Page:The McClure Family.djvu/77

Rh member for near 66 years. She died in perfect peace in hope of a glorious immortality."

There were eight children born of this union.

(1). . The following obituary appearing in the local papers at Gazelle, California, gives the outline of her life:

"Our last week's Journal chronicled the death of Mrs. Mary M. Harris. As a slight tribute to her memory, and an offering of esteem to her many friends and relatives, on this coast, as well as in the Eastern and Southern States, we will give a brief sketch of the life of this most exemplary woman.

Mrs. Harris was a native of Virginia; she was born June 12th, 1820, and passed peacefully away May 10th, 1892, aged nearly 72 years. She was the oldest of eight children, of whom but one, the youngest, survives her.

Miss Mary McClure was married when twenty years old, to Mr. Harris. In 1854 they moved to Illinois. Mrs. Harris was the mother of eight children, only five of whom survive her; four of this number are now residing in this country, near Gazelle, respectively, Mrs. E. B. Edson, John, Life and Susie Harris, Mrs. Harris accepted the bitterness of sorrow and loss with which her life was for many years overshadowed with patient fortitude.

Her's was one of those rare sweet natures, endowed with a Christ-like spirit, which shone out with a steady light, illumining her daily life of care with a mild radiance, almost pathetic in its gentle constancy. When her youngest child was but four years old, her husband suddenly dropped dead in the street, of heart disease, and after rallying from this first great shock of grief and affliction, she took up the burden of life with heroic grace. Her eldest child—she whom we know as Mrs. Life Edson—being at that time only sixteen years old.

Mrs. Harris raised all her family of eight, to be good and useful men and women. Three have since died, two being snatched away as suddenly as was their father. In addition to the care of her own family she raised two of