Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1900-12-05
SKETCH OF MRS. plcKRELps LIFE.
She Camo to this State In 1919 and Died
November 80, 1900.

| november oU, ISUU.
Bfoyles, Anderson County, Decomber
1.-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 the 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 duo sololy
to the inflrmitios of oxtreme age. She
suffered but little and passed away with
out groan or struggle. Notwith-
standing the great weight of years hor
strength of mind and body was rcmarka-
bly, woll preserved, and tho fire of her
religious experience burned brightly to
tho ond. Only a few days before hor
death she caught tho hand of her daugh-
tor, who was ministoring to her, and
pressing it warmly exclaimed with rap
ture, ''as seeing him who is invisible"
"Glory bo to God praise His holy
namew
She had been Il member of tho Metho-
dist church soventy-flve years, probably
longer, and during that long time--a
much longer time than is allowed most
people to serve in tho church militant
she was uniformly loyal to the church
of her fathers, constantly exomplfyng
tho soundncss and saving power Seen
down to old ago" of tho religion of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Mrs. Pickrcll was born on Nantucket
Island, of the coast of Massachusetts,
and was the daughter of Abraham Cof-
fin, also native of Nantucket, and ono
of tho first persons of tho island to en-
brace Methodism whom tho old religion
with now and consuming zeal swept
tho dead ccclcsiasticism of Now Eng
land as prarie fire. Hcr mothers
father, William Bunkor, Il Baptist, was
caught by the tide of Mothodism, as her
fathers people who were Prosbytcrians,
had been, and he gavo tho land upon
which tho first Methodist church on
Nantucket was built.
When sho was some ton years of age
she heard the celebrated evangelist, Lo
rcnzo Dow, preach in Providence,
Rhode Island, where her father was liy
ing at the time, and to her dying day
she kept fresh in mind her mpressi ons
of the man and his manner. The preach
or was unwell and after the service in
tho Court HouSe-there was then no
Methodist church in the city-dccidci
to rest there till the evening appoint
mcnt. During tho interval lady, SYM
pathizing with the evangelist in his in
disposition, brought him somo refresh
mcnts and subsequently became his
wife.
During the year 1910 Mr.. Coffin, Mrs.
i'ickrelPs father, a man possessed of Il
wide range of practical knowledge, de-
cidcd, in view of the wide spread bust
ness gloom that hung ovor tho Eastern
States as result of tho war of 1912, to
remove to South Carolina. His rosolu-
ton to como South was largely dctorm-
ncd by the insistenco of his friend,
Philip Weaver, who had already como to
South Carolina and established little
cotton mill i'll Spartanburg county.
Accordingly, Mr.. Coffin sailed with
his family from Providence that year
and reached Charleston after a stormy
voyage of three weeks. They were mot
in Charleston by Mr.. Weavcr's wagons
and conveyed to the little mill up in
Spartanburg, and thus Mrs. Pickrcll
became an operative in the first cotton
mill established in South Carolina.
a few years later Mr.. Coffin removed
toa similar mill on Rccdy River, a few
miles below Grcenvillc, and from there
he went about the year 1925 to the Fork
section of this country to take half
interest in small yarn mill which the
Rev. Levi Garrison, father of the late
Henry Garrison of this county, had
established on Little Bcaycrdam creek
fourth Of a mile below what is now
known as Broylcs' Mill.
1t was here that Mrs. Pickrell was
married January 10, 1923, tho Rev. Mr..
Garrison performing the ceremony. She
was the mother of thirteen children, ter
of whom grew to maturity. One of hel
sons, promising young man, was killed
i'll battle at Lookout Mountain, Tonnes
sec, as member of tho Second South
Carolina Rifles, during the civil war
-Four of her children, Mrs. Kate Norris
and Mrs. Edrew Cromer of tho Fork
Mrs. John G. CAN'T, of IIartwcll, Geor
gia, and Mr.. William B. Pickrell, OF
Texas, survive her. The Rev. Henry
Bascom Browne, a prominent member
of the South Carolina Conference, and
DR.. Walker G.. Browne, of Atlanta, Geor
gia, distinguished in the profession o
dental surgery, are her ncphcws.
Mrs. PickrelPs body was inferred YES
tcrday beside that Of her husband a
Smith Chapel in tho Fork, in whicl
church she has held an unbroken nom
bcrship for period of scvcnty-fvc years
the like being probably without par
allcl in the State.