Grundy County IL Archives Obituaries.....Hand, Augustus Frederick 1890 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com October 23, 2006, 1:18 am Morris Herald, June 20, 1890 For several months the public had been in expectancy of the death of Dr. A.F. Hand, but nevertheless, when the announcement came on Sunday afternoon, a little after 4 o’clock, it had its effect upon the community where he had so long lived, and where always he had been held in high esteem. For six months he had been failing. The skeleton form which was laid away on last Tuesday bore little semblance of that robust form of but a few short months ago. His malady was peculiar. His appetite of a sudden failed, his digestive organs had ceased their function, and gradually he wasted away, until the man of nearly 300 pounds was left but a bare skeleton. A great generous hearted man has gone out from amongst us, but his memory will long live. The following biographical sketch was prepared for publication, and graphically describes the man – the friend of the people. Augustus Frederick Hand was born of a Puritanical family, at Shoreham, Addison County, Vt., July 11, 1816. Here on the shores of Lake Champlain and at North Ferrisburg among the spurs of the Green mountains, his youth was spent and where he laid foundation of a robust constitution which carried him through a long, useful and eventful life, fraught with hardships under which a less sturdy conformation would have succumbed. Here he had advantages of the common schools and discipline of a stern, unrelenting sad, perhaps, harsh father, who ruled with such iron hand that, at 17, the doctor ran away from home and came west, to Logansport, Ind., walking mostly all the way. Here he remained a few months with a half brother, the late Rev. Martin Post of that city, and then went on to Jacksonville, Ill., where he entered Illinois College under the preceptorship of another half-brother, the late Rev. Truman M. Post, of St. Louis, who, at that time, was a professor in the college. Three years later he graduated from the classic school and entered the medical department from which he graduated in 1845, and at once commenced the practice of his profession in which he has stood at the head here for over forty years. While at Jacksonville his school class and roommates were men who have since figured conspicuously in the history of our State and Nation, and with whom ties of friendship were interwoven that were maintained through life. The Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, Gov. Richard Yates, Hon. Newton Bateman and Prof. Samuel Williard being his close associates. In 1847 he came to Morris, and from that date until shortly before his death, he was one of the best known and most familiar figures here, having maintained an active, vigorous life and practice was not abated until the advent of his last sickness. When he came here this county was a mere wilderness. There were no roads nor fences and but few settlers and his practice extended for nearly twenty-five miles in all directions. The hardships which he endured and took pride in relating in after years, were enough to have overcome a less sturdy constitution; but he was endowed with an unusually strong physique and it carried him through and maintained a robust activity until with a few months past, when his last illness set in – atomic dyspepsia – and he declined rapidly until death closed the scene, and took a kind, generous and just man to his eternal reward. Attached to one of his pictures he left the following quotation: “How strange and eccentric seems the man who thinks for himself.” No expression could better represent him. He was a man who thought; who did his own thinking; who spoke his thoughts; who thought before he spoke; a man of brain and intelligence; a student and scholar in his profession and out of it; just, honest and God fearing; somewhat stern and exacting, but with a heart as tender as a woman’s. His right hand was always open to deserving poor and his left did not know what his right was doing. Almost every poor family in this city and vicinity has been the recipient of his sympathetic generosity. He was not a man of the world and took no part in it social and but little in its political affairs, though he had held public offices of trust and honor. Doctor Hand was one of the most original of men in speech, in dress and in manner; free from vanities of all kinds; unconventional and did nothing for “policy” sake. A good birth, good, early and lifelong associates and a good heart carried him to and maintained him in a sphere almost of his own, far above mediocrity. But he has gone. No more will his familiar face be seen upon on streets; his kind, generous hand now lies cold in death; his soul is in eternity and soon his body will lie alongside many of his companions of half a century who have preceded him to that unknown borne, and the particular sphere which he filled on this earth will never be filled nor his memory lost. Thus one by one the old settlers are passing away, but few remain who came here contemporaneously with Dr. Hand. He died in full hope of eternity surrounded by most of his family, consisting of his wife, Sarah Clark, whom he married in this city in 1850, and his daughter, Mrs. A.E. Frost of Chicago, and sons Oliver H. and Dr. Truman A. Hand, of this city, who mourn the loss of a kind and indulgent husband. The funeral took place on Tuesday afternoon from the family residence, on Main street, and was very largely attended. In the absence of Rev. Bissell, of the congregational church, Rev. J.A. Montgomery, of LaGrange, for many years pastor of the church in this city officiated. The remains were interred in Evergreen cemetery. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/grundy/obits/h/hand419nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 6.2 Kb