BEE SPRINGS CEMETERY (N.E. of Elkton), GILES COUNTY, TENNESSEE

STEVENSON, Coleman L., 26 Dec 1832 - 24 Oct 1908. Full of good works and deeds of charity we feel a great man & prinse in Isreal hath fallen among us.

STEVENSON, Coleman Lafayette The Pulaski Citizen 12 Nov 1908 "Memorial"
The following caper was read at the Memorial service of the Bee Spring Sunday School, held in memory of the late C. L. Stevenson last Sunday morning.
It is with sad hearts that we pause today in our regular Sabbath School work and pay a tribute to one who has long stood in our ranks.
C. L. Stevenson was born Dec. 26, 1832, and on the morning of Oct. 24, 1908 his spirit entered through the portals of eternal life.
He had spent almost four score years in the ever changing scenes of life's battles and his death was like the laying down of arms, when the soldier hero retires from the fields of victory glory crowned.
He has always been a citizen of Giles County and though Giles is largely populated with men of sterling worth we know that C. L. Stevenson ranked with her best.
He was married 3 times, first to Miss Louisa Jackson who died early after the marriage. She was the mother of his son W. B. Stevenson.
His second marriage was to Miss Dorcas Jackson. The remained in wedlock for a period of many years, when death took her from him. She was the mother of his three sons, J. M., E. A. and T. M. Stevenson.
His last marriage was to Mrs. William Tungett, who survives him.
Besides these four sons he has reared no less than twelve orphans, and for a period of forty years he has had an orphan under his fatherly care and at time there has been as many as four in his home at the same time. In God's word we read: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the father less and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
For a period of sixty four years he has been a member of the Methodist Church, and for fifty years a steward in the church.
He came of an honorable family. A noble lineage was his and in the very beginning of life, there was the foundation where on to build a character which was strong like Gibraltar's rock. A character that stood the test of time, a character clean, pure and ideal.
He did not have the advantage which some men have of an extended scholastic education, and yet his education died comprise those essentials which make a man or woman fitted for life.
It disciplined his feelings, it inspired true and worthy motives. It inspired a profound religious feeling. It inculcated pure morality and purity of life, and these embrace, the large term of education.
Every one knows him to be kind and true. All appreciate him and honored him. He was looked to for aid and depended upon him when help was needed. He was truly a man of great usefulness.
As an agriculturist he was well skilled and the result was, prosperity awaited his labors. But be it said to his credit, that liberality in the furtherance of every good when it required means, was a true characteristic of him.
Whereas, it has pleased God to remove from us our beloved co-worker in Sunday, C. L. Stevenson.
Therefore be it Resolved, That while we know that we have sustained a loss severe indeed, yet we are consoled by the thought, that as a school we have been wonderfully blessed by having his noble character before us as open book so long a time. 2nd, That we believe that the influence for good arising from his honorable life, will not cease to live, but will continue to widen out as the wave set in motion spreads over the bosom of the lake. 3rd, That as a Sunday School we extend the sorrowing ones our sincere sympathy in their bereavement.
Bee Spring Sunday School Nov. 8, 1908
shared by Jesse R. Mitchell
From: Trumpshallblow17@aol.com (Mary Bob McClain Richardson) Sent: 7 Jul 2016.