Freestone County, Texas
Obituaries



[This is Martha Sarah Bishop Philpott 
   06/12/1839 to 1928]

Submitted by Billie Bournias

February 10, 1928 

MRS. SALLIE PHILPOTT
PASSES AWAY QUIETLY

  One of the most notable and best loved characters in Freestone county passed 
to her final reward when on Monday morning at 7:30 Mrs. Salle Philpott died of 
pneumonia at her home in the Dew community. She was 88 years, seven months and
six days of age and withstood only a few days of an attack of pneumonia.
  Funeral services were held at Dew Monday at 2:00 o’clock p.m., with Rev. 
Allen Took preaching a very appropriate and beautiful funeral sermon. Interment
was made in Fairfield cemetery at 4 :00 o’clock.
  Mrs. Philpott was born in Virginia in 1839, came to Texas in 1860 and married
Col. B. A. Philpott in 1875 and had resided in the same house since that time.
She was a member of the M. E. Church, South and her life was filled with good
deeds for those whom she loved as dearly as own life. She was well known in all 
parts of the County.
  She is survived by her brother, Dr. Horace Bishop, of San Angelo, a nephew, 
H. D. Bishop, who made his home with her, and by numerous other relatives.
  It was her request that very little be said of her after her departure other 
than the simple facts of her life.

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Mexia Daily News - Mar. 10, 2005 edition:

Research done by J. R. (Sonny) Sessions:

MRS. SARAH PHILPOTT, OBITUARY

The following published in local papers February 1928.

"Mrs. Philpott's obituary written by her own hand, with the place for the date
of her passing left blank was as follows: Martha Sarah daughter of the Rev.
William and Laura Bishop was born in Botocourt County, Virginia June 12, 1839
she was received into the Methodist Church at the Thorne Springs Camp Ground in
the summer of 1845. She came to Texas with her parents in Feb. 1860, and was
married to Col. Philpott on April 1875. And at the bottom were the words "A
sinner saved by grace."

With the passing of Mrs. Philpott this section is bereft of a leader whose life
and influence were of sweeping beauty and power, and whose interests and love
of the beauties of existence, and whose sympathy with humanity were not dimmed
with the coming of age. A woman of blue blood and aristocratic lineage, she
chose to cast her lot in this rural section of Texas, for when she came as a
bride to the plantation near Dew, she came to give her life to people about
her.

She attended no public school, her entire education coming from her father, who
was a noted classical scholar of the old South, having been awarded many honor
degrees during his life in Virginia. This daughter of his, a young girl of
beauty and charm, early became a teacher, working in the schools of Palestine,
Corsicana and when the Civil War came she was a teacher in Dallas.

In 1878 she organized the Missionary Societies at Dew and Fairfield which were
among the very first organizations of this type in the South. Later, she was
honored by being made the president of the Woman's Missionary Society of the
Texas Conference, and at the time of her death she was honorary president.

She became a guiding force in her community at Dew, and for years people had
gone to her door to seek guidance and advise. She never ceased her activities
and the week before spoke at the Methodist Church in Fairfield. She read and
studied constantly and a few months ago she inquired about good textbook on
chemistry, saying it a subject she neglected in her early life and wished to
know more about it."

The above was about one half the complete obituary. The following is a summary
of the rest:

"Funeral services at the Dew Methodist Church on a clear winter day. The Rev.
Allen Tooke of Lindale, pastor at Dew for many years in charge of the service.
The Rev. I.O. Dent read the 23rd Psalm and Rev. Hayes lead the prayer. Bro.
Tooke said, "The Dew community is talked of more in a religious way than any
small community in Texas and the great secret lie's in the life of this woman."
At the close the casket was opened and young and old filed by for a last sight
of this leader. Burial was at Fairfield Cemetery.