Putnam patriot., 1912-02-09
Funeral ot Miss Ellen D. I.arned

The funeral services of Miss Ellen n. Lsrned were held in the old Congre- gational church at Thompson Hill on Friday afternoon of last week at one o'clock. They were simple and quiet, in keeping with the life of deceased. There was a large attendance of frien Is and acquaintances from Thompson and neighboFing towns of the County. The floral tributes were of exquisite beauty, large group of ealla lilies be- ing prominent.
 A delegation of the Elizabeth Porter Putnam Chapter, D. A. R., of which Miss Larned was the honorary histori- an, was present; also large delega' ton of the Thompson W. C. T. U.
 The services were conducted by Rev. John K. Moore, pastor of the church, who opened them by scripture reading. He was followed by Rev. George H. Cummings, a former pastor of the church, now pastor of the Congrega- tional church in West Boylston, Mass, who gave fine tribute to Miss Lar ned's memory, based on his acquaint- ance of twelve years as her pastor. MT. Cummings was followed by the Hon. orable Isaac Newton Mills, Judge of the Supreme Court of New York, who had come to attend the funeral, but not expecting to speak. By urgent re- quest he consented to pay last tribute and spoke as follows:
 ADDRESS OF JUDGE MILLS
 Friends, old time neighbors, and the successors of those whose faces l saw here a quarter of century ago when last I attended service in this house, but now sadly miss; 1 beg you to be- lieve that I came here with no thought of speaking, and that my only purpose was to pay, by my presence, my re- spect to the memory ofsthe deceased Indeed, according to my boyhood standards, 1 would have deemed it al- most sacrilege, ,-at least an intrusion,
 
 in these reVered walls. If, however, iii may be thought by those here in charge, as it seems to be, that any ser vice of mine may aid to properly honoi her memory, it is not for me 10 refuse to render 1t.
 Ellen D. Larned was great woman
 all things considered, l think the greatest person who ever lived and
 died upon this historic hilltop. No mere wealth, however great, can weigh
 in the balances of my judgment, for {
 moment against her work and fame. By the right of inheritance, as wei | as by,the right of her great personal | faculties, she belonged to that aristoc racy of brains and conscience, which has rendered New England so famous and so forceful and all controlling ir l the making and the maintenance o
 this Republic. As evidence of her just title to this characterization, you need ! only glance at her face here before us set m the embrace of death,-a tht
 broad and high forehead, the finely chiseled nostris and lips, and each delicate line of the features.
 She was great in intellect, great ir l study, great in industry, great in hon esty, and great ia the art of expression I by the written word. With instinctivt l or rather intuitive sense, she followed 1 unerringly the trail of historic truth | through the musty, iil-kept and there 1 tofore ill-digested local records of ths past and through the fast fading tradi tions of family lore. Her writings, il luminated by her keen though kindly l wit, had the rare quality of carrying the reader through successive pages ! untired and untiring. She chose fol
 the field and topic of her lifework tht County of Windham and it's severa | towns. Had she chosen some subject l of world wide interest and given to Il l the same research, zeal and ability, hel | work would have been as famous as 1 Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic or Baird's History of the Huguenot's | in France. But she chose to give hel
 life's service to our people, Jour race ane our blood. You may find today ths sons and daughters of WindhamC Coun l ty in every state of the Union, and in deed in well nigh every county of ev
 cry state. In their youth, forth from l the old towns they went without mon l ey or scrip, but well armed and equip ped with the intellect, the integrity, ,tnt | industry and the courage of their an I cestry; and, with few exceptions, they have made cTeditable records. Every
 man and woman in any part of thi' great nation, who is of Windhan County descent, owes to Ellen D. Lar | ned today debt which can never b' 1 fully paid. She has redeemed iron I fast gathering oblivion the annals O their ancestry here in this old county | She has told in imperishable pros, | their story, of how that ancestry, th' original settlers, came here from tho old towns about Boston, reclaimed l these farms from the wilderness anC i settled them, not as great manois, bu
 as small holdings of a hundred acres O less to serve as the homes of independ ent freemen; of how, as soon as they had raised a sheltering roof over wifi,
 and children, they, from their scanty
 means, raised upon these hilltops tenn
 pies for the worship of the living Goo according to the faith of their fathers 1 the first settlers of the old Bay Colony