p. 515 | Obituary by Peter H. Clark

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 15, 1883

Obituary.

By Peter H. Clark

CLARK.—Died of Bright's disease and old age, in Mobile, Ala., Oct. 9, 1883, my mother, Mrs. Sarah B. Clark, aged seventy-one years and one day. Mother had been in Mobile six weeks with her son-in-law, Col. Price Williams, under medical treatment. Her sufferings were very great. Each day for a month previous to her death, it was thought she might not live another day. She often spoke of dying, and prayed to be released from her agonies, principally intense nausea. God was near to her in her sufferings, and she praised his holy name, often saying, “Oh, how precious Jesus is to me in my extremity!”

I was with her seventeen days. Many times did we, the five of her living children,—two sons and three daughters,—gather around what we thought her dying bed, but as we sang and prayed with her, she would revive again. For a few hours before her death, she was granted relief from her great sufferings; and as she fell asleep without a struggle, I felt to praise the Lord that her pilgrimage was done, the battle fought, the victory won, and the crown laid up.

“She shall sleep, but not forever; There shall be a glorious dawn; We shall meet to part, no, never, On the resurrection morn.”

It is but a little while, and “He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”

Mother was born near Augusta, Ga., Oct. 7, 1812. Her parents removed to the territory of Alabama. When they arrived in Mobile, in 1818, it was but a small village. She was married near Mobile, in 1827, to Ebenezer Clark, a ship-carpenter of New York City. They lived there many years. From thence they moved to our old homestead, Three Rivers, in Jackson Co., Miss., where she has lived for forty years.

Mother lived a widow for twenty-seven years. Father died away from home at a watering-place, and she never saw his grave. She was a member of the Methodist church for nearly forty years. Mother had fourteen children. Her son John Tyler Clark, whom she mourned as dead, was in California the last letter she had from him twelve years ago.

Dear mother proved that the fifth commandment was sacred to her, by many years of patient, careful, and gentle attention to her blind, deaf, and helpless mother, who died two years ago, aged ninety-three years. Her relatives on the side of her father, Aaron Burleson, are said to compose one of the largest families in the United States; a history of them is now being written.

Mother possessed sixteen slaves. She often said she was sorry she ever owned them, as they proved anything but a blessing to her.

She loved very dearly Mrs. C. O. Taylor, who made us a visit just prior to her death. She also esteemed very highly the friendship of Eld. Taylor.

PETER H. CLARK.