Georgia: Coweta County: In Memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Stegall Dent 30 January 1925 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store this file permanently for free access. This file was contributed by: Dianne Wood Cowetafamilies@yahoo.com ==================================================================== The Newnan Herald, Friday, January 30, 1925 IN MEMORY OF MRS. ELIZABETH STEGALL DENT ‘Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the had of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God’ Isa. 62:3…. Mrs. Elizabeth Steagall Dent was born in Heard County GA, May 22, 1835; married to Joseph Ephriam Dent April 5, 1859; and her gentle spirit returned to God who gave it Feb 24, 1924. Surviving her beloved husband nearly twenty-four years. We have an interest in the good who live among us, and all true men and women feel poorer when they die. This thought embodied the feelings of the entire city when the tidings went abroad that this ‘mother in Israel’ had been transplanted from the bosom of her devoted family to the bosom of the Good Shepherd, after a long live of useful service to her family, her friends, and her God. She was descended from a long line of good ancestry. Her father Rev. Wm W. Steagall, born in 1804, helped organize and build the first two Methodist churches in Coweta in 1828. She was a descendent of the Collinsworth family; for whom Collinsworth Institute at Talbotton, is named. Her mother was before her marriage, Miss Ann Wood, who came from Liberty county to Heard. The foundation stone on which Mrs. Dent’s long interesting and useful life was built was the consecration of her young life to God, with the dew of immortal innocence on her brow, joining the Methodist church when 7 years old at a revival service held by her father at Wesley Chapel, the Church he gave and dedicated to the Heard county community, remembering to the close of her life his words of approval saying, ‘and even my own little daughter.’ It is hard to estimate the debt owed to godly parents, but her children keep in a volume of remembrance their undying gratitude. Her life was an inspiration to all that was high and holy. Such homes and such parents are the hope of the world—the safeguard of the nation. She was in the world, but not of it, considering the material…show and the things not seen eternal. She acquitted herself nobly in all life’s duties. Refined in her tastes generous in hospitality, self- denying in her devotion of husband and children and that her children cherish high ideals of life. Mrs. Earnest Powel, writing in her journal and reviving the happy past, says ‘Dear old father, and mother dear, with their eight children! What a happy family we were before the death had broken the charmed circle. They came into the home, first a boy, then a girl; --Wade, Annie, Jos E. Jr., Lizzie, Heard, Lillian, Marvin, Lelie” –going on to add dates of birth and names of ministers who dedicated them to God by holy baptism in their innocent infancy, closing with her own name, Lelie St. Clair, baptized by Bishop Geo. F. Pierce. Around their dear domestic bower, the wreaths of fadeless love entwined. Like her Master, she was acquainted with grief and the shadows incident to all pathways. What heart aches she must have felt as she stood by the grave of a noble husband; when a brilliant son was brought home dead from another city; her first daughter brought from husband and children to sleep in the family burial lot; her oldest son dying at a health report where he was striving to regain health a dutiful son-in-law carried out from their home to the ‘city of the dead’, and weeping with another daughter in the greatest of all grief’s, that of a mother for her only child. There were sobs, but there was also submission and with each recurring heartache the Savior drew her closer into the divine bosom, teaching her that the despoiling hand that s… life’s rose…is but the garnering angel of the skies, and that she would find again, clad in greater beauty than before, those that she loved so fondly, and lost awhile. She mellowed as she grew older, and like autumn fruit, perfumed the air around her, being ripe for the celestial city, when she was called to ascend. The song of faith in the home going one robbed death of its sting, and the grave of its victory. Embalmed in violets and crowned with undying love she sleeps among those whom in life she loved so well. May the mantle of her virtues and the benediction of her life rest upon children and grandchildren to the latest generation. Eye hat not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the hear of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Joy Joy forever her task is done. The gates are passed and heaven is won: N. I. C.