Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-04-18
op1ruAnY-MRs. MARY P. s. QUITS.

oBITUARY-NTRs. MARY p. s. QUITS.
Our whole community were saddened ON |
Saturday last by the unexpected tidings of
the death of our friend and neighbor, Mrs |
Cults. On the day before Easter she left
Patterson, N. j., with her daughter, Mrs.
Budd. She seemed in perfect health. She |
had just spent two happy months with her
children and kinsfolk in and near New York.
She had enjoyed everything-the new with
the zest of a child, the old with the apprecia |
ton of n woman. She stepped on the plat
form at Jersey City and walked few steps,
spoke of feeling faint, stopped to rest mo-
ment, walked one or two steps leaning on the
arm of the gentleman who was with them,
and fell to the ground Her spirit had gone
to the God who gave it. All endeavors to re-
store consciousness were fruitless Her NOR
tai remains were brought to the home in
Brattleboro which was SO dear to her, and ON
Tuesday were laid to rest beneath the sod Oh
that hill which looks upon the mountain and
valley and the broad Connecticut winding
among the meadows and forests of Vermont
and New lIampshire--a spot beautiful enough
to make one think of Heaven. Thus ended
the life ON earth of one of the most lovely
spirits that ever dwelt in mortal mould
Mrs. Quits was born in Lisbon, May 81,
1902 Her mother, Mary Spahawk, grand
daughter of Sir William Pepperell, the victor
of Louisburg, crossed the stormy Atlantic to
meet her lover, William Jarvis, our consul
and minister to Portugal He was son of
DIR. Charles Jarvis leader among the Bos-
ton men who led the Revolution, and he will
long be remembered in Vermont as Consul
Jarvis. Thus on both sides she came of
noble stock and nobly did she bear her
self amid the trials of life and when
she died it was with words of courte-
GUS kindness on her lips. When scarcely
more than two years old her parents brought
her to America. Before she was three she
lost her mother. Soon after her father
bought house at Weathersfeld, Vt, and
went there to live. He married again, and
his two little daughters, Mary and Elizabeth,
found in their new mother loving guide and
true and constant friend. Mary married
TIampden Cults, a lawyer of Portsmouth,
N. H., May 20, 1929. They resided for about
four years at Portsmouth, and then removed
to North Hartland, where they remained until
lSbU, lut year hIIer JurNls death, Wnen
they came to Brattleboro, and from that time
this was her home. Here she found old
friends and made new ones. The cordial
hospitality for which that beautiful village is
so justly noted, was very grateful to her.
Full Of gracious courtesy and Thoughtful kind
ness herself, she appreciated it in others No
one was ever more charitable for faults and
foibles, no one ever appreciated more thor
oughly every noble and generous sentiment
and emotion. Yet, though thus childlike in
spirit, she had much of the good sense and
native shrewdness of the true New England
woman.
One of the most striking features in her
character was her active almost eager inter
est in everything about her and in the events
of the day. When she went to North Hart
land she applied herself to the study of min
eralogy and natural history. One of her
chief delights in Brattleboro was its literary
and cultured society. Her mind was as ac-
tive during her last week as it had ever been.
Two of her most congenial occupations, and
those perhaps by which she was best known out
side the circle of her immediate friends, were
her active part in the successful endeavor to
purchase Mt. Vernon and preserve it as the
Mecca of America, and her authorship of the
life of her father. To this book she gave the
labor of years. Its simple, graceful style, its
reverent appreciation of Mr.. Jarvis's worth,
its graphic description of his chequered ca
reer have made it treasure in many house
holds.
The groundwork of her character remains
to be spoken of. She was always ready for
every good work To teach the young, to
lead them to their Saviour, to comfort the
sorrowing to relieve the wants of the poor
these were employments which filled her
mind and delighted her heart. Her treasure
was in Heaven, and she loved to dwell on the
bright images of its peace and rest and joy,
which the sacred writers present to u.s.
Thither she has gone to join the fellowship
of the saints, to meet the loved friends and
children who had gone before her, to re-
joice forever in the warmth and sweetness of
her Redeemers love. And even on earth she
has an immortality in our precious recollec-
lions, in the influence for good which has
sprung up and yielded fruit an hundred fold.
The thoughts and works of such a soul, like
the soul itself, are immortal.
Her eyes opened to the light beneath the
beautiful skies of Portugal. The clouds wept
for our loss when we laid her to rest among
the hills of Vermont. The seventy years be-
tween have changed the face of Europe and
America. The discoveries of science have
multiplied to an extent hitherto unparalleled.
But what are all these wonderful acquire
ments of the human mind compared to the
perfect knowledge into which she has enter
ed Who of all these wise men, who have
even weighed the planets in scales, and turned
the lightning into the obedient messenger OF
man-who of them all has left behind him a
name more precious, a memory more fra
grant?
sit is the heart, aud not the brain,
That to the highest doth attain;
And he who folOweth loves behest
Far exoeedeth all the rest"