Obituary: Rock County, Wisconsin: Aurilla SAWIN ************************************************************************ Submitted by Ruth Ann Montgomery, June 2005 © All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************************************ Obituary Miss Aurilla Sawin Another old settler passed away on Friday of last week. Miss Aurilla Sawin was born at Mindon, Herkimer Co., N. Y., July 28, 1814, and died at her home in this city, Jan. 3, 1902, at the age of 87 years, 5 months and 6 days. Her father was for many years a Baptist minister in the state of New York; and in 1832, when the deceased was about eighteen years of age, he removed with his family to Ripley, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., in and about which place he labored as a minister of the Gospel for some fourteen years. In 1844 a married sister of the deceased removed to Walworth County, in what was then the Territory of Wisconsin, and in the spring of 1846 the father and mother, with the rest of their children followed. A few months later, in the fall of 1846, Mr. Sawin removed with his family to a farm not far from where the village of Brooklyn is now located, and this became the family homestead. Here both the father and mother lived out the remainder of their days. The deceased was thirty-two years of age when the family settled on the old farm; and here she lived for the next thrity- five years. For many years she and her brother Alvin and a younger sister lived together upon the farm; but nearly twenty years ago they removed to their home in this city, where in 1886 the sister died. She was the eldest of thirteen children, all but one of whom lived to mature years. Six of the children survive her, two brothers and four sisters. The brothers, Alvin and Ethan P., and three of the sisters, Mrs. Mary J. Montgomery, Mrs. Anson Baldwin and Mrs. Dr. C. M. Smith, reside in this city. The remaining sister, Mrs. Clara Tilinghast, resides in Ripley, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., and was unable to attend her sister's funeral. The deceased is said to have been possessed of an unusually attractive disposition; and in the earlier days was exceedingly kind and painstaking in her care of her younger brothers and sisters; so that her father was accustomed to speak of her as a second mother in the family. It is said that she never found fault with any one, and that a cross word was never known to fall from her lips. All who knew her loved her. Several times she has suffered from partial paralysis and recoverd. She was stricken again on the last Sunday afternoon of the old year. But her mind was perfectly clear up to Wednesday. Indeed, on Wednesday morning she herself thought that she was so much better that she should soon be up again. But between four and five o'clock that afternoon she suffered another shock. Almost immediately she folded her hands--her work now done-- closed her eyes, and from that time scarcely moved a muscle until the end came some thirty hours later. The funeral service was conducted in her old home at 10:30 Sunday morning by Rev. Granger W. Smith, pastor of the Baptist church, and her body was laid to rest in the old Brooklyn cemetery not far from the home of earlier days. January 9, 1903, Evansville Review, p. 1, col. 3, Evansville, Wisconsin