The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-06-07

Columbia College, New YORK. se
The daily paper brings rs the above an.
nouncement. Mrs. Paterson IL gone from
among as: and while her mortal remains stay
for while from their last resting place, in the
sacred privacy Of domestic sorrow the remoter
but not less real ties Of Christian respect and
friendship, may utter, In this way, their sor-
rowing tribute to her memory, and express
their sense of loss and bereavement. The oc.
casi0n also prompts aud justifies the correction
of false estimates Of life and of its aims-too
apt to degrade US in seasons of misfortune and
calamity. ~
Mrs. Paterson came to Minnesota in June,
l857-an invalid. Her state of health had ex-
acted withdrawal from activities congenial
to her whole nature, and indicated an increas.
ing, perhaps an entire, abstraction from them.
Her home was chosen in two adjoining cot
tages, near the site of st. Pauls church, then
in the first stages of erection. The effects of
the climate on her naturally vigorous consti-
tuition, which were soon gratefully hailed by
her family, were recognized by herself as call
to a new career of activity.
10 US who write, this estimable lady was q
stranger until her settlement in our city; and
our memorial finds its scope only in the i'm
pressiOns of her life and actions as Christian
emigrant, amid the heterogeneous elements of
pioneer society. Whatever influence the acct
dental aim, OF seeking renewed health in
change OF climate had, in determining her EN-.
igration to Minnesota, the event proved that
other aims were with her here, as they would
have been any where, paramount. As vigor
returned, it was devoted at once and heartily
to the highest objects OF human life on earth
the interests OF humanity: but to these inter.
ests, as they are Interpreted and promoted by
the presence in society of the laws, the Instl.
tutions and the blessings of the Church of
God. M
To plant, to ditfuse, and to perpetuate these,
as'duty impelled her from rooted conviction.
no q m, xuhi LODI
her pleasures and they were successful. In
personal endowmenls and the exterior an.
pliances of means and influence, as she had re-
ceived freely, SO she freely bestowed to the
furtherance of her aims, doing good, in the
ways wisest, most benetcent and real.
The very horses which have become identi-
fed with our memories of her activities, knew
the way to all the homes of misfortune in her
neghborhOod. The gates of our Church. Or.
phans' Home and Hospital, during all last sum-
mer We're almost daily passed by them on
some ministry OF mercy, with her Tor at her
bidding its firm establishment was accelera-
ted. If not secured, by her earnest co operation
with those who had founded, and thus far. amid
great discouragements. sustained it. ~
The church edtice which will on Sunday
give its last friendly shelter to her body, as it
was founded, and endowed with its site, by
aims Aindred with her own, so it owes beyond
a question its completion to their operation
in her life. How fully she felt that the edifice
whose cross crowned tower she almost con-
jured into being and completion, and the
associations that will forever cluster round it,
were to be her true monument in nem0yian, is
shown by the wish not idly uttered by her,
that the last resting place OF her worn out body
might, If it were proper, be found under its
shadow. 1t will at any rate be her monument.
1t is with added admiration of the sway of
principle and duty in her life, (snbordinating
the influence Of mere sentiment and opinion,)
that we record, that her burial place is to be
in the first Church Cemetery ever set apart by
religious conservation in Minnesota-at least
Protestants-and that, as we trust, her grave
is to recall here her example and prompt to its
imitation, for generations of the future.
The Inequalities of life are an essential in.
strument of christian influence and duty every
where--most of all in pioneer society. How
fully the subject OF our sketch recognized this,
and how duufully she practised it, the hearts
of all around, and those sojourners now far
away, will testify. Hospitalities. generous and
cheerful. but excluding frivolity and dissipa-
ton. III
Her education, we should Judge, had in
spired her with large views of life, and as this
had led to the formation of fixed and well rea-
soned and infexible convictions on the great
subjects OF both Church and country SO these
convictions were warmed, by characteristic
zeal into active efforts for their diffusion de-
fence and perpetuity.
She was churchwoman and an American!
She knew well why; towhat these characters
called er,and to what they did not, the last the
hardest requirement of the two. AS a proof,we
recall that the library in which her body now
waits for the last office, had on every Sunday
afternoon even to the last before her death,
been the scene of the true Christian Sunday
School, the children of family grouped in
Bible class around venerated mother.
Ii we shall have set before the reader, in
this sketch, corrective example of Chris
tan woman, courageously illustrating the true
aims of life, land consecrating q secon lease
OF life among strangers, to His service who had
inspired and who sustained her in them, the
wish and purpose of both heart and head will
have been realized. To live for God, and for
His Church, and for Humanity.
st. Paul, May 81, 1861. A FRIEND.