BEDFORD COUNTY, TN - OBITUARIES - James Cooper Gillespie and John William Gillespie ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Q. Gallagher gallagherj@cafes.net ==================================================================== Obituaries of Brothers James Cooper Gillespie & John William Gillespie Sons of William Cheatham Gillespie and Elizabeth Catherine Puckett of near Rover, Bedford Co., TN [Obituaries clipped from newspapers and pasted on back cover of the William Cheatham Gillespie Family Bible. Name, issue, and date of newspapers not given.] Two Boys Drowned. A most sad and deplorable accident occurred to two sons of William Gillespie, who resides near Rover in this county, Thursday of last week. Their father, who we learn is a clever, honorable, good citizen, respected by all his neighbors, and who is a helpless cripple, sent his two sons, James and John, to John V. Hall's mills, some nine miles and a half from this place, to get some flour. Soon after they had got to the mill they handed the money to Mr. Hall for the flour, and then went about a quarter of a mile below the mill to go in bathing. Neither of them could swim. They got a slab and were riding about in the river on it, when it struck the swift current, and was bearing them off; the youngest becoming frightened jumped off. His brother seeing that he would drown went to his assistance; they clinched, and both sank together to rise no more in this life. They were aged respectively 13 and 14 years. It is said that five others had been drowned at this mill prior to these two boys. There was a little boy on the other side of the river who gave the alarm. Word was sent immediately to their parents of what had happened, when some three or four hundred persons from the neighborhood of Rover and Unionville, turned out to recover their bodies. After about five hours they were found, about fifty or sixty yards below where they were seen to go down at. The two boys were highly spoken of as good industrious smart youths, and were the only stay of a crippled and helpless father. This sad occurrence cast a shudder and gloom o'er many a heart in that neighborhood, and much sympathy is felt for the bereaved and helpless parent in this his most deplorable loss. In Memorium.[sic] "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided." 2d Sam. 1st chapter and 23rd verse. Thus it may be said of James Cooper and John William Gillespie, who were drowned August 6, 1873, below Hall's mill, in Duck River. Their father, Wm. Gillespie, living two miles below Rover, Tenn., being an invalid by rheumatism, sent them with the mules and wagon that morning with grain to the mill. About 10 o'clock in the morning they and a smaller boy named McRoy, went in a baithing [sic]. It is understood that Jimmy sank first and Johnny in trying to rescue him went down too. The alarm was given and help came but all unavailing, as the water was over fifteen feet deep. Although great efforts were made by the sorrowing crowd which soon collected, their bodies were not found for near six hours. So died those dear boys. Jimmy aged 15 years laking [sic] 2 months and 18 days, and Johnny aged 13 years lacking 3 months. The feeling of sorrow in the community was intense. There was a threefold severity in the visitation of that mysterious Providence; the father a cripple, and all the stay and hope cut off at once. The flowers were nipped in the bud fond anticipations of parents and friends forever blasted, for this world. Oh! If their school mates and all the young folks could have been at the river and seen them brought up out of the water, would they not have been impressed to prepare for death and judgment? They were good boys, kind to their parents and very industrious. It was remarked that they were more like men than boys. They were taken home that night to their heart-broken parents cold in death after leaving that morning so cheerful and happy, and were buried the next evening, both together in the same grave by their little brother, to sleep until the Arch angel's trump shall awake them on the ressurrection [sic] morn. Dear parents! Jesus says to you all: "Feed my Lambs." Train up your children for Christ. "Religion should our thought engage, Amid our youthful bloom, It will fit us for declining age Or for an early tomb." A Friend. [Note: See burial location given in the White Cemetery at the Rutherford Co., Tennessee USGenWeb Archives.]