Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1900-12-05
SKETCH OF MRS. PlcKRELL,s LIFE.
She Came to this Stasu In i3te and 3Isd
November 80, 1900.

November 80, 1900.
Broylcs, Anderson County, Decombel
l.-Mrs. Mary B. Pickrell died at 8
O'Clock on Friday afternoon at the home
of her daughter, Mrs. Kate Norris, at
Broyles, in Anderson county. She was
the widow Of the late Jonathan Pickrell
Esq, who died five years ago at tho age
of 81, and herself lacked till the 10th OF
February Of completing her ninety.
fourth year. She had been sick but a
short time and her death was due solely
to tho inflrmitios of extromo age. She
suffered but little and passed away with
out groan or struggle. Notwith-
standing the great weight of years her
strength of mind and body was rcmarka-
bly, we'll preserved, and tho fire of her
religious experience burned brightly to
tho end. Only fow days before hor
death she caught tho hand of her daugh-
tor, who was ministering to hor, and
pressing it warmly exclaimed with rap
turo, cas- seeing him who is invisible"
"Glory bo to God; praise His holy
namew
She had been a member of tho Motho.
dist church seventy-five years, probably
longer, and during thai long timc-a
much longer timo than is allowed most
people to servo in tho church militant,
she was uniformly loyal to tho church
of her fathers, constantly excmplifying
the soundnoss and saving powor "een
down to old age" Of the religion of tho
Lord Jesus Christ.
Mrs. Pickrell was born on Nantucket
Island, of the coast of Massachusetts,
and was tho daughter of Abraham Cof-
fin, also native of Nantucket, and ono
Of tho first persons Of tho island to en-
brace Methodism when tho old religion
with new and consuming zeal swept
tho dead ecclcsiasticism of Now Eng
land as prarie fire. Her mothers
father, William Bunker, Baptist, was
caught by the tide of Mothodism, as her
fathers people who were Prcsbytcrians
had been, and ho gavo tho land upon
which the first Methodist church on
Nantucket was built.
When shc was some ton years of age
she heard the celebrated evangelist, Lo-
renzo Dow, preach in Providence,
Rhode Island, where her father was liv-
ing at the time, and to her dying day
she kept fresh in mind her impressi ons
of the man and his manner. The preach
CT was unwell and after the service in
the Court HOusc-there was then no
Methodist church in tho cty-dccidcd
to rest there till the evening appoint
mcnt. During tho interval a lady, sym
pathizing with tho evangelist in his in
disposition, brought him some refl esh.
mcnts and subsequently became his
wife.
During the year 1910 Mr.. Coffin, Mrs.
Pickrcll's father, a man possessed of n
wide range of practical knowledge, de-
cidcd, in view of the wide spread busi-
ness gloom that hung over the Eastern
States as result of tho war of 1912, to
remove to South Carolina. His resolu-
ton to come South was largely dctorm-
incd by the insistcnco of his friend
Philip Weaver who had already como to
South Carolina and established little
cotton mill in Spartanburg county.
Accordingly, Mr.. Coffin sailed with
his family from Providence that year
and reached Charleston after stormy
voyage of thlce weeks. They were met
in Charleston by Mr.. Weavcr's wagons
and conveyed to tho little Inil up in
Spartanburg, and thus Mrs. Pickrell
became an operative in the first cotton
mill established in South Carolina.
a few years later Mr.. Coffin removed
to similar mill on Rccdy River, few
miles below Grccnvillc, and from there
he went about the year 1926 to the Fork
~ ,frxr f,,t t,,1, l,..1f
interest in a small yarn mill which the
Rev Levi Garrison, father of the late
Henry Garrison Of this county, had
established on Little Bcavcrdam creek,
onc-fourth of mile below what is now
known as Broylcs' Mill.
1t was here that Mrs. Pickrell was
married January 10, 1928, tho Rev. Mr..
Garrison performing the ceremony. She
was the mother of thirteen children, tor
of whom grew to maturity. One of hel
sons, promising young man, was killed
in battle at Lookout M Mountain, Tonnes
see, as a member of the Second South
Carolina Rifles. during tho civil war
-Four Of her children, Mrs. Kate Norris
and Mrs. Edrcw Cromer of the Fork
Mrs. John G. CAN'T, of IIartwcll, Geor
gia, and Mr.. William B. Pickrell, OF
Texas, survive her. Tho Rev. Henry
}ascom Browne, prominent member
of the South Carolina Conference, and
DIR. Walker G.. Browne, of Atlanta, Geor
gia, distinguished in the profession OF
dental surgery, arc her ncphcws.
Mrs. PickrclPs body was inferred yes
tcrday beside that of her husband al
Smith Chapel in the Fork, in whicl
church She has held an unbrokcn nom
the like being probably without par
allcl i'm thG State