Knob Creek Baptist Church Cemetery

May 7, 1879
Letter to Eliza Hanks (Ma) (Mrs. James A.) Moore, sister of Tabitha Hanks Witherspoon, Palestine, TN - From Eliza's son, William Rogers "B" Moore, Santa Fe, TN

Dear Ma,
I will now comply with my promise. I have just returned from Aunt Tal�s burial. She was buried today (Wednesday) at 4 o�clock at the old family burying ground on Knob Creek. She lies beside Uncle John�s first wife.
Her funeral was preached in the Knob Creek Church by Parson Wallace of Columbia. His text was the 13th verse of the 14th Chapter of Revelation�and I heard a voice from heaven saying, �Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
henceforth.� �Blessed indeed,� says the Spirit, �that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!� I never saw a larger attendance on a funeral occasion. She, as you well know, was much beloved by her old Knob Creek neighbors.
Uncle John, Johnie Reb and Cora came, and Aunt Jane, Uncle Robert and nearly all of their children were present. All of Pa�s sisters and their children were there. Uncle William Jones, Ben Dowell, Wesley Dodson and nearly all of her friends
and acquaintances were there. A great many from Columbia came. So you see how much she was appreciated.
Her corpse arrived from Columbia today at 12 o�clock. Uncle John and the children came last night at 11 o�clock - one train ahead of the corpse. He had the corpse sent by express. Charlie may have written to you 'ere this, but I will
never the less write all the particulars. Just as Uncle John gave them to me and let me say here that Uncle John told me to write these things to you for him. So he may not write himself � if not, take these words as his at his own request,
for he is much troubled.
He said that she died of common flux. Was sick one week. Her general health had up to that time (that is to the time of her taking the flux) been very good. Her lungs were not at all affected. She had been better as far as her lungs
were concerned than she was in Tennessee. She said 3 weeks before she took sick that she was going to have a spell of sickness and that she would die. She had been waiting on a little child that died of flux just before she took sick.
She took sick on Sunday - that morning was cloudy or rainy or probably she and Uncle John would have gone to Church - she then must have taken sick that evening or night. When she put on her clothes on taking sick, she said that
she was putting on the clothes in which she would die. Uncle called in one of the best Doctors in Sherman, a member of the Baptist Church and a little older than Dr. Forgey.
On Friday after she took sick on Sunday, the Doctor stopped the flux. He had removed all the fever from her system; had regulated her bowels and everything bad fair for her recovery to the doctor, at least, for he told Uncle John
that he had cured the disease and the only question was whether he could hold the system up after so much suffering for she had had hot fever for several days and severe and heavy drainage of blood. The doctor told Uncle John that
he thought he could save her, but Uncle John told him that she would die for he knew Aunt Tal�s condition so well. Aunt Tal had the idea on her mind from the first that she was going to die and they could not remove it.
When the doctor first came or came the first time in her sickness she told him that he might do all he could for her but that she would surely die. Uncle John thinks that was one reason she did not recover. He said that he had seen
her as bad before under Forgery�s treatment and Forgey said that he had great trouble to get that idea out of her head at that time. The Texas doctor was too confident and left the proper medicines and said he would call in an hour
or so. They gave the stimulants of every kind but all at once on Saturday she took a change for the worse that is her whole system collapsed under the effects of the suffering her body had undergone when the fever was burning it
and the flux was draining it. She then began to sink rapidly on the doctors hands, and nothing human could save her.
She died Sunday morning at 1 o�clock. It was on Friday she called all the family around her and talked to them. She talked to Charlie and all the rest. She told them she was ready and willing to die but she hated to leave Uncle John
and the children alone without wife and mother. She said that she was sorry that she had to die so far away from her old home. Uncle John said she was fully expecting to die and in fact wanted to die from the fact that she thought
she had been sick so much and had been so much expense to him and that she was greatly in the way and really wanted to die, except she hated to leave her children in this world especially in a strange country. She prayed fervently
to God her father that she might be permitted to die and when she found she was going to die or that God had granted her prayer, she thanked God for it.
A few hours before she died her pain all ceased and she went off as if she were going to sleep. She was apparently unconscious for a day or two before she died. Uncle John said she never shouted but passed away quietly, like she had
lived. She died triumphant in the Lord as she had lived in the Lord. She died with a heavenly and radiant smile upon her face, then was her gentle and loving spirit wafted on angelic wings to meet those of her children, and of her good
old father and mother in the presence of her Maker who gave it.
Brother Wallace told the people that she loved them all. That she was one of the most cheerful and uniform Christians he ever met. Told the people how glad she was when Cora professed religion. That though she was too feeble to go
church that night, yet when Cora came home rejoicing she called all the darkies and told them the glad tidings. He went on to say that she was not selfish. That she lived not for herself, but for others. That she worked hard for the
salvation of her friends even when she was not able. He said that she had great faith in Christ and that it was owing no doubt to this faith that she had lived nearly 50 years amid so much troubles and sickness. You know she was all
this or else she would have died long ago. No death has ever caused so much sadness to the human heart. We should all be thankful to God for her exemplary life, and may her death be our eternal gain.
Ma, it appeared to me that you were dead, so near was she to my heart. Oh God, how affectionate she was to me when I came up here and not only to me but to Emma and Knox and to everybody in fact. It looks like it will kill
poor Aunt Jane, she looks so bad. I don�t think she will be with us long if she keeps on going down. Poor Uncle Nute when he heard of it, became worse than ever. He will have to be confined I am afraid on account of it.
Uncle John has done his whole duty. She never requested him to bring her remains back but he knew she wanted to be brought back and thought it was his duty to bring them back. He don�t know what he will do now. He wants to go
back to Texas but don�t know yet whether he will go back or not. He says he may go in two weeks or next fall or maybe not at all. He told me he would come to see me before he went back, anyway. Cora looks mighty lonely. Johnnie
appears very sad. He left Charlie and Mit in Sherman, TX. Charlie tried to get him to leave the children with him, but Uncle John brought them for fear he would not go back.
Uncle John and the children came out to _?_Widow Allen�s _?_ last night and Emma and I went there this morning and stayed there until the hearse came along. So I talked to him a great deal. When Mrs. Forgey saw the hearse drawn
by two right white horses come in sight at Mrs. Allens, she bursted into tears. To think she had stayed all night with her only 3 or 4 months ago and had gone to Texas and was now coming back drawn by two white horses to her old but
narrow home was to her, and me very sad indeed.

May we all meet her in heaven is the prayer of your son, William R. Moore