The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-12-12
HER LIFE ENDED WITH CENTURY
"A Worker in the First Cotton Mill
Established in South Carolina.

Established in South Carolina.
Anderson Daily Mail.
Mrs. Mary B.. Plckrell died at 3
o'clock on Friday afternoon at the
home OF her daughter, Mrs. Kate
Norris, at Broyles, in this county. She
was the widow Of the late Jonathan
Pickrell, Esq, who died FIVE years e
at the age OF 81, and herself lacked till
the 10th Of February of completing
her ninety-fourth year. She had been
sick but q short time and her death was
due solely to the inirmities Of extreme
age. She suffered but little and passed
Notwithstanding the great weight Of
years her strength of mind and body
was remarkably we'll preserved, and
the fire Of her religious experience
burned brightly to the end Only o
few days before her death she caught
the hand Of her daughter who was
ministering to her and pressing 1t
warmly exclaimed with rapture, I" as
seeing Him who Ia INVISIBLE" "Glory
be to God praise HE holy name p
h had been a member OF the Metho.
dist church s~eventy-fve years, pro-
badly longer, and during that long
ttme-a much longer time than Is al.
lowed most people to serve in the
iotS "oo III y
loyal to the church Of her fathers, con-
stantly exemplifying the soundness
and saving power cen down to old
age" OF the religion Of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Mrs. Pickrell was born on Nantucket
Island, on the coast OF Massachusetts,
and was q daughter OF Abraham Cofip,
also o native OF Nantucket, and one of
the first persons Of the Island to en-
brace Methodism when the old religion
with q new and consuming zeal swept
the dead ecclesiasticism of New Eng
land as a prairie fire. Her mothers
was caught by the tide OF Methodism,
as her fathers peop'e, who were Pres
Oyterians, had been, and he gave the
land upon which the first Methodist
church on Nantucket was built.
When she was ten years OF age she
heard the celebrated evangelist, Lo.
renzo Dow, preach in Providence,
Rhode Island, where her father vas
living at the time, and to her dying
day b kept fresh In mind her impress.
sions OF the man and his The
preacher was unwell and after the
service In the court house-there was
then no Methodist church in the city
decided to rest there till the evening
Up IL q
lady, sympathizing with the evange-
list In his indisposition, brought him
some refreshments and subsequently
became his wife.
During the year 1919 Mr.. Coffin, Mrs.
P~lckrelPs father, a man possessed of q
wide range OF practical knowledge,
decided, In view OF the widespread
business gloom hat hung over the
Eastern States as q result OF the war OF
1872, to remove to South Carolina. His
resolution to come South was largely
determined by the insistence OF his
friend, Philip Weaver, who had al
ready come to South Carolina and
established a little cotton mill in Spar
tanburg County.
Accordingly, Mr.. Coffin sailed with
his family from Providence that year
and reached Charleston after a stormy
voyage Of three weeks. They we're
met In Charleston by Mr.. Weaver's
wagons and conveyed to the little mill
up In Spartanburg, and thus Mrs.
Plckrell became an operative In the
first cotton mill established in South
Carolina.
A few years later Mr.. Coffin removed
to similar mill or Reedy River, a few
miles below G%reenville, and from there
he went about the year 1925 to the
~ oSSVt'h Vi thlo COunIy W LbhS u
bali Interest In a small yarn mill which
the Rev. Levi Garrison, father of the
late Henry Garrison Of this county,
had established ON Little Beaverdam
creek one-fourth OF a mile below what
Ia now known as Broyles Mill.
1t was here that Mrs. Pickrell was
married January Is, 1928, the Rev. Mr..
Garrison performing the ceremony.
she was the mother OF thirteen child
rem, ten OF whom grew to maturity.
One OF her sons, 8 promising. young
man, was killed In battle at Lookout
Mountain, Tennessee, as a member of
the Second South Carolina Rifles dur.
Ing the civil war. Four OF her child
rem, Mrs. Kate Norris and Mrs. Edrew
Cromer OF the Fork Mrs. John c..
CAN'T, Of Hartwell, Georgia and Mr..
William B. Pickrell, OF Texas, survive
her. The Rev. Henry Bascom Browne,
a prominent member OF the South
Carolina Conference, and DIR. Walker
G. Browne OF Atlanta, Georgia, distin-
guished In the profession OF dental sur.
gerry. are her %nephews.
Mrs. Pickrell's body WAS Inferred
yesterday beside that OF her husband
at Smith Chapel in the Fork, in which
church che had held an unbroken
for a period OF seventy
years, the like being probably
without o parallel In the State.