OBIT: Sarah A. (BRISCOE) McMURTRIE, 1852, Hollidaysburg, Blair County, PA

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DIED - On Saturday, Dec. 11th inst., after an illness of about twelve 
hours, Mrs. SARAH A. BRISCOE McMURTRIE, wife of Hon. R. A. McMurtrie of 
Hollidaysburg.
  Mrs. McMurtrie was a daughter of the late John Briscoe, Esq., of 
Cecil county, Maryland. In early girlhood she attached herself in the 
Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood, then under the care of Rev. George 
Burrows. On Jan. 1st, 1852, she became the wife of Col. McMurtrie of 
this place, and since then has been a devoted member of the 
Presbyterian church here, and we hope she has gone to join the "Church 
of the First born on high". we utter no excessive eulogy, but only the 
deliberate reminiscence of a discriminating friendship, whom we say 
that Death has never stricken down a purer woman than Mrs. McMurtrie.  
It is the rarest lot of any one to know or to possess such loveliness 
of character and life. The writer of this notice, who was honored with 
the privilege of calling her a friend, never saw a person who more 
completely embodied the true idea expressed by that noble old word, 
WOMAN.  Utterly free of all pretence, vanity, and bad taste, adorned to 
a high degree with a "meek and good spirit," always retiring and 
somewhat diffident. Mrs. McMurtrie would have attracted the notice of a 
casual observer, only as a violet would solicit the eye of a poet by 
the extreme refinement of her virtues. She was formed for the domestic 
circle and around every hearth and home that ever rejoiced in her 
presence she shed the selectest attractions of a lady's delicate taste 
and woman's genial heart. It was impossible for any one to be more 
thoroughly highbred and refined in inmost sentiment and soul, and yet 
her manners were remarkable for their exquisite simplicity. But while a 
child could have not been more artless, all her feminine chivalry of 
feeling and unstudied grace of grace of manner, were tempered with a 
rare and matronly thoughtfulness, that invested her with a most obvious 
dignity. She joined the soul of Cordelia with the carriage of Portia. 
In all she said and did, and looked and WAS, Mrs. McMurtrie was a 
model. And her character, so was her life, an undeviating course of 
affectionate duty, quiet friendship, and unobtrusive to the cause of 
Christ.                                           
  In her Maryland or Pennsylvania home - 
  "None knew her but to love her, None named her but to praise".
  It is not our province to do aught else than to deplete Mrs. 
McMurtrie as she appeared in friendship, warm and profound though it 
was. But doubtless the fidelity of these outlines will be attested by 
the tender, mourning love of those "nearer and dearest" ones who weep 
for the "loved and lost". She has gone to the land where such virtue 
and sweetness as hers will attain still maturer development and a 
perennial perfection. She has gone in the bloom and sweetness youth to 
join her Redeemer and the "young eyed cherubs", and to enjoy eternal 
spring. Her friends are behind, but they live in the holy light of her 
memory, and, are consoled with the hope that as she was once with them, 
so will they again be with her. Her friends will pardon this 
spontaneous tribute to her loveliness from one who takes mournful 
pleasure in laying this little flower on her GRAVE.         C.

Democratic Standard, Hollidaysburg, Pa., Wednesday, December 22, 1852