Barry County Missouri Obituary Robert Sheilanbarger Cozad 1869 - ? Source: Scrapbook bought at the estate sale of Vivian Roller by Ted W. Roller ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- ROBERT COZAD'S FUNERAL -----------Hundreds of Sorrowing Friends Pay Last Respect To Honored Citizen When the announcement of Robert S. Cozad's sickness was received by wire from Grant, Okla., we ll hoped that it was not as serious as it proved to be. Yet in the noonday of life, when everything was so promising for the future he was called to his reward. His death has brought the bitter cup of sorrow to the lips of his relatives and friends. His heart was of gold. He was one of nature's noblemen in its truest sense brave, generous, manly. He was the soul of honor, and his friendships were sacred to him. He was raised in Barry county having come here when a child with his parents who located at Washburn, where they lived for a number of years the family moved to their farm on White River not far from Eagle Rock where they resided for several years, then moving to this city and Bob made his home here until 1900 when he went to Grant, Okla., and engaged in the drug business and continued to the day of his death. It was our good fortune to know him long and well, and we only knew him to esteem him more highly as the years passed by. As we stood by his grave Sunday when the sky was trimmed with gorgeous rosy hue, in fancy we could see him -- not in death's cold shroud of sorrow and despair, but smiling upon us from the sunset halo that God's farewell to the day -- smiling with all the well remember grace of his manhood, love and devotion and saying to us: "The sunset speaks but feebly of the glories of Another day. All is well." The broken hearted father, mother and sister, who sit in sorrow where his footsteps shall never again find echo, will have the sympathy of all their friends and acquaintances come to them from One who cares for each little sparrow that falls. Short funeral services over the remains were held at the family home by Mrs. R.C. King, who spoke a few words which were well chosen and prayed as only one can who knows and feels the good which comes from He who doeth all things well. After the services the remains were conducted to the Oak Hill Cemetery by A.F & A.M., accompanied by the Knight Templars from Monett and Purdy, Order of the Eastern Star and the Woodmen of the World, where the impressive funeral ceremonies the bugle call to that home above was sounded by the Knights. The funeral was a very large one and shows how our departed friend Robert Sheilanbarger Cozad, stood with the people who have known him so long and well. The following is from the Daily Husonion published in Hugo, Okla: Died at his rooms in grant Thursday morning, at 12:20 o'clock, Robert S. Cozad, aged 45 years. With the passing from life of Robert Cozad at Grant, Choctaw county lost a pioneer resident and one of its foremost citizens, possible the most loved resident of the entire county. Deceased had been stricken with paralysis sometime in the night of March 28, being found the next morning in his room, unconscious, and from that attack the merchant never rallied, save for a few moments at a time. His whole entire right side had been paralyzed and death was expected from the first moment after he was found. Robert Cozad was a citizen in all that the term implies. Rugged, lovable and loving, he was a friend to any man who respected friendship, and his charity was next to a fault, for it was unstinted and was given without hesitancy in any and all instances and to whomsoever he knew to be in need. Mr. Cozad was born in 1869, in Greene county, Ohio but moved to Pottawatomie county, Kansas, 1871. In 1874 the family removed to Barry county, Missouri, near Cassville, where Mr. Cozad was reared, and there he played and import part in development and history making of that county. His father was a farmer and stock raiser and the young man early took and interest in that avocation. In 1893 Mr. Cozad graduated with the highest honors of his class in the Central Business College of Sedalia, Mo. In 1896 he was elected assessor of Barry county and held that important office for four years. At the expiration of his term of office in Barry county, Mr. Cozad came to what is now Choctaw county, arriving here in 1900, and has been a resident of Grant since that time. Following the constitutional convention to Oklahoma, Mr. Cozad was made county clerk of this county and served it with efficiency and to the satisfaction of the people. He was also elected state committeeman, and had a statewide acquaintance with the Democratic politicians of Oklahoma as well as Missouri. Mr. Cozad was a farmer and stock raiser, and also operated a drug store in Grant. As merchant and citizen he stood second to none in the county, and his friends were restricted only to those who made his acquaintance. A pioneer he resided in this section during the wilder days and was a peacemaker, the hand of voice of Robert Cozad being never raised against any man, and the difficulties he has been arbiter of and the feuds he has caused to end in peace are so numerous that no man can tell the number or have knowledge of the particular instances. Mr. Cozad was a Mason, going the Knight Templar route. He was also a member of the Hugo lodge of Elks, of the W. O. W., Macabees, and the Order of Eastern Star. Mr. Cozad was never married. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. S.M. Cozad, had but two children and the sister Louie, resides with her parents at Cassville, Mo., she, too being unmarried. The father, mother and sister, arrived at Grant on the first train after being notified of his illness, and remained there during all of the time, doing all they could for the son and brother. The remains will be sent to Cassville, tonight for interment. Thomas Dickson and Willian J. Oakes of Grant have been delegated by lodges to accompany the stricken family to the former Missouri home, where the last rites of burial will ????d. (may say: be held.) The deceased will leave a place hard to fill in Choctaw county. A giant physique, and with a spirit that was never daunted and an optimist in the superlative degree, Robert Cozad was so well known and generally admired that not alone in Grant, but throughout Choctaw county all will remember him as one of the big men in the building of this section of Oklahoma. The regret is the more because he was stricken in his very prime, when it seemed but a few days prior to his death that he was to be granted a long life, and that his life was one of ever day comfort and hope to all with whom he dealt, is best man tested by the statement that the news of his death has caused a sorrow in almost every home though out the county in which he lived and where he has done so ???. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- If you can add date of death to this obituary please Email Susan Return to Online Data Index Return to Barry County © 1999 Susan Tortorelli All Rights Reserved