The San Francisco call., 1896-07-05
COMP PANIONS IN
LIFE AND DEATH.
Joseph Taber's Wife Sur
wives Him Hardly Two
Days.
BOTH WERE PIONEERS.
Five Generations of Their Fam.
lily Were Living at the
Same Time.
OLD AGE CAUSED BOTH DEATHS
A Small Estate Left, Which Will Be
Inherited by Their. Two
Daughters.
OLD AGE CAUSED BOTH DEATHS

|
wandered along life's pathway. The
memories of his youthful days mad be-
come chilled and danlpened by the SHOWS
of many winters, and his eyesight dimmed
by the dust, the glare and the heat of
numerous summers, but his mind was
vigorous and his heart beat lightly for all
that. There was one to soothe him in his
old age, who had borne him company
through all his joys and sorrows his red
letter days and his periods of trial and
vicissitude, his wife Caroline Taber.
Joseph had passed the eighty-second
milestone of life, and from the eminence
to which he had climbed could gaze back
over long and industrious career, but the
vision of his wife Caroline extended
further than that. Her toll through the
desert of life with the rest afforded by its
Gases had gone on and on for eighty-three
years. Her silvered hairs bore hon orable
evidence of the crosses she had borne.
Upon the side of a hill at 1907 Mason
street lived this quaint old couple. They
had been living there as long as the oldest
neighbors could recollect.
As regularly as clockwork their curtain
would be raised at early morn, and shortly
after the shades of twilight had fallen
their light would be extinguished. They
were regular in their habits, this old
couple The wisdom of this course. the
old man said, their long experience had
taught them.
But week ago there came change. No
longer did the curtain rise in the morn
| ing and all was silent and hushed.
Kind neighbors grew apprehensive and
investigated the changed condition of
affairs. When J. T. Tate, who lives on the
opposite side of the street, knocked at
| their door it was some time ere he OBJ
tanned a response and then the old man
came to the door and slowly opened it.
His strength was exhausted with the
effort and he sank to the floor.
1t was sad tale this gray-haired patri-
arch had to tell. His wife had been all
! ing in health for four or five years, and he
had done all the housework during that
time. But few days before Tate visited
him he also had succumbed to the ravages
of time and had been forced to recline his
stiffened limbs upon couch.
7 hey did all they could for the aged
couple, these kind neighbors; medical
skill was summoned and a competent
nurse provided, but it was all in vain. The
angel of death had Knocked at their door
and marked them for his victims.
Wednesday morning at o'clock the old
man quietly passed across the dark river
where he firmly believed would come sur
cease of trouble and care.
His funeral procession had hardly filed
away from the undertaker's at P NJ Fri
4 day when the news came that his wife also
had ceased to breathe. As she had accom-
! IL. e. 49,
him.
The old man was genius, the neigh bors
say, and not only furnished his house gen.
orally and in detail, but made his own
clothes as we'll. As for the old lady, little
was seen of her. One year ago last Octo-
Der she descended the steep fight of stairs
that leads to the little dwelling on the
hill, and presented beautiful bouquet ol
roses and other fragrant flowers to he1
neighbor Mrs. Tate. Prior to that time
it is said, she had not descended those
steps for four long years.
Besides some $4,000 in the bank, the old
man is said to have left real estate, with
improvements, valued at about $4,000 This
will doubtless be inherited by the only
surviving relatives, his daughter and her
daughter, for both had been married be-
fore their union.
The old mans daughter is the wife oi
DR.. Wilder of Los Angeles; and that oi
his wife, Mrs. Caroline Guilda of Boston.
Both are said to be old women and to have
grandchildren themselves, one being said
to have even a great-grandchiid. Their
arrival here is expected at any time.
Mrs. Taber's remains are in the hands
of EN- mbalmers, and will be inferred by the
side of her husband this afternoon. This
is said to be the last wish expressed by her
in life.