The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1940-11-15
THE PASSING OF MRS. SOPHIA
.. NEsBITT (NEE BRowN)
On October 29th, 1910
HER MEMORIAL
BY Her Sister Rebecca Bean, Arthor
and Publisher, New York City,
and Los Angeles, California
PART II


Mrs. Sophia Jane Nesbitt walked into
the house, which william j. Nesbitt,
her husband had furnished for their
home. After fifty years, that furni-
ture was as good as when she first
saw 1t, and still sat in the same place.
There were additional pieces add
ed, to accommodate the little ones
that came to her, sometimes, two at
once.
After some years the house was
remodeled outside. Inside there was
added a new cellar furnace, cleo
tricity, etc., but the same home, the
same heavenly welcome was there,
for one and all, at any hour of the
night or day.
Life to her seemed to be great
privilege. Her duty as she under
stood it, was to live, and she pro-
ceeded to do this, peacefully, UNI
tiringly, sweetly, joyfully, and in
cidentally unselfishly. Her ways
were ordered and controlled by a
Higher Hand.
She arose early and at exactly
the same hour every morning, winter
and summer. Her Guernsey cow was
MIXED at the same time each day,
and the chickens were fed on scehe-
dule. Breakfast was ready and the
lunches packed for school or work.
She needed no clock and seldom
looked at one, except when her mail
man seemed to be minute late,
then she would sit down and read
her "Oxford Press" and this was
her way of life for fifty years. No
neighbor ever heard her complaints.
There were none. Her broom and
dust brushes had their place and
their uses. Their day for the busting
and brushing, firmly fixed in her
mind. 1t was her belief, that brooms
were not made for props at the front
gate, nor for pretense over the
back fence. Her cook stove she could
use for mirror. When the first
stove burned out after twenty-five
years, she bought new one, but
exactly the same pattern and size.
Her dishes accumulated, but many
pieces of china in her closet were
there in 1890. She preferred her
"coal oil lamps" Notwithstanding
the fact that theirs was the first
house in all the country side to be
wired for electricity.
Reluctantly she acquiesced to the
sale of "Old Jim Horse" His SER
vices were no longer needed. The
automobile had substituted his stand
ing and his stall, in the orderly
scheme of life in and around the
Nesbitt Estate. The "stray Dogs"
and the "Tray dogs" had their inn
ings and their outings, alone, "Old
Jack" limped UP and down the high
way, returning to eat under the
tree, and to have her shut him into
the barn to sleep, until 1889. Her
calico cat" began her mewing in
1890. Calico's descendants waited
around to get their warm milk, as
soon as the Guernsey COW was milk
ed for fifty years, and to lap it out
of the same dish, and at the same
spot under the tree.
Her great, spreading English wal
nut tree, she had cut down, in 1898,
because it had become harbor for
squirrels. They cracked, ate and
carried away her fine walnuts; be-
sides its foliage shaded her garden
soil. will" planted the seed in 1890.
The chicken hens and their new
broods came and went with the
years. Their coops, however, and the
nests and roosts remained. All of
her chickens were well-behaved, too.
Should one scratch his way into her
garden, to dust himself or to pick at
her ripe tomatoes, that entrance
gate was found the same day and
nailed shut. Also her laying hens
were taught manners. They were not
pets. They were in their place, and
were expected to contribute their
share to the family budget. Each
hen had her small box to fly up to,
and soft hay nest to rest in, while
she made ready to deposit that big
egg, and then cackle and make place
for her sister hen, where she might
perform the same service. When set
ting time came for madame Lady
Hen, the eggs were carefully Sc
lected from a basket which she had
used for fifty years. To her, "egg
value" depended upon bulges, size
and shape. Eggs were placed under
the hen for three weeks, and then
she looked for results,--for the little
heads with beady eyes. that peeped
out from under mother hens feath-
cry warmth.
Coops were then brought forth to
shelter the brood, and these coops
were placed In the same spot in the
yard, year after year, maybe the
same coop served for twenty-five
years When the last family Of
chicks. for any year, was ready and
willing to fly to the roost, and moth
or hen was ready Tn assume the ro-