the sentiments of us all. “Mr. Bell’s good judgment and justice for all commend him to us and his dignity and gray hairs command respect.”

His faithful devoted and reverent prayers are an example of us all.

We sympathize sincerely with him in his lonliness[sic] and grief.

“As unto the bow the cord is,
So unto the man woman is.
Though she bends him, she obeys him,
Though she draws him, yet she follows,
Useless each without the other.”

“She opened her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” She exercised her wisdom as a peace-maker and “Blessed are the peace-makers for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,”

Did you ever meet Mrs. Bell when you were not greeted with a smile, a hearty hand shake and a few kind words. Her last greeting to me, tho the doctor had been called to alleviate her suffering was “I’m glad to see the rest of you well.” It was never to much trouble for her to entertain a minister that chanced to come on trial when the rest of us might have thought we were not prepared or it would have been to much trouble.

“She looketh to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness.” Industry was one of her good qualities and looked after her home with pleasure. We owe a debt to the mothers of the earlier days we can never repay.

“Her children arise up and call her blessed.” How soon on the wings of love they responded and hovered around her bedside.

One time when the Guild met with her she read a verse William had sent her the substance as I recall it was “God had given him the birds, the trees, the sunshine and all things enjoyable and then best of all gave me mother.”

Mother That blessed name. Do we praise it enough? Can any honor do justice to the self sacrifice, devotion and constant care of a mother bestows upon her children? One of her last pleasures was her family dinner at Christmas tide.

“Favor is deceitful and beauty is wain, but a woman that feareth the Lord shall be praised.”

In earlier life I imagine Mother Bell had been a pretty woman with her fair face, her blue eyes and wavy hair and she certainly grew old gracefully, but vanity did not appeal to her.

She hated sin and evil and Sabbath desecration was a great worry to her.

“Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her work praise her in the gates.” A life of three score years she gave to her home, her church and her country. When in all the ages gone could she have lived in a more ……..cut off………

Note: handwritten on the bottom: “May 3, 1922 paper written by Mrs. Barton after death of Mrs. Robert Bell who died in ____?____ 1922.”

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book A-2, page 211, Keosauqua Public Library; Keosauqua, IA