Alice M. Beckwith
Born: January 1st, 1970
Died: November 30th, 1878
Obituary
Mrs. Alice M. Beckwith, 21, died at the residence of her father, AH Burhans, No. 1201 Division St, Saturday morning, November 30, 1878. She was the wife of George E. Beckwith.
The infant daughter of Alice and George died Friday, November 29, 1878.
From The Hawkeye Gazette:
The afternoon of a bleak day in early winter: dead leaves circling in a sighing wind: a funeral cortege in waiting by the house side, while from within issues the voice of prayer for the departed, succeeded by the subdued music of a funeral dirge.
One year, one bright, happy year, a wife and the bride of twelve months ago lies in her coffin covered with flowers emblematic of the twenty-one summers, the very springtime of her wifehood, which loving hands have crowned her with, and clasping to her still breast, her dead babe.
Death scarcely let her look upon her firstborn till he claimed them both and laid desolate a happy home – filched the glory of a lover-husband’s life.
And so yesterday afternoon forever closed out the presence of Mrs. Alice M. Beckwith. The grim gates of the grave have shut about her, and the little one resting in her bosom, be in the hearts of those who loved her so truly will her memory live, imperishable.