The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1901-07-11
Phillip Roads--A Tribute.

Phillip ROadS--A Tribute.
We have met today to pay the last
tribute to one who has all his life
lived 'among you. Born October -,
1S46, near Rainsboro, Phillip Roads
has for nearly fifty-ive years been a
citizen of Paint township.
On December 80, 1869, he was mar
ried to La Rue Scott. To them we're
born five sons and two daughters.
Three of the sons are living in the
West, Beecher. Wesley and Herbert,
and two are at home, Perry and David.
One of the daughters, Mrs. G. l..
Workman, is living in Rainsboro, and
one, Mrs. Stewart Johnson, near
Greenfield. All the children are liv-
ing, and they, with the wife and three
brothers, are left to mourn the loss of
kind and loving father and husband.
His father and mother, James and
Catharine Roads, were among the
earlier settlers of this region, and the
home in which he grew up was almost
that of pioneer. Only three of that
home circle, which consisted of FIVE
brothers and two sisters, are now left /.
Mr.. Roads inherited from his pio-
neer ancestors that industry which
characterized their lives. He has
been hard working man all his life,
despite his infrmities, and even dur
ing the last months when he was i'll,
he wanted to be doing something.
The misfortunes of others are not
so pleasant to read or think about as
the prosperity, and yet am not sure
but they help us most. When we read
of one whose life has been prosperous,
never any trouble, there is apt to be
just bit of envy. But life that has
been touched by sorrow touches our
own lives and appeals to the tender
est emotions. Such lives make us
better. They soften and help to erase
the hard lines and to fill up the deep
burrows which trouble has made
across our own lives.
Few men have had more misfor-
tunes than Mr.. Roads. He has been
great sufferer almost all his life. For
years, since his early manhood, he
suffered from periodical attacks of
neuralgia. Every winter this disabled
him. About eleven years ago he lost
his right hand which was accidentally
shot off while he was trying to shoot
a hawk.
Some two years ago his physicians
told him he would never be able to
do hard work again, and with the
hope of getting some light work
which he could do, he went out to
Missouri with his son, but only work.
ed IA days.
One year ago last March he came
back home. All last summer his was
familiar figure on our streets. He
never got very far from his home and
the blacksmith shop, where he would
sit and listen to his neighbors talk,
for he could take little part in the
conversation himself, the paralysis
almost depriving him of his speech.
Many morning we would see him in
the alley trying to work little, but
for several months past we have
missed him, for eight months out of
the last fifteen he has been bedfast.
1t was very hard for him. He suf-
fered intensely at times. And then,
the encouragement. He was dis.
couraged. One day few weeks ago
when l was sitting with him, he tried
to tell me something, and though he
spoke with difficulty, I understood.
His thoughts were going back to that
happy time when he was a boy, forty
years and more ago, and pointing to-
ward the church, he spoke of the time
when he went there to Sunday school.
The years since then had left their
marks upon him. They had plowed d
deep burrows across his brow. He
was lying there in the clutches of
disease, but his spirit took wings that
afternoon and flew away to those
happy days.
Seventeen years ago he united with
the M. E. Church. He gave evidence
of being at peace, and several times
spoke to his wife about being ready
to go. Monday morning, June "a,
he passed quietly away, being "a
years, s months and IL days old.
His sufferings are over. Today we
lay him beside his kindred. Rest has
come to him after life's turmoil. Let
us not try to fathom the mystery of
that life in which there was so much
of heartache and encouragement of
pain and sorrow, but may the thought
of these things as they have been
brought before US by this death touch,
a vibrating chord in each of our lives
that will make us more tend er, more
loving, more sympathetic. May it
make US more Christ-like in wo rd and
thought and act. -
f