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BILBO, Elijah (1826-1911)

BILBO

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 8/4/2017 at 16:31:04

Elijah Bilbo
(1826-1911)

Indianola Herald, Indianola, Iowa, Thurs., Jan 19, 1911, front page
Obituary – Elijah Bilbo
Elijah Bilbo was born in Boyle County, Kentucky, March 3, 1826 and died in Indianola, Iowa, January 3, 1911. Between these two dates there is a span of life of eighty four years and ten months. The first three years were spent in his native county. The next nineteen were passed in Parke County, Indiana. During his youth most of the winters were given to school attendance. He has recorded in a brief auto biographic sketch the names of the teachers of whom he received instruction. At twenty two years of age he came into Iowa to acquire some information of the country that was then being opened up and settled. The first winter he spent in Mahaska County where he taught his first term of school. The next three years he was in Indiana and during two of the winters there he taught school. In the fall of 1852 he came to Iowa with a view of locating in the new state and made his first purchase of land in Lucas County. The following year he came to Warren County and both purchased and entered land, and during the first winter taught school in a log cabin in Hoosier Row. The same year he married to Miss Elizabeth Randolph who died in February 1857. In May of 1858 he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth F. Bellamy who died in 1890.
As one of the early settlers of Warren County he took active interest in its affairs. Beginning in 1865 he served with occasional intervals as justice of the peace, amounting in all to fifteen years. In 1891 his marriage to Miss E.R. Horton occurred. He was sixteen years old when he was converted and the same year he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He afterward served the church many years as an official member variously as trustee, steward, class leader and Sunday school superintendent.
At intervals through many years and regularly with the recurring of his birthday in recent years, he made entries in a record he kept of events and experiences in his life. As age increased and he realized that his days were being lengthened much beyond the usual allotment of life, he wrote down his gratitude to his Heavenly Father and his steadfast faith in His providence. The last entry was made March 3, 1910. Its concluding words may fittingly close this summary of his four score and nearly five years of life. “I sometimes feel that I had outlived all my usefulness, but am trying to be perfectly resigned to the will of the Lord, so that when he calls me hence, I may have nothing to do but gather up my feet in death and go home to glory.”


 

Warren Obituaries maintained by Karen S. Velau.
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