Robeson County NcArchives Obituaries.....Purnell, Mary 1881
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Sam West sam.west.1@gmail.com August 13, 2013, 1:45 pm

Biblical Recorder 11/23/1881
    Mrs. MARY PURNELL, of Robeson county, died June the 29th, 1881, at the age 
of 55, and left a precious influence to those around her.  She was the mother of 
seven children and having brought them up in the fear of the Lord, she left a 
sweet influence there. I saw her, converted with her, when the ranking cancer 
had eaten the flesh from her cheeks her eyes almost sightless, yet by faith she 
seemed often “to take a view of brighter scenes in heaven.”  Her suffering was 
enough to touch a heart of stone. Her patience, might such a thing be, was
enough to make angels wonder. Her meekness and resignation gave to her a 
glorious appearance, which excelled the majesty of a king.  She is gone to the 
grave to wait the summons of her Master --- her soul to the better land, to 
listen to much sweet, in strains subline, from angel’s harps of purest gold.  
Her warfare is closed, she is dead, in body --- but there is an influence which 
lives, and will live to bless those within the sphere in which she lived, 
labored, suffered and died.  For nearly thirty years she was a consistent member 
of the Raft Swamp Baptist church, and suffering as she did for about four years, 
to die must have been gain.  Afflictions may be severe, but through the meekness 
and consecration of such consecrated ones, they are sanctified.  Sometimes the 
furnace of affliction is made hatter, to burn out the last of the dross till the 
refiner sees himself reflected. When cast in the molds of eternal love, His 
image is on the coin, and redemption there inscribed.   M. J. W.

Additional Comments:
Note:  Mary Purnell [Parnell] wife of Thomas Parnell, was a daughter of Charles 
Storm of the Hickory Grove Community of western Bladen Co NC, and formerly of 
the Burnt Islands Region of southeastern Robeson Co NC.  Her grandparents were 
John Storm, RWS, and his wife Jemima Chauncey Storm who resided at their 
plantation known as the "High Hills" on Lumber River [formerly Drowning Creek] 
near Lumberton.  Mary Storm Parnell was born near High Hills in the Burnt 
Islands.  Her family attended church at Burnt Island Baptist Church, later 
Antioch Baptist Church.  About 1840 the family left their Burnt Island home and 
moved to the Hickory Grove community in western Bladen Co NC.  There they 
attached themselves to the old Hickory Grove Baptist Church.  Mary Storm was 
married to Thomas Parnell, whose family had previously attended church with the 
Storms at the Burnt Islands Church.  After their marriage the couple resided in 
the Hickory Grove community, then moved to the Burnt Swamp section of Robeson Co 
NC.  There they attached themselves to the Raft Swamp Baptist Church and 
continued to worship there for the rest of their lives.   S. West

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