Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-09-11
Obituary.

at the funeral of Rev. H. A. Carna-
han, D. D.:
John S. Herrin was born Novem-
ber Is, 1927, on the home farm near
Providence, Webster county, Ken
lucky. Died September 8, 1916, at
his home in Ashland, aged SS years,
months and 22 days.
"In the outdoor life of the Ken
lucky home he developed rugged,
strong, physical body, practical ideas,
fair education in the schools near
home, which he made the foundation
stones for the building af vigorous,
energetic, forceful and very useful
life as a citizen of the common
wealth.
I'm 1850 Mr.. Herrin left home and
came to Clinton county, Missouri,
and after a time was united in mar
riage to Nancy c.. Walker, on March
10, 1853. In April of the same year
he began the journey across the
plains with his bride, equipped with
OK teams, provisions and such house
hold furnishings as would enable
them to make home in a new and
unsettled country. And in Septem-
ber of that same year, after safe
journey, they settled upon a farm
of their choice six miles east of Jack
sonville, Jackson county, Oregon.
THE sale of this first home place
was made in 1888, and the home
pleace near Ashland was purchased,
its proximity to Ashland furnishing
better educational advantages for
the children.
Mr.. Herrin was a public-spirited
man, interested in the promotion of
good government, and therefore ac-
tive in business and political circles.
In 1870 he served as county commits
sioner for two years. From 1874 to
1878 he represented his district in
the state senate. In all these things
he gave abundant proof of his devo-
tion to the best interests of the coun-
ty and state, and his services in
spired the confidence and approba-
tion of his constituents.
Into this home came ten children
five sons and five daughters.
There survive him the five sons and
two daughters, and fourteen grand
children. Father Herrin was happy
in the knowledge that they have re-
warded the efforts and sacrifices of
the home; in accepting and making
much of the opportunities that came
to them in life, and in filling very
useful, honored and very prominent
places in the business and profess
sional world.
"Thus at the end of a long and
busy life we are today laying away
another of that notable and hardy
band of sturdy, courageous pioneers
who came to this beautiful Oregon
country more than sixty years ago,
and out of a virgin soil and in the
midst of forests primeval carved a
place and laid the foundations for a
home and a well-earned competence,
and built glorious commonwealth,
of which their posterity and adopted
sons and daughters of Oregon may
we'll be proud.
''It has been our privilege to read
a portion Of a letter written by the
mother of Father Herrin to him.
That letter is now nearly sixty years
old. That voice out of the past was
speaking of her confidence in God,
of her faith and her trust, of her
prayer-life, of her desire that God
would guide her boys, and that they,
like Joshua of old, no matter what
others might do, would say, AS for
me and my house, we will serve the
Lord. To these grandsons and to
these great-grandchildren we say, no
matter what treasures you may gath
er to yourselves, you have no more
priceless heritage than the faith and
prayers of that life that speaks from
the past.
"On the mantel there stands the
old family clock-silent-the index
fingers mutely pointing the hour
when Father Herrin laid all his bur-
dens down. More than fifty years
ago he gave that clock as a gift to
the mother of this home. Slowly,
steadily, truly it has licked away the
hours, the days and years. Rising,
retiring, eating, drinking, resting
and working, in health and sickness,
in joy and sorrow, it has marked
time for them. The giver and re-
ceiver are now silently sleeping. And
so this faithful friend-a clock Of
time-is silent forever. A reminder,
friends, that one of these days for all
of us the clock of time will cease,
and Gods eternity will have begun"
The S. P. Company has awarded
contracts for ten depots on new lines.