The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-05-21
EAST MONTPELIER.
Death of Mrs. Mary Putnam in Taunton,
Mass.

| MASS.
Mary S. Putnam, widow of Horace
A. Putnam OF East Montpelier, dice
May II at the residence of her son
Howard S. Putnam of Taunton, Mass.
in the S0th year of her age. Funeral
services were held in Taunton Sunday
and the body arrived here yesterday
afternoon for burial at the Old Friends
1 burying ground here,
/ Mary S. Putnam was the daughter OF
! Stephen +. and Rachael Byrd Stevens
and q granddaughter of Clark Stevens
one of the early pioneers of Montpelier
who called its first town meeting, held
| the first religious meeting in town in
his own house, and built on his farm
| by the side of "Meetin' House brook,
the first house of worship in Washing
ton county, log house long since gone
to the elements.
She was born in Monkton, on Sep
TENDER Is, 1892. Although only four
years of age when her parents moved
to the Stevens farm in what is now
East Montpelier, she always remembered
the long wagon ride, the lunch by the
wayside, the broad river and the close
high wood-eovered hills, so different from
the wide outlook of her birthplace on
the hilltop.
Most OF her life was spent in East
Montpelier, where she was held in love
and esteem by the entire community.
The eldest of a family of seven, she was
guide and loving earetaker for the
younger ones, as well as to her blind
grandmother, lIuldah Foster Stevens,
and in later years, gave the same care
full attention to an aged aunt, Mary
Byrd 0rcott, who was also blind.
She lived when spinning and weaving
were household labors and she could do
was diligent in business. She was es-
pecially helpful in cases Of sickness
and her warm sympathies and skilful
hanus were quick to respond to the
needs of everyone.
In the old days when neighbors de-
pended upon each other, she often
watched" with the sick one night
week for the whole season, besides at
tending to her own household duties,
and by many death bed. her helpful,
Christian spirit inspired the dying and
comforted those who mourned,
OF a deeply religious nature, she at
one time took both comfort and pleas
ure in conducting a Sunday evening
Bible school in her home in East vii
lage and the good influences she then
exerted helped many OF her pupils on
ward in the right course,
She was ready to defend the absent
and to find excuse for those who erred
and to see good in every one she knew.
She inspired hope in some who de-
SPARED, for she we'll understood their
distress. She extended mothers love
and care to a child, left motherless at
an early age, who lived in the Putnam
home until manhood and although for
% years or more a resident OF the Pa
ciiic slope, yet a constant and friendly
interest was kept to almost the end
by the frequent letters between them.
Since her husbands death, in 1886, |
Mrs. Putnam had lived with one and |
another relatives besides with her son, |
with whom she had lived the past two |
years and half and where she passed |
her lingering sickness.
Besides her only child already men
toned, she leaves two brothers, Timothy |
Stevens of Needham, Mass, and Charles !
F. Stevens of Barre, and one sister. Anna |
S. Robinson Of Ferrisburg and circle
Of friends that include all who knew I
her