Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-03-14
Elmer E. Lewis.


to surrender one of our most respected
citizens to the silent and secret forces
of insidious disease. One charac-
teristic of the active life of this
western country is the rapidity
with which young men attain influence
but no less certainly are they the bright
objects of Deaths unerring shaft.
Seldom are these two facts more
plainly manifested than in the life and
death of Elmer E. Lewis. Though he
was a young man who had made his
way through life by his own energy,
yet when the sad news of his death
was carried on hated breath from lip to
lip, the people bowed their heads and
wept.
He never made brow look dark,
Nor caused tear but when he died.
During his long continued sickness
he was most carefully watched and ten
derry cared for by his own father, DR..
Lewis, whose fond eye of paternal
affection caught the glimpse of every
favorable symptom, hoping against
hope, until the fatal change came and
left his heart bereaved.
The sufferer himself, though cheerful
and struggling heroically to avert the
disease, was always patient, and his
experience in sickness brought its own
compensation.
Human intelligence could not devise
a remedy, but kind Providence fur
nished an alienation in the training of
his character. Patience, courage,
trust, obedience were cultivated in his
soul. ..a...I
'Not as 1 WILL" expressed the habit
ual calmness of his heart, until it
ripened into a sublime and victorious
faith in the merits of his Redeemer.
The following touching biography
was read at his funeral:
Elmer E. Lewis was born at Malta,
Ohio, May "a, 1861. In 1877 came
with his parents to Kansas and settled
| in Abilene. Attended school and then
took a course in pharmacy at the State
| University at Lawrence. After this,
he bought drug store at Indepen-
| dence, Mo-, and after toll and close ap-
| plication making a success, his store
was burned with entire loss of stock
and fixtures. He then came to Solo
mon and his history since that time is
known to all. His ambition to succeed
was greater than his physical ability to
withstand such untiring effort. His
| system broken down, he disposed of
his business and has visited all the
health resorts from the Atlantic to the
Pacific in search of some Sanitarium
which might restore him. All failed,
and on the 9TH day of March, 1889, his
exhausted body yielded up the spirit to
the God who gave it. He was married
to Miss Maud Williams, of Indepen-
dence, Missouri, July 9Th, 1884,
who died May 4th, 1886
They leave one infant boy who is living
with its grandmother, Mrs. A. G. Will
liamS. His heroic conduct under Attic
ton, his kind and loving impulses for
those who ministered to his wants and
who received his dying invocations,
were benedictiop.
To II. Whitley and his family, who
with a generosity unparalleled, invited
him to their beautiful and commodious
mansion to make it his home, and to
their anxiety to make all things COM
Portable for him, and especially Miss
Lou, whose soothing voice, unceasing
care, and whose daily readings of
sacred literature, did much to assauge
the anguish of disease and inculcate
the glorious hopes of the beyond; and
to II. Whitley, Esq, from whose family
prayers and reading of Scriptures
Elmer derived much spiritual aid,
words cannot express our heartfelt
thanks. When asked the day before
his death ELMER, what are your hopes
of the future?" he calmly said. Il be-
lieve, papa, that Christ has the power
to save a repentant believer, and now
1 knoao 1t. 1 am going to him and
when see my dear ma, as l shall see
her, l will relate the loving story of
your affection and care for her child
rem. Tell all my friends my love shall
still be with them"
The great concourse of people that
assembled at the church showed the
esteem in which he was universally
held and the desire to express to DR..
Lewis the sympathy of the community
in his affection.
The services were conducted by Rev.
F. M. Porch, of the Lutheran church
in Abilene, who was assisted by Revs.
Reddick and Hollen.
The members of the Knights of Pyth-
las and A. o. U. w. lodges attended
the funeral in body, and thus per-
formed the last sad tribute to their
departed brother.
His day has come, not gone;
His sun has risen, not set!
His life is now beyond
The reach of death or change,
Not ended, but begun.
And now all that was mortal of this
loved son, brother, father and friend
lies in peaceful slumber in the little
grave yard on the great prairie among
the ashes of the generations that have
preceded him to the silent land. The