Freestone County, Texas
Obituaries/Death Notices



The Fairfield Recorder - Friday, June 12, 1908 Page: 4

In Memory of H. H. Powell.

  The greatest problems that ever confronted the human race are the problems of 
life and death. "Man cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also 
like a shadow aud continueth not.” Nearly 3500 years have gone by since those 
words were uttered, and still we are going forth like the flowers that are withered, 
and like the shadows we continue not. Today we talk of hope, and sing the songs 
of happiness and love; tomorrow, our harps, tuned to the music of another sphere, 
hang on the willows which grow that silent river. When our friends are witn us 
today and tomrrow we lay them under the wild flowers aud grass, and leave them 
cold aud alone to the unbroken slumber of silence, our weak hearts grow faint; 
we look out towards --that mysterious realm, called eternity, and wonder what 
will he the end of it all.
  H. H. Powell was born on the 1st day of October, 1865, and died on the 31st
day of May, 1908. There survive him, his wife, Mrs. Ella Powell, and six children, 
four girls and two boys; also his mother, Mrs. Cynthia Powell, and five sisters—
Mrs. L. B. Gamewell, Mrs. J. C. Dunn, Mrs. C. M. Winborn, and Misses Fannie and 
Mattie Powell.
  Harry was deputy sheriff in Freestone county for many years, and was elected
sheriff of the county in 1898 and again in 1900. We do not suppose that any county 
in the state ever had a more faithful, prompt or diligent officer. He did his 
duty, and did it well. After going out of the sheriff’s office, he went into the 
family grocery business with his brother-in-law, T. J. Hall, which business he 
was engaged in at the time of his death. As a man, Harry was always honorable; 
in business, upright; and, in friendship, he was pure gold. To some, he appeared 
to be abrupt at times, but in conversation with him, not long before his death, 
he spoke of how much and how long he had suffered, and commented on how he would
speak at times, and said it was the result of his suffering and not through any 
desire to offend. This writer, in both public and private life, always found him 
courteous, obliging and kind.
  If there is a sun kissed sea where the shadows of night mever fall, and where
storm clouds never come, who reaches it[s] peaceful shore? And who sails on its
waveless breast? If there is some far-away shore, clothed with the bloom of
immortal youth, and wrapped in the fragrance of everlasting spring; some shore 
where the tree of life spreads its unfading leaves! and the river of life sings 
on forever, bearing on its bosom an eternity of peace and joy and love. Whose 
tents are pitched here? Who knows? “I am the resurrection and the life,” sayeth 
the Lord. Human logic in the presence of death, is weak and altogether vain; human 
philosophy brings its trophies to the grave and lays them down; here the wisdom 
of man draws its draperies about it, and lies down to sleep. "1 am the resurrection 
and the life,” and it is well. The judgment of the erring children of men, is 
often faulty and wrong; they often pass judgment on having heard only one side 
of a matter, and that imperfectly. There is an old maxim: "Audi alteram partem:”
“Hear the other side.” The Great Master never passes judgment on his creatures, 
by hearing the one side. And ever and above all is his omnipotent and world-wide 
mercy.  But for it no creature who treads the bramble-strewn paths of this world, 
would ever see God in peace. With our friends who have gone before, how fares it 
on the other side? The learning and wisdom of the gray centuries gives us back 
no answer; neither docs the "sunset of life give us the mystical lore” to read 
the records of another world. Wisely, very wisely, has the future been hidden 
from us. We know that it is**written' “He doeth all things well.” Peace to the 
ashes of our friend. May He who alone can comfort the widow and bless the babies 
he left behind; and the aged mother, tettering now down the hill of life, near 
the sunset—May that peace that coineth from above, uphold, strengthen and bless.
       R. L. W.