The Newtown bee., 1904-11-18
Ten Pages.
LITCHFlELD COUNTY.
NEW PRESTON.
MRS CHARLES w. PICKETT.

control the pencil over pages 1n de- scribing some character who does not | vary in great measure from the aver | age of humanity but at this time | when one feels strong desire to say | so much and still feels an inability to
 say it so that he feels all may rightly | read and understand, it is not so easy l in writing of one who has been closely | allied to her native place from birth,
 althoughenecessarily absent from this | village most of the years during the | last third of her life. Mrs Pickett was the second daughter of MT and Mrs Waiter D. Sperry, life long resi-, dents of this town and ecclesiaStical socit ty. Her school education was ob- tained in the common and select or high school here. She was married in the fall of 1879 to c. w. Pickett of Sherman, who had been for short
 time previous one of the merchants of
 this village. He continued in trade
 until the store was deStrOged by fire
 in 1881 and after that in pursuits of
 various kinds here till he received, in
 the sos call to go to New Haven as
 one of the reporters on the "PaJladl-
 um" staff. Mrs Pickett soon followed
 him to that city and few years later
 when the Leader" of that city was started, Mrs Pickett had become so in- terested in her husbands work that she commenced writing herself, some
 lengthy articles and reporting society
 events for the same paper. This work
 seemed especially adapted to her taste and talent and she advanced with ex- ceptional rapidity till she became one of the "Leader's" most valued as- sistants and writers. Her biographic- al sketches and descriptive articles of men in high and lower stations of life,
 whom she knew and met, were read with increased interest while society laid such demands upon her time and strength as to tax her ability at times extremely to satisfy all. She also com menced to take much interest, few years ago, in the D. A. R. chapters of this and other states, and from writ ing articles upon the same, she began to lecture before several chapters an d was warmly welcomed whenever and wherever her limited time would al- low her to go. She could easily trace her own and her husbands lineage |. back to Colonial ancestry and togeth- CT they derived great pleasure and credit in perpetuating these Revolu- tiOnary memories. Since the con- | mencement of the new century 1t was their fortune to become pOSSessOrs of one of the oldest houses here, filled with early war like fame and honor in having sheltered Gen Washington and l Gen Putnam and in which has always remained many antique articles of | furniture and utensils of usefulness and ornament, older than our nation al independence. It has been Mrs Pickett's pride and ambition since be- coming hostess of this old home to brighten, re-arrange and restore to olden-time lustre much of it's furnish | ings, setting apart one room especial ly as WaShington'S room, firmly be- lieving there still remains in it the same bedStead on which Gen Wash ington slept and other articles o1 furniture his eyes rested on while pass ing through this section on his march There is also authentic proof that Ger Putnam also used this same house as
 resting place. Mrs Pickett took pleas.
 ure in entertaining different chapters of the D. A. R. of this county at thi
 house since it became hers by right tt
 use, besides entertaining scores O other friends from different parts O.
 the state, during each summers stay
 with us, the last three years. She hal
 proved to be one of the brightest
 most entertaining hostesses in thes
 respects. This, with her lectures, he
 household duties which were neve
 neglected, her newspaper and soclet!
 work in the city, led her into mos
 strenuous life, which cannot long con ' tinue without serious break.
 year of her life became equal to 10 e ordinary existence in experience i This last summer she seemed and sai t she was perfectly well in health ant 2 when the illness of her brother-in-laW | c. P. Lyman, assumed most serious as
 poets a month ago, she hastened t !. her sisters side and remained wit
 her constant and faithful asslstan
 till Tuesday afternoon of last wee : when, knowing that she must try an
 keep an engagement at Southlngto , on Thursday, she, left for her Ne
 Haven home in order that she migh
 have day between at her city hon with her husband and son. This vi | lage has not been so shocked in year @ as when the news was wired on Thurs ? day afternoon that Mrs Pickett ha . dropped dead in Southington that af1 o ernOOn as she was giving her talk b. 70 fore the D. A. R. chapter of ths 'Iee place. We could hardly believe tf r. report. We hoped it might prove ol
 ly a swoon or serious faint, but UT
 strenuous life which few of us hs t. thought of as we have since, had thu 6 suddenly closed with scarcely war D. ing of deaths approach. She ha r. spoken for about 10 minutes when sl
 was seen to falter, slightly sway, the fall to the platform. The only cor
 plaint she had made that day was of
 Severe headache, which she had trle
 to overcome by obtaining some table
 at drug store in SOuthington on h.
 way that afternoon to the hall Whe
 she spoke. It may never be know as ne just the direct cause of her most su ne den decease. One thing is certal
 the strenuous life was ended. Ii
 nerveless fingers had closed for u |. last time upon her manuscript. Il earthly work was done. No one b
 herself had realized how much Wo . she had crowded into the past II veal
 till that work was ended. Her = mains were brought by her bereav
 husband on Thursday evening to Ne
 Haven and in her late home the c neral service was held on Saturd ,, evening. Her pastor, Rev Dr W: IT. Leete, of Dwight Place Congregatio
 al church otticiated, assisted by R
 Dr w. L. Phillips of the Church Of t . Redeemer in New Haven; The a
 play of flowers, in varied designs,
 exceptionally fine. Her sisters he
 could not, by illness in one home a CIV almost prostration with grlef at nj, other, be present in New Haven '1S nf her only brother and mother ca ta- from Mt Vernon, O., reaching nere
 Saturday,, too weary to go on tp %
 Haven. On Sunday morning Gne E
 mains were brought by. train to N
 Preston. accompanied by Undertal . Maycock of New Haven and Ex- Ma
 K. B. Farnsworth, Hon M. B: Ch
 field, E. M. Allender, w. T: Dill, - V poocbar and ID w Baldwin