Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Smith, Mae H. 1898
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Ionia Daily Standard, 12 Dec 1898

Death of Miss Mae Smith.

Close of a Faithful Life Devoted to Good Works.

The death of Miss Mae Smith, last evening, fills many hearts with sadness in
this community, where she has spent her life.  She possessed a peculiarly
winning personality, a bright and happy nature responsive to every kindly and
noble impulse, that made her friendship dear to many, and will cause her
untimely loss to be long deplored.

She graduated from the Ionia high school in the class of ’77.  Of this class,
only one now remains a resident here – Miss Anis J.Knowles.  Miss Smith
immediately took up her work of teaching, being engaged for two years in the St.
Louis schools, and for fifteen years since in the schools of this city.  She was
peculiarly successful in this important calling, entering into it with ardor and
determination, and such sympathy with the little ones as to secure their full
love and confidence, and smoothing for them the difficult way up the path of
knowledge.  In the hearts of many of these children her memory will long remain
precious, for the gracious influence upon their lives of her gentle and kindly
spirit.

As the Sabbath of earth drew to the close, one dwelling long amongst us entered
the eternal Sabbath of the redeemed in Christ.  On the baptismal record is
written Mary H. Smith, and now as we turn the last leaf, we write over against
it, “and she died.”  Some years lie between these records, and we read again
that on April 7, 1870, she came to the altar, where the sprinkling of baptismal
water had been placed upon her brow, to witness, before God, angels and men, her
belief and her trust for salvation in a crucified Redeemer, and to publicly
confess him to the world.  It was no idle promise then made, but a conscientious
doing of His will and His work as far as able, in both church and Sunday school,
as a most faithful teacher of the Word.

She graduated in Ionia in 1877, and for the last fifteen years she has taught in
our public schools and has been one of our most earnest and careful teachers. 
Her desire for life and death was to live Christ, so her desire for her pupils
was to do the very best for each one – always ready to help, working, many
times, even in weakness and weariness.  By this ever constant desire to
accomplish the best, she endeared herself greatly to teachers and pupils.  She
began to look upon the certain entrance into the home where the mother had
dwelled, and above all Christ her Lord.  She would have her voice ready for the
chorus of the skies, to shout amid the heavenly harmonies the praises she loved
so well: “To Him who hath redeemed us by His own blood.”  Thus leaving the
earthly for the heavenly Sabbath, she fell asleep on the evening of December 11,
1898, waking to the glory in the midst of the Throne.

Funeral on Wednesday at 2 p.m., at residence of N.E. Smith.


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