Hertford County NcArchives Obituaries.....Savage, Rowena Vann 1908
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ROWENA VANN SAVAGE

DONATED OBIT - Died 03-16-1908

   Mrs. Rowena M. Savage died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. J. L. Camp, in 
Franklin, Tuesday afternoon at 3 o’clock in the sixty-seventh year of her 
life. Mrs. Savage was the daughter of Mr. Tillman Vann, a prominent citizen of 
the Maney’s Neck section of Hertford County in ante-bellum days, being a 
member of the large and well-known family of that name in Eastern North 
Carolina. In 1863 Miss Rowena Vann married Rev. Robert R. Savage, a well known 
Baptist Minister, a native of Gates County (incorrect), N.C., who died in 1891 
after an active and useful life in the ministry. She is survived by four 
sisters, Mrs. J.H. Picot, Mrs. H.S. Little and Miss Rhetta Vann of Como, N.C. 
and Mrs. Thos. D. Boone of Winton, N.C., and five children, Rev. W.V. Savage 
of Churchland, Va., Mr. T.D. Savage, Norfolk, Mrs. J.L. Camp and Miss Lizzie 
Savage of Franklin and Mrs. Herbert T. Williams of Chase City, Va.

   Throughout her life, the greater part of which was spent in Como, except 
the last few years while she was a resident of Franklin, she was known and 
lived as a woman of high Christian qualities, one whose sweetness and 
gentleness of spirit made her a potent influence for good in the communities 
in which she lived. The last years of her life were marked with great 
suffering which was borne with that fortitude, which only comes to the true 
Christian.

   The funeral services were conducted at Buckhorn Baptist Church, in Como, of 
which she was a member for many years, and the interment was made in the 
family plot in the cemetery nearby. The services were conducted by Rev. J.L. 
McCutcheon, Pastor of the Franklin Baptist Church and Rev. C.W. Scarborough, 
Pastor of Buckhorn. Dr. R.T. Vann of the Baptist University, Raleigh, a nephew 
of Mrs. Savage, sang “Saved by Grace” during the exercises. The active 
pallbearers were: Rev. W.V. Savage and Mr. T.D. Savage, Mr. J.L. Camp and son, 
Mr. R.G. Camp, Mr. T.E. Vann and Mr. G.C. Picot, Mr. J.V. Boone and Mr. J.R. 
Knight. The honorary pallbearers were: Capt. Thos. D. Boone, Col. L.R. 
Edwards, Dr. T.I. Burbage and Messrs. P.D. Camp, R.J. Camp, J.P. Gay, A.L. 
Gardner, J.T. Butler, R.A. Majette and S.P. Winborne.

IN MEMORIAM – MRS. ROWENA P. SAVAGE

   Died at the residence of Jas. L. Camp, her son-in-law, near Franklin, Va., 
March 16th, 1908, sister Rowena Savage in the 68th year of her age.

   Since she was fourteen years of age, when she was converted and became a 
member of Buckhorn Church in Hertford County, North Carolina, her name and 
life have been intimately associated with all the efforts that had for their 
object the promotion of the cause of Christianity in her church and community.

   She was married in 1863 to Rev. R.R. Savage and till his death she was his 
help-mate indeed, actively sharing all the conditions and relations that 
pertain to the life of a pastor whose aim and purpose is to create and 
maintain the spiritual ideals and standards that bring the lives of men in 
harmony with that of The Great Father.

   Cultivation of Christian graces developed a character rich in spirituality, 
and rare in the pleasant appreciation of the companionship of those of younger 
years, and though a frequent sufferer, in her declining life, she cheerfully 
took kindly and earnest interest in the social life of her home circle.

   Her life was an exemplification of the peace and comfort that true religion 
brings, and when the silent message came, with unwavering faith, calmly and 
serenely, she answered the summons.

   The greatest part of her life was spent in the neighborhood of her birth. 
And the presence of the large congregation of sympathetic friends at her 
funeral attested the affectionate regard in which she was held. After marriage 
she lived two years during the pastorate of her husband in Halifax County, 
North Carolina. The last six years were spent in the home, where surrounded by 
loving relatives and friends, she entered the new life of happy immortality. 
Her relationship with Franklin Baptist Church which she joined by letter from 
her mother church, was marked by the same consecration that had always 
governed her spiritual life, and the friends she had drawn to her in the home 
of her declining years are counted among those who feel her death a personal 
loss. And in slight token of our bereavement be it.

   Resolved 1st.  That in her death, while recognizing the dispensation of the 
hand that “doeth all things well”, we wish to pay our tribute to her lofty 
Christian character, and to express our sincere sorrow and deep grief in our 
loss.

2nd.  That we will cherish her memory as that of one dearly loved and whose 
zeal, faithfulness and devotion in the service of The Master, we will strive 
to emulate.

3rd. That we tender her family and relatives our warmest sympathy in their 
sore bereavement and when the summons comes to them, may they enjoy the 
welcoming plan dit “Well done good and faithful servant.”

4th. That these resolutions be spread on the records of our church and a copy 
be furnished to the family of our late Sister.

