This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Bowden Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/DhB.2ACE/933 Message Board Post: Eulogy letter written for Margret E. Bowden by Reverend J. W. Bowden: Fallen asleep in Jesus at her home in Brown County, Texas. Mrs. Margret E. Bowden (nee Roberts), born March 17th1850 in Bedford County, Tennessee, moved with her parents (John W. and Eliza Roberts) to Conway County, Arkansas when about 3 years old. Professed religion in her seventeenth year and soon after became a member of the M. E. Church, south, in which she lived a consistent member until called from the church on earth to the church in heaven which event occurred March 18, 1901 at 11:30 a.m. She was married to A. G. Bowden, Feb. 7, 1875 in Conway County, Arkansas. To them were born five sons and two daughters, three of the boys preceded her to the Beautiful City beyond, having died in infancy. She moved with her husband to Texas in the fall of 1891. She was confined to her bed for nine months with that much- dreaded disease, consumption. She bore her sickness with great patience, several days before called to her long sought rest, of which she often spake, she called her husband and children to her bedside and gave Special directions concerning home affairs, telling them not to grieve for her, but live religious and meet her in heaven, also sending messages to her Brother and sisters and old friends in distant lands to meet her in heaven. A few hours before she closed her eyes to the things of earth to open them on the beautiful things of heaven, she received a letter from her Brother in Colorado. She asked her son (Virgil) to read it to her and answer it. Her bother had been insisting on her coming to see him and said “Sister imagine how nice it would be to ride with me in my Buggy drawn by my big fine mares. In answer to this she said, “Brother, that would be nice, but I will tell you something th! at will be nicer, the ride I shall soon take in heaven’s chariot, and I hope you will ride on the same Chariot.” At the close of the letter, she held the pencil with her pale, trembling, hand as her son signed her name. She had her burying clothes made several months before she left us and said to her husband, a short time before her departure, “everything is ready except the shoes and they can get them when they go after the coffin”. She gave faithful warnings to the irreligious and spoke many words of encouragement to the Christians who attended her bedside. She asked me to conduct her funeral service, her pastor assisting. She asked that the church all be present. A large number attended and we placed her lifeless form in the tomb to await the glorious resurrection morning. She is not dead, but sleepeth. Husband, children and friends, we know where to find her. Let us be true to God and some sweet day we will meet her over there, where there are no more partings. J. W. Bowden (Heflin Cemetery)