The Abingdon Virginian. [volume] (Abingdon [Va.]) 1849-1883, 1863-04-24

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Mrs. MARY ANN WATERMAN departed this life,
March 14th, 1868, at her home, in Washington
county, Va, in the esd year of her life. She
was born in the State of Massachusetts, August
22d, 1900. Her maiden name was Cutler The
family received q very strict religious education
in the Congress ational Church. of which her
grandfather, Manassah Cutler, d. d., was dis
tinguished minister for many years. Her fa-
Their, Maj. Jarvis Cutler. was one of the early
pioneers to the Northwestern territory, and
claims to have felled the first tree in making q
settlement at Marietta Ohio. She was united
in marriage to L. L. Waterman, 1920.
Soon after their marriage they settled in Virgil
MIA, and have made this State their home for.
more than AZ years. April 18th, 1918, she pro-
fessed faith in Christ.
{ In letter to Judge Ephraim Cutler, of Ohio,
written in 1884, she gives full account Of her
conversion. Rev. Mr.. Robbins, Congregation
al minister, was conducting a sacrament to which
her cousins with herself went. One of them,
young lady from her side was led to the table
and she was left. The fact Of being left wrought
keenly upon her feelings, and she wept much
and bitterly. Returning home that night and
finding company, she retired to grove near the
garden, and by the trunk of fallen tree bow
ed in humble prayer. There she remained till
deliverance came, attended by light so great
that she opened her eyes to behold it. She re-
cords the ligk was within her according to the
promise, eff thine eye be single thy whole body
shall be full of light Soon after she went to
Athens, Ohio, to teach school, and did not unite
with the church till April 4th, 1919, when she
joined the Congregational Church, in which she
had been raised. On leaving the school of Mr..
Slocumbat, Marietta, she went to Warren and
established Sunday School, either in 1919 OF
1870. That school, planted almost literally in
the wilderness, has continued ever since. 1t
soon became the nucleusof Presbyterian Church,
which becoming strong as the country filed up,
became the parent school to others and churches
in due course, springing up from them. On
coming to Washington county, Va, she present
ed her church letter tt the Presbyterian Church
in Abingdon, Va. Living ten miles in the coun-
try, and enjoying such poor church privileges,
she opened Sunday School in her own house
as early as 1888. On becoming acquainted with
Methodist ministers, she found them men Of
prayer, and asked them to preach at her house.
In a letter to Judge Cutler, her uncle, and dis
tinguished member of the Presbyterian Church,
she wrote in 1884, as follows: 81 became ac-
quainted with the Methodist ministers, and found
them men of prayer and men of God; and among
the members, the excellent Of the earth. l re-
membered, too, that Methodist was the instru-
nent in the hands of God, in awakening me to a
sense OF my situation as a sinner in the sight of
God; and by that mans preaching, was brought
under conviction and felt the necessity of an IN
terest in the atOning blood of Jesus. examin-
ed their doctrines and found them the doctrines
of the Bible. found, too, that their institutions
and usages were greatly productive of piety and
faithfulness-the best calculated of any Church
to keep up the life of God in the soul After
four years elaboration and hating between two