Mobile-Montgomery County AlArchives Obituaries.....Osborn, Fred September 5, 1935
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Candace (Teal) Gravelle tealtree@comcast.net February 4, 2007, 12:01 am

"The Cleburne News"
Heflin, Cleburne Co., Alabama 

NEWSPAPER Issue of Thursday, SEPTEMBER 19, 1935

DEATH CLAIMS FRED OSBORN

He was born at Mobile, Ala, June 12, 1876 and died at Heflin, Alabama, Sept. 
5, 1935 at 11:15 a.m. Death has claimed a beloved citizen, Mr. Fred Osborn, 
son of Jane Colton Osborn and Capt. Mathias Corwin Osborn.

His early childhood wa spent in the cities of Mobile and Montgomery, 
Alabama. When about seven years of age his parents moved to Cleburne county 
where he attended the Ross Collegiate Institute. He was first employed as a 
bookkeeper in Heflin. At the early age of sixteen he went to Mt. Sterling, 
Ohio to live with an aunt and to begin the study of telegraphy; later he 
went to Columbus, Ohio and still later to Chicago where he was employed by 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railway company for a period of seven years. He was 
married to Amelia Stelzer June 25, 1902 and in the fall of that same year, 
returned to Heflin, working for a time in the post office.

Then he was tendered a position of Asst. Cashier of the Bank of Heflin on 
Nov. 9, 1905. In the meantime he accepted a Civil Service appointment as 
clerk in the U.S. Treasury Department, Washington, D.C. In 1907 he returned 
to Heflin and was again connected with the Bank of Heflin which connection 
he continued to the time of his death.

He was admitted to the Masonic Lodge in 1903. The ideals and purposes of the 
Order were dear to his heart. The atmosphere of his childhood was satiated 
with the spirit of Masonry since his father was an outstanding member and 
worked for the promotion of the cause. The funeral of Capt. Mathias Osborn 
was the first in Heflin conducted with Masonic honors.

Surviving the deceased are his widow Mrs. Amelia Stelzer Osborn, Mrs. 
Frances Osborn Fuller, Miss Aline Osborn and one son, Mr. Clyde Osborn.

The suddenness of Fred's passing was a severe blow to his family and 
friends. Few of us knew of his illness but those who understood his nature 
felt immediately how typical of his desire the briefness of the end. His was 
of a nature of unselfishness and he had expressed the wish that when the 
call came he might go without lingering to be served over a prolonged 
period. And yet friends grouped about the bier, looking upon his unusual 
naturalness, could scarcely accept the inevitable.

His life had been one of usefulness and quiet service; his work in Heflin 
had given him opportunity for contacts with many people. That he had touched 
the lives and hearts of those in varied walks of life was attested as they 
came from all over the county to pay their last respects. He bore out the 
teachings " He hath shewed thee, man, what is good" and "what doth the Lord 
require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with 
thy God."

>From early childhood this was a nature unassuming, modest, with the high 
note of sincerity as the unit of value. He never knew how to be false to a 
friend, likewise he could never pretend that which in his heart he did not 
feel. To such a nature pretense was the shabbiest attribute of the human 
make-up. Qualities so rare in the busy world of today give us a standard on 
which to think. The community life has been the loser in his passing. A good 
citizen has been called up higher. A devoted family man, a member of the 
M.E. Church, where he worshipped and served as in every other walk of life, 
with conscientious thoughtfulness.

The last rites were particularly dignified, the church filled with a mass of 
floral offerings. Long before the hour for the service, friends from 
different parts of the state had come to mingle with the sorrowful, and a 
sense of peace and genuine affection pervaded the atmosphere. Surely the 
family must have felt the comforting spirit that was thrown about them; must 
have gone, even in their sorrow, to his last resting place with the 
assurance that though life had been cut short, the spirit of him who had 
without ostentation created for himself so genuinely a feeling of 
appreciation, that he had lived for a profound purpose.


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