Obituary - Catherine C. Cowman
MRS. CATHERINE COMBS COWMAN, was born in Highland Co., Ohio, February 3rd,
1817, and was married to David Cowman, September 10th, 1835. At the age of 12
years she was converted and joined the M. E. church of which she remained a
faithful member until she was called to join the church Triumphant, on the 30th
day of May, 1890, aged 73 years, 3 months, and 27 days.
Mr. and Mrs. Cowman came to Illinois, June 1st, 1838, and soon after moved to
the farm where they continued to reside till her death. Mrs. Cowman was the
mother of eleven children, four of whom preceded her to the other shore. There
are still living three sons and four daughters all of whom are married except
the youngest son.
On Friday morning Mrs. Cowman called her children to her bedside one by one and
told them she could not be with them long and earnestly exhorted them to meet
her in heaven. With her children she leaves her husband and many warm friends to
mourn their irreparable loss. The following is a letter written by Mrs. Cowman
on the day of her Golden wedding, and was found in her trunk at her death.
"This is the tenth day of September. To-day we have been married fifty years. I
have been studying and thinking away back to the days of my youth, and I have
nothing to complain of, but I do feel to praise God for his goodness and his
mercy. It has been over fifty years since I started to serve God and I feel that
my feet are upon the rock, that 'the Lord is my shepard and I shall not want.'
Oh! how I do feel to praise the Lord for the prospect that I have of meeting my
loved ones. I have four children who have gone on before. My daily prayer is
that we make an unbroken family."
Contributed by Todd Walter, extracted from an 1890 London Times, London Mills, IL.
