The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-04-17
IN MEMoRIAM.
FIFE-At the residence OF Jonathan Hass
near West Point, Ohio, March IL, 10,
Mrs. Susanna II. Fife, aged SO years
IA

FIFE--At the residence of Jonathan Hasson,
near West Point, Ohio, March IL, 1885,
months and days.
The ancestors of this venerated woman
were Irish on the paternai side; on the ma.
ternal, Hollanders. Her father, Jonathan
Hamilton, was native of New Jersey. He
was married to Miss Susanna Diltz, a daugh-
ter OF William Diltz, member Of one Of the
nrst Dutch families which settled in New
jersey. In 1887, accompanied by several
other families, the Hamiltons crossed the
mountains and settled In Pennsylvania, near
Williamsport, ia what was then called
Horseshoe Bottom. Here Susanna was born
June Z, 1873.
In the spring Of 1898 her father removed
his family into what four years later became
the State of Ohio, and which was then a
comparative wilderness, and located one
mile east of the place now called Frederick
town, this county. A few years later he
old Hamilton farm near New Lisbon, where
he pursued the avocations of farmer and
merchant.
The Hamiltons were an honest, intelligent,
pious, hardy, long-liyed people, several
members of the family having been centena.
rians,l and from them Susanna inherited
many of the strong characteristics which
made her life eminently useful. She was
endowed by nature with more than ordinary
powers of intellect, and received at the hands
u
complete education for those times. In re-
ligious things her parents must have been
very careful in their instructions and she
very careful in her Investigations. for her
remarkable conversations on all religious
themes have been the admiration of intelli-
gent people for more than half century,
and continued to be until the day of her
death. She united with the Presbyterian
Church of New Lisbon September %, 1908.
This was near the beginning of the pastorate
OF the Rev. Clement Vallandigham. Her
father, one of the founders OF the church,
was there ruling elder, which office he held
for Al years. She was a member Of this
church when she died.
She was married to James Fife August 30,
1910. Her home was henceforth with him on
his farm near West Point During the war
of 1912 she remained alone on this farm for a
time with the true spirit of the pioneer
woman, while her husband rendered SOL
dier's service to his country. She had no
children, but ut different times during her
life she took and cared for, as her own, six
orphan children of her immediate family.
Ohly two Of these survive her-Capt. James
II. Mills, editor of the Neio North West, Deer
Lodge, NJ. T., and Mrs. Jonathan Hasson, in
whose family since the death of her husband !,
which occurred April Is, 1860, her comfort
and happiness were paramount, where
"watched BY ewes that loved her, calm and sage,
Faded her late declining years away"
No commentator of her virtues is neces-
sary to convey to the older members of our
community the leading characteristics of this
remarkable woman. So widely known and
so universally loved as was "Auut Susie" as
she was Familiarity called, she needs no eulo-
gy. With her
"Life was real, life was earnest,
And the grave was not its goal"
She lived far beyond the allotted period Of
life, but retained all her faculties to the last
in remarkable degree of preservation. Her
clear mind and acute hearing and wonder
full memory made it a pleasure to converse
with her, even during the last week of her
life, during which time many friends gath.
cred about her, for her friendships were true
and steady. She loved her friends and was
much beloved by them, and to them she has
bequeathed rich inheritance of private
virtues, which they will ever fondly cherish
May we, like her, GO to our rest "as shock
of corn fully ripened is prepared for the har-
vest"
''Life's duty done, sinks the clay,
Light from lis load the spirit hied
While heaven and earth combine TO say,
How blest the righteous when she died"
-DhiO Patriot.