Schley-Marion County GaArchives Obituaries.....Hampton Joel Stevens December 6 1886
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Judith Gresham judo53@chartermi.net January 1, 2004, 10:01 am

 Marion County Patriot dated 12/10/1886
Mr. Joel Stevens

Mr. Joel Stevens, son of Mr.  P. S. Stevens of Putnam, this county died at 
Dawson, Monday night of typhoid fever, after a lingering illness of several 
weeks.  Mr. Stevens had been traveling on the road as a salesman and was taken 
sick at Dawson where he remained until his death.  He was a young man man of 
excellent character and will have a host of friends in this section to mourn 
his death.  His remains were brought up Tuesday and were buried at Good Hope 
church Wednesday.  The Patriot sympathizes with the bereaved family.

                                     
   

From Marion County Patriot dated 12/17/1886

Tribute to Joel Stephens
      by a friend

We would sooner have thought our deceased friend would have been permitted to 
do for us what we are about to do for him but as the invisible laws of nature 
have made it different we now, while the record of his generous life twine 
around our memory and his every unselfish act is a fragrant flower, pay this 
last sad tribute to his pathetic dust.

Joel died where noble youth was being tenderly kissed by the gentle dews of 
dawning manhood.  The spring time of his life had been thrilled with a 
tremulous desire for all that was noble and elevating.  Life's summer promised 
to make her billowed breast for him the home and throne of peace, happiness 
and love; while autumn with her arms well filled, promised to lay at his feet 
the sun-kissed fruits of a useful life, to be enjoyed in Winter's quiet days.

But late decreed it different.

No boy had a brighter prospect than he.  The very soul of nobility, not 
blinded by fancies of youth, but realizing that life existed in being and not 
seeming.  He possessed an indomitable will, a soul of kindness, an intellect 
that prepared him for the duties and business of life and made him a pride to 
relatives and friends.

Of the storms and waves that dash against the frail barks of human life, Joel 
met them all bravely.  Through the darkest clouds that ever rolled across his 
life, Hope ever pointed to the sparkling pinacle of Fame.  But when it seemed 
that only clear waters were before him, his bark struck the hidden rock and 
his manly form sank beneath the cruel waves and a tragedy was enacted as sad 
as can be woven in the warp and woof of mystery and death.

But this is only another sad picture that has been hung in the picture gallery 
of the past.  There is a precipice in the way of us all.  In our course we 
find many things that please and delight; birds sind, flowers wave along the 
shore, we would stop but we cannot; time rushes us on; nearer and nearer the 
brink we draw, we shudder and catch our breath, and it is over.

So it was with our loved and loving son, brother and friend, and we are forced 
to submit to the inevitable, yet the virtues he practiced are immortal.

		Blow soft ye winds o'er Joel's grave,
		and lightly fall ye snows,
		A fitting shroud to cover him,
		In this his last repose.

		For he on earth like Him was pure,
		He's happy now in heaven;
		Gone to receive the "promises"
		To Chistian virtue given.
 	Putnam December 10, 1886

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