Bertie COUNTY NC Obits Stark S. Cowan Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Patricia Johnson http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie.htm (1916) STARK S. COWAND, ESQ. On Monday, February 21st, I was on the train and saw my friend Stark Cowand get on at Cremo. I learned then that he was going to a hospital for treatment. I could see that the giant I knew near half century ago, had by hard labor and exposure, and maybe, by a wasting disease, been brought low. When I shook hands with him in Ahoskie I closed on his with a firmer grip than usual, for I felt that our parting was final. It was as I expected. This is but one incident in the life of my friend that I care to discuss. He was a worker. In every undertaking he labored with a will. Whatever his hand found to do, that he did. He knew how to work and to have work done. I have known him man and boy full fifty years. I never knew him to try to take an undue advantage. His first word in my office was "I want nothing but what belongs to me." And so I ever found him. His wife was Miss Vantilla Ruffin, one of the county's beautiful girls. Her parents were Joseph B. Ruffin and Mary Powell Ruffin. They were my good friends. I have not been as close professionally to any other family in our country. They followed my advice to the letter. Mr. Cowand was a prosperous man; not as the result of chance and speculation, but because he worked. He was in his sixty-eighth year. He had worn himself out; that brought the end. His widow, Mrs. Rachel V. Cowand and ten children survive him in sorrow. Carry Cowand Taylor, W. S. Cowand, A. E. Cowand, Lillie Cowand Stallings, Lizzie Cowand Mizell, Nona Cowand, Rachel Cowand, J. S. Cowand, D. E. Cowand, Rosebud Cowand. A call to official duty kept me from mingling my tears with theirs - when they stood grief-stricken around his narrow house. I prize his friendship and patronage. I prize the respect of his family. I held them very dear. My friend has passed to the beyond. He was a member of the Holly Grove Baptist church. The night came and he could work no more, and he lay down to sleep. FRANCIS D. WINSTON ------------(I do not have the name of the paper this was printed in, and the date written in ink on the top just says 1916. The date of Starkey Smith Cowan's death was 1 Mar 1916 at a hospital in Norfolk, VA)