The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-10-22
A Good Fellow.

Didn't know Rodgers. did you
Abraham Rodgers, g. g. f., which means
general good fellow? Well, did, and
helped bury him yesterday.
When first met Rodgers he was a
young man of 1S, and the title of
good fellow had already settled upon
him. If they wanted the old church
swept for Sunday, or the bell rung for
prayer meeting, some one asked Rodg-
ers to do it. Ii any old Hunker fell
sick and hankered for rabbit soup,
Rodgers was asked to go out and
hunt for the rabbit. Ii any old
woman wanted sassafras root or
herbs, Rodgers was the good fellow
who d 60 to the fields and woods on
her errand. No one ever thought of
offering him money in payment for his
time, and it is only his due to say
that he wouldn't have accepted it if
they had. He was expected to pound
down the nail-heAds in the sidewalks,
replace broken planks, have an eye on
the bridge, paint the school house
steps, replace the broken glass in the
church, and be the guardian OF all bad
boys, and no one ever heard him kick.
Later on old man Jackson fell sick,
and when watchers were required he
expressed his desire to have Rodgers
come to the house and stay. Rodg-
ers went, put in sixteen days and
nights of hard work, and when the
old man died the widow feelingly ex-
claimed:
"Oh. Abraham, but you are noble
young man! can never, never repay
you'll"
She never did-never even offered
him the value of a pair rofstockings, al
though she was left 100000.
Then Aunt Nancy Lee fell sick and
died, and Rodgers had just begun his
days work as a carpenter when one OF
the Lee boys rode up with the news and
added:
"And the very last thing she said
was that tyou must be chief pall-bearer.
Aunt Nancy always loved you, and
you must come"
Rodgers went. Aunt Nancy forgot to
say that he should be paid for his days
work, although she left $4,000 to the
heather, and so Rodgers was out again.
when some one discovered that the old
hand fire engine which had been stow
ed away for six years ought to be put
in condition. A leading citizen sug-
gested to Rodgers to go ahead and fix
the old tub up, and his bill should be
paid by a subscription. Rodgers tin
kered away for week and a leading
grocer gave him bar of soap and
drygoods man came down with roll
of tape. The effort to reward him died
out with that.
Rodgers lived just that sort OF a life
until he was 40 years old. He even
put of getting married to sit up with
a sick horse and be rewarded with
thank you. In one year he was pail
bearer at twenty-five funerals, and sat
up with fourteen different dead peo-
pie. When he worked for pay people
paid him when they got ready. When
there came a week in which somebody
did not want him to compound q
salve, repair tub, sit up with a
corpse, subscribe for a mill-dam, rail-
road or public hall, or give days
work to public improvement or chari-
ty,Mrs. Rodgers felt that the Judgment
day could not be far off He had put
in three weeks looking up widow Da-
Wis lost COW. digging roots for widow
jenkins and sitting up with Elder
Smith, when Judge Froth suddenly
died. OF course his last words were;
81 falli the service OF my country,
and | want Abraham Rogers to be
chief boss at my funeral. will and
bequeath my $4,000 to my wife, and
l leave my thanks to Abraham.
Rodgers bossed the funeral. He
borrowed all the chairs, got the sing
ers together, formed the funeral pro-
cession, and rode two miles to the
grave in pouring rain to stand with
uncovered head. Next day he was ill,
and yesterday, as told you, helped
bury him. When he died he hadn't
dollar in the house. He had selected
cemetery lots for fifty people, but he
had none OF his own. He had helped
to put as many into caskets, but he
was buried in a plain coffin, at the ex-
pense of his friends. Very few OF his
friends turned out, as they were busy
with their work. He had formed
funeral professions half mile longf for
squires, elders. deacons and judges,
but there were only four vehicles in
his. The clergyman seemed to be in q
hurry, the grave-digger was impatient
for us to be gone, and as we turned
| away some one remarked;
"Oh, his wife will get along some
way-widows always do