The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-04
MRS. HANDS DIES NEARLY HUNDRED A Few Days Before the End She Sings with Ferver
 EENearer, My God,
 to Thee'' Game of a Long Lived Fam fly and Had Been Member of Park Street Church for Forty Years.

In the death of Elizabeth. the widow of Jonathan K. Hands, which occur red on Sunday, Bridgeport loses one of it's most remarkable residents. Mrs. Hands was in her 96th year, and un- til few weeks ago, save for impair ed vision, she retained her faculties to a remarkable degree. Even a few days before her demise, when. she realized her end was near, she sur prised her family by singing-tremu- fervor-the inspiring words of Near CT My God to Thee. Since Christmas Mrs. Hands was practically bedridden, weighed down by the jnfirmities of her great age, but until then she was able to be about the house with as much activity as many women of half her years.
 A native of Worcestershire, Eng land, Mrs. Hands was reared in her birthplace, and spent her younger days in the fish hook trade. in which her family for years figured. She came of a family noted for it's longevity, the Hemmings. She was the youngest of large family, her mother dying when she was not yet year old. Practically every member of her family became a nonagenarian. Only recently Samuel Hemming, an English veteran and pensioner, pass ed away at almost the century mark.
 Mrs. Hands was twice married. Her first husband, a Cook, died shortly af- ter their birth of daughter now Mrs. Emma Morris residing in Eng land. with g. son Thomas Morris em- ployed in the Salts Textile works here He is the father of four great grandchildren of the deceased. Her second husband was Jonathan K. Hands. One son. Thomas R. Hands, and two daughters, Mrs. Mary Ann So nd MY-C survive the second union. Mrs. Stan ton and her husband came to America in 1869, and three years later her par ents and the rest of the family came to Bridgeport to live. Mir. Hands was employed with the Wheeler & Wilson Mfg. Co.,, dying two years after his arrival in Bridgeport, May 26, 1874. Mrs. Hands then made her home with the son, Thomas R. Hands, for the last 20 years living at 982 Pembroke street.
 Besides the four children, Mrs. Saw yer, Mrs. Stanton, MT. Hands and their half sister, Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Hands children and several great grandchil- dren. Mrs. Stanton has three daugh- ters and one son in Bridgeport and one daughter in NaugatucA. MT. Hands has two sons, Ronald C., of the engineering department of the Bridgeport Brass CO, ana Garnet, senior nurse in the Mills Training school of Bellevue Hospital. New York city Garnet Hands attended his grandmother during the final stages of her illness.
 Mrs. Hands enjoyed excellent health up to the New Year. Though in her advanced years she sustained brok- en leg, broken collar bone and met with other mishaps at various times she displayed wonderful recuperative powers, rallying from the effects of the various. injuries with surprising vitality.
 Mrs. Hands was a devout christian and the oldest member of the Park Street Congregational church which she .oned promptly upon her arrival In Bridgeport nearly 40 years ago. Un- til her eyesight became impaired g. few years ago she rarely missed any services.
 The funeral was held this afternoon. Rev. Gerald H. Beard, pastor of her church, officiating, assisted by Rev. MT. Davenport. pastor of the Peoples Presbyterian church, who was an in- timate friend of the aged woman The pail tbeas'ers were Hon. Denis F. Mulvihill John T. Cooper. James J. Walker, Emmanuel Cave, Joseph A. Schmitt, and D. W. Green. Inter ment was in the family plot in Park cemetery