This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BUB.2ACI/6126 Message Board Post: SARAH FORD CROSBY Mrs. Sarah FORD CROSBY, born on a farm in Belfast, January 5, 1839, died at her home on Main Street, Saturday, February 18, 1939 at the age of 100 years, one month and thirteen days. Her early life was spent in studying and teaching. She was a graduate of Genesee College, and after several years of teaching she met and married Rev. David CROSBY, then pastor of the Baptist Church of Lansing, Michigan. After the death of her husband she returned to Belfast where she has resided ever since. She was an active worker in the Baptist Church here and has always been interested in civic and religious affairs and had endeared herself to every resident of Belfast. Funeral services were held at the home of Mrs. Ida CHAMBERLAIN at 2 o'clock and at the church at 2:30, Monday, February 20, Rev. Leonard TRAVIS of the Baptist Church officiating. The remains were then taken to the Riverside Cemetery for interment. And so, the silver cord is loosed, the golden bowl is broken, the dust has returned to earth, and the spirit has returned to God who gave it. She died at 3 o'clock p.m. She went to sleep as a tired child. It was just as the afternoon sun was fading in the west with a sheen of glory. Surely a most fitting time for a pure spirit to take its flight heavenward. With the eye of faith one could see an invisible hand wave a signal, and a voice in softest accent announce that God's angels were waiting to escort her in. After a long , busy and useful life she died as she had lived, honored, trusted and loved. She reared her own monument while she lived in the hearts of all who knew her. Her life was completed if work, all done and well done, constitutes completion. Her Christian life was beautiful from its beginning to its close, and through all the vicissitudes and sorrows that she met in the way, her faith in God never wavered. But she has left us and the autumn leaves of the years to come will fall upon another grave that will hide from our sight all that is mortal of a true and noble woman. >From the citizens of this fair town that she loved so well, day after day has gone up this silent prayer: "Not here, O Death, not here, Is there no other flower for Thee to take? All the world is Thine, and for its sake, O come not here." But alas, "Death loves a shining mark - and so it came." Our little town and its hospitable people ever held a warm corner of her heart. It was here that the best days of her life were spent, and when her last hour came and the God of eternity called her to her everlasting rest, it was her desire that beneath the shady trees of that "Silent City" surrounded by the beauty, happiness, and contentment of our people, where the flowers are sweetest and the birds warble their most melodious songs, should be the eternal abiding place of all that was mortal of her. It is difficult to pay a fitting tribute to the memory of so noble a woman, one whose everyday life was embellished by the most charming and lovable attributes of her sex. A perfect lady at all times, under all circumstances, she seemed born to inspire the love and respect of all who were so fortunate as to be acquainted with her. No one was more willing to aid the suffering, cheer the despondent, sustain the weak and to throw over the frailties of our race the mantle of Christian charity, and when death came to her, as it must come to all of us, neighbors and friends alike vied with each other in acts of loving kindness and tender solicitude. But the great destroyer had placed his signet on her brow and today, hundreds who loved her living, mourn her dead. In the presence of such a sorrow, how cold and impotent are words and how doubly deep would be the grief over the grave did not the rainbow of Christian hope span the dark gulf between time and eternity, and such pure lives inspire the belief that there is a better world beyond, where the good and true are reunited "after life's fitful fever." She was a faithful member of the Belfast Baptist Church. She was just as faithful in believing that it was her duty as a Christian to do the will of her Master at all times. Truly she could say, " O Death, where is thy sting; O grave where is thy victory?" [Transcribed by Louise Y. Mills, 2003, from obituary collection of Lenora Mills, Wiscoy, NY]