Obituary of Betsy GILES-KNOWLES

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mike Hughes
<  mkhughes@execpc.com  > on Oct 25, 1999

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Surnames:  GILES, KNOWLES, NICHOLS, HUGHES

The following article titled Death of Mrs. Knowles comes from the
River Falls Journal August 5, 1898.

Mrs. Perly Knowles, one of the most beloved and one of the oldest
ladies in town, died last Saturday at the little home on Second street,
after an unconscious illness of four days.  She was nearly eighty-three
years old and had lived in the cottage where she died for the wide span
of 42 years.  She had kind wishes for every soul that breathed, was
welcomed, up to the week of her death, and with the warmest grave in
the world, into most of the homes in town, and will perhaps be the
most missed of all our good gray ladies.

She was the very soul of piety, in the good sense of the word; and it
was a rare exception indeed that found her pew vacant in the east
section of the Congregational church where she sat for years beside
her husband.  She had a rare gift of conversation, and along with this a
wealth of neighborly charity that made her trim little figure, basket in
hand, so familiar a sight as she went on her frequent trips from her well
kept garden to the friends whom she was so ready to please.  As a
mother all the chiefest graces were hers; and as a wife she was so
shining an example of tenderness and duty that her devotion to her
husband has been the subject of many and beautiful tributes.

At four score years and more, death loses man of its terrors and puts
on a look almost of invitation, and it was such a look that death had
a long worn for Mrs. Knowles.  She spoke of it with a serene voice
and a heart unshaken.  It was to her but a change of habit, a giving up
of one home for another, a leave-taking of one occupation, which she 
had found both good and cheerful, for a second.  Which she had faith
to believe was infinitely sweeter as well as infinitely long.

On Wednesday morning while she was about her daily work, her
husband, with all the weight of his 91 years, having gone into the
garden on an errand, she was smitten with a third shock of paralysis
and never regained full consciousness.  She remained in this quiet
state, her breathing almost insensible at times, until Saturday
afternoon, and, with kind hearts all about her and the love of many
people keeping her tenderly in mind, her mild spirit, with a tremor,
quietly, winged its way to God.

Mrs. Knowles was born and educated in New England and retained
through all her 83 years a certain flavor of this temperate land.  Her
maiden name was Betsey J. Giles and she was born in Wolfboro, 
New Hampshire, Dec. 20, 1815.  She spent her early girlhood there,
going to Newmarket when thirteen and to Boston when seventeen,
where, at the age of 20 years, she was married to Mr. Knowles, Nov.
1, 1835.  For the three years succeeding their marriage they made
their home at Boston and then removed to Concord, N.H., where
they dwelt till 1856.  At that time they set their faces to the west and
came through to River Falls, taking up their home almost immediately
in the house on Second street where they have spent the long interval
since then, an example of one Christian content and the blessedness
of home.

It was the width of Mr. Knowles, often but graciously expressed, that
he should be the first to go-that his wife, the younger and better
preserved, should walk with him the full distance up to the Towering
gate and see him safely through.  But another way seems to have
been the way of Heaven, and yet he finds it good.  And so, with his
son and his son's wife close beside him, he still sits by the window,
single after a long union, musing, in his gracious way, on a sweet
meeting and an endless reunion in eternity.

Of their three children, Charley, Warren and Anna (Mrs. Hughes), Mr.
Charley Knowles alone survives.  One of the grandchildren, Mr.
George Hughes, is a member of the regular army and is now in Manila;
and Miss Jessie Hughes is a teacher of Kindergarten at Superior.  With
the exception of these two, all the grandchildren were in attendance 
at the funeral.

The burial service took place Monday afternoon at the home, Rev.
McIntosh officiating, and was made beautiful by many flowers and the
attendance of a great number of friends.  On next Sunday morning a
memorial service will be held at the Congregational church.