Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Rawls, Matilda A. Holland, 1877 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ MATILDA ANN HOWELL HOLLAND RAWLS "A MOTHER IN ISRAEL" GONE. The obituary column this week records the death of a lady, who is worthy of more than a mere passing notice. MRS. MATILDA A. RAWLS was born about the close of the last century, and was connected with some of the principal families of Nansemond county. Her maiden name was Howell, and her brother, Rev. Edward Howell, a venerable and respected minister of the Baptist Church, still survives, though two years her senior. She was married, when quite young, to Zachariah Holland. Six children were the fruit of this marriage, her eldest son being Rev. Robert H. Holland, well known as a minister in the Christian Church, and as a most excellent and worthy man. Losing her first husband by death, she was married a second time to Rev. Uriah Rawls, who in his day, might have been styled the father of the Eastern Virginia Christian Conference. As a result of the second marriage she became the mother of eight other children, making fourteen in all. Comparatively few of these children lived to enter the married state, and of the whole number, only three sons of her first husband are now living. It falls to the lot of but few persons to mourn so often the death of loved ones. Her first husband died of a lingering disease, consumption. No less than five of her children died of the same disease, after arriving at mature years. It was her sad fate to watch over and attend no less than seven members of her own family, who died of this lingering and fatal malady. What she must have undergone during all these years of weary watching and heart breaking grief, who can tell? Yet she bore all this, and bore it with a moral heroism and Christian fortitude rarely equalled, and seldom or never surpassed. Her second husband, Rev. Uriah Rawls, as is well known, also died of a lingering illness, that dragged its weary course through long years. And now she too has gone to her rest and her reward. What minister of Eastern Virginia Conference, except the very youngest, did not know and love our venerable sister, whose house during so many years was the "preachers' home?" Her death has broken one more of the few remaining links that bind us to the past of our history as a Church. Indeed, she was so intimately connected with those who were most active in promoting our cause, that we must feel her loss as a common calamity, and join with her many weeping relatives in mourning for one who was a "mother in Israel." Notwithstanding all her sad afflictions, she bore up, not only with resignation, but with absolute cheerfulness. Never did we meet a more genial pleasant woman of her age, than was she up to the time of her last illness. Her troubles did not at any time render her gloomy or morose; but she was ever ready to sympathize with others in grief, and to offer them comfort in affliction. The present writer knew her well during the last few years of her lily, and learned to revere and love her, almost as a mother. May her constancy in affliction, her Christian cheerfulness, her unceasing and unselfish efforts to make others happy, and above all, her simple, straight-forward, and unaffected piety, long be remembered and emulated by those who are left to mourn her loss. She had been, for nearly fifty years, a faithful member of the Church at Holy Neck, and died in perfect peace with God and man. Green be the grass above her grave, and joyful her rest in heaven. A. ****************************************************************************** LOCAL NEWS. [...] ACCIDENT. - Mr. Albert K. Rawls, a worthy citizen of this county, living in the neighborhood of Holy Neck, was thrown from his cart into the road on Tuesday of last week, and severely injured. His left arm was broken and his shoulder was badly bruised. It is thought that the cart wheel ran over his body. His condition is not at all favorable, we are sorry to learn. [...] DIED. On Thursday. March 23d, 1877, at the residence of Albert K. Rawls, Esq., near Holy Neck, Nansemond county, Virginia, Mrs. MATILDA A. RAWLS, aged 78 years. [...] Matilda Ann (HOWELL HOLLAND; Mrs. Uriah) RAWLS, b. 19 Sep 1799, d. 23 Mar 1877, near Holy Neck, interred in the HOLLAND family cemetery*, O'Kelly Dr., "Christian Sun" (Suffolk, VA), Vol. XXX, No. 13, Fri., Mar. 30, 1877 (1st ed.), pp. 2 & 3; images posted at: https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93062839/1877-03-30/ed-1/seq-2/ https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93062839/1877-03-30/ed-1/seq-3/ *Additional information: Buried with her first husband Zachariah HOLLAND (1797 - 1826) in a HOLLAND family cemetery, on O'Kelly Dr. The cemetery list gives d. 22 Mar 1877. Nansemond Co. Miscellaneous Cemeteries, Vol. 2 (NV-II-14), an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/cemeteries/nanvol2.txt No Find a Grave Memorial She does not appear in the Nansemond Co. D.Reg. Rev. Uriah RAWLS & family appear in the 1860 Census in the Upper Parish of Nansemond Co. He predeceased their son James E. RAWLS, who died of consumption Dec. 16, 1867. Widowed, Matilda & family appear in the 1870 Census in Holy Neck Dist., Nansemond Co. A biographical sketch of Rev. Uriah RAWLS ("Christian Sun," Nov. 13, 20 & 27. 1901) is posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/bios/r420u1bi.txt Albert Kelly RAWLS (b. ca. 1812) was the son of Willis & Ann (KELLY) RAWLS. He 1m. Eliza A. HOLLAND (ca. 1817 - 1865), daughter of Zachariah & Matilda HOLLAND, ca. 1836. Widowed, he 2m. Martha Susan ELEY 10 Jul 1867. He & his family appear in the 1870-80 Censuses in Holy Neck Dist., Nansemond Co. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by File Manager Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com). file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/obits/r420m8ob.txt