L.R. Edwards, J.P. Gay, E.S. Eley – Committee

DEATH OF MRS. ROWENA VANN SAVAGE

   Many in this State and in Virginia will read with sorrowing hearts of the 
passing of this saintly woman.  Six years of watching day and night over a 
husband who was wasting under a distressing malady had wrecked her fine 
constitution, so that her after-life was mainly a great fight of afflictions. 
Several times in recent years she had gone down to the river and looked 
across, waiting for the summons from her Lord. But on a quiet afternoon in 
March she heard His call, passed over the stream and ascended the Hill that 
she had so often greeted from afar. 

   The death of Mrs. Savage deserves more than a passing notice, for hers was 
no ordinary life. Her imposing presence drew attention in any assembly, and 
her personality was such that once meeting her one wanted to know her well and 
win her friendship. Attending the old Chowan Baptist Female Institute for 
awhile, it was not given her to go on to graduation. But throughout her mature 
life she was an eager and thoughtful reader of good literature, and thus she 
acquired that sort of culture which is rarely gained in schools. Her intellect 
was strong, sturdy and masculine in quality, same and well balanced, with keen 
insight, unusual reasoning powers and fine feminine perceptiveness. White her 
executive experience was confined to house-keeping and the conduct of her 
little farm after her husband’s death, it can hardly be doubted that with good 
health she could have organized and conducted large business concerns.

   Her character was decided and stalwart, and of that high quality which 
scorns all things base. She honored genuineness and real worth whether in 
royalty or in rags, but shams she quickly discovered and heartily despised. 
Clear and staunch in her own convictions, she respected the honest opinions of 
others. Hating meanness, she pitied penitent grief and covered with sweet 
charity the faults of those who were down.

   She was thoroughly human, with charming frankness, kindly sympathies and 
healthful enthusiasm for innocent pleasures. She made friends easily among all 
classes, from little children to gray hairs, and held their warm regard. 
Though living only six years in her last home, where she had gone among 
strangers and where sickness shut her in for the most part from the outside 
world, it was very impressive to observe the deep and widespread grief among 
all classes when she died.

   In her home she appeared the model mistress, wife and mother. Worthy 
servants found in her, not only careful oversight but fellowship of service 
and generous friendship as well. Her unusually wise and thoughtful husband 
always sought her counsel, which was offered with sympathetic interest and 
sagacious discrimination, but also with beautiful unobtrusiveness. Her strong 
and aggressive spirit joyously recognized the divinely appointed headship of 
her husband.

   Her children were made to feel that discipline with her meant heroic duty; 
that pleasure must take counsel of righteousness and that their first concern 
must be the Kingdom of God. So that though grown to maturity now, they all 
still feel and will feel through life the touch of that just and gentle hand.

   No phase of her character was more …….fits of emotion. It was constant, 
sane and healthy. Her light shone with a steady flame. The work of her 
preacher-husband evoked her active and unfailing sympathy. A quiet, pronounced 
religious spirit pervaded her home. No worthy minister ever failed of a 
generous welcome under her roof. She was her pastor’s faithful and ever kindly 
critic, and he always counted on her steadfast loyalty and judicious counsel. 
When her church was open for service nothing but the hand of God kept her from 
her accustomed seat in the Lord’s house.

   When I was a youth of sixteen years and without hope of a future, she and 
her husband took me into their home free of charge, that I might attend 
Buckhorn Academy, then in charge of Capt. J.H. Picot, through whose generous 
kindness. I want to add, I was prepared for college. During those years I 
could not discover any difference in the treatment she gave me and that 
accorded her own children; and as I was leaving for college I learned that 
quietly and informally she and her husband had adopted me as their son. It was 
mainly through their efforts that I was enabled to take a course at college, 
and in all the years since then she has been my mother, hardly less real than 
my natural mother, who had gone to heaven in my childhood.

   Rowena Vann was the daughter of Deacon T.D. Vann, and was born near Como, 
December 19, 1840. In her girlhood she was converted and joined Buckhorn 
church, where she remained a member until she moved away from that community. 
On April 8, 1863, she was married to Rev. R.R. Savage. The young couple spent 
the first year of their married life in Halifax County, Virginia, where Mr. 
Savage labored as pastor. In 1865 they returned to the vicinity of Buckhorn 
and there lived until Mr. Savage’s death in 1892. After his death she kept up 
the farm for some years, and then went to make her home with her son-in-law 
and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. J.L. Camp, in Franklin, Virginia. Here she spent 
the last six years of her life, loved and honored by Mr. Camp scarcely less 
than by her own children. It was from this home that she went on the 16th of 
March to enter her house not made with hands. On the 17th her body was laid to 
rest in the Buckhorn cemetery, by those of her husband and two little 
children. Her surviving children are: Dr. W.V. Savage, Mrs. J.L. Camp, Miss 
Lizzie S. Savage, Mrs. Herbert T. Williams, and Mr. Toy D. Savage, all now 
living in Virginia.

   Standing by her grave and contemplating her peaceful rest after years of 
labor and pain, one feels that he would like to adapt and inscribe on her 
tombstone Bunyan’s description of Pilgrim’s night in the Lord’s resting 
house; “The Pilgrim they laid in a large upper chamber whose window looked 
towards the sun-rising. The name of that chamber was peace, where he slept 
till the break of day. Then he awoke and sang.”  

R.T. Vann – Raleigh, N.C.

Additional Comments:
Buried in Buckhorn Cemetery, Como, Hertford County, North Carolina

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