Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Connelley Obituary

 The last letter in our transcriptions of Belle Tisdale's collection was Robert Tisdale's note to his mother Eliza Pratt Tisdale dated 1875. The next letter we have is dated April 29, 1890 from Frank Tisdale to his Belle. Between those two letters we have just some obituaries and funeral cards.

   Why was there such a long gap in Belle Tisdale's correspondence? Were some of her papers lost? Or did life (and death) get in the way?

   There were a lot of deaths in the Tisdale and Booksh families between 1875 and 1890.
          1876 June 16 - Belle's father B. F. Tisdale (covered in a previous post)
          1877 August 14 - Grandma Bernice Pratt's brother Arthur G. Connelley
          1878  May 1 - William Tisdale Pierce, Belle's sister Mary's son
          1878 March 31 - Sam's sister Mary Eliza "Lizzie" Booksh
          1880 November 27 - Belle's grandfather William Henry Pratt
          1883 November 17 - Edwin Clyde Pierce, Belle's sister Mary's son
          1886 January 07 - Sam's father Charles Booksh
          1886 April 06 - Belle's sister, Mary Bernice Tisdale Pierce
          1887 September 27 - Belle's cousin, Francis Tisdale Forbes
          1890 June 23 - Belle's Grandma Bernice Connelly Pratt

Many of the obituaries, death notices and funeral cards for these people were found tucked in between the pages of the family bible.


1877 Connelley Arthur Goldsmith obituary


clipping from unknown newspaper n.d. [assumed August 1877]
Belle Tisdale Booksh collection
transcribed by Vera Booksh Zimmerman, 1 June 2013

Another Pioneer Gone
Arthur G. Connelley, one of Carroll county's most estimable, and respected citizens, …[illegible].......
Tuesday last, August 14, 1877, aged seventy-eight years one month and twenty-five days.
Mr. Connelley had his foot severely bruised a short time since, by a horse treading upon it, and the nervous shock produced a severe chill, from which he never recovered, but continued to sink gradually until the end.
Father Connelley was born and spent his early years in Scott county, Kentucky, where, in 1833, he attached himself [to] the church. Emigrating to Indiana in 1835 he [settled] in Carroll county, [Indiana] and soon after became a member of the Baptist church in which he remained one of the most zealous and influential communicants up to the day of his death.
His wife, whom he survived about two years, was a sister of Preston and William H. Calvert.
The deceased was the father of twelve children, nine daughters and three sons, of whom six of the former and one of the latter survive him.
Mr. Connelley was for many years engaged in the furniture business in this city and by industry and integrity commanded the respect of everybody, and amassed quite a fortune.
He died at his residence east of town, surrounded by his family and friends. His remains were interred in the Odd Fellows Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon, and were followed to the grave by a large concourse of citizens who thus united in paying a last tribute of respect to their kind old comrade and friend.
One by one the roses fall,
Drop by drop the spring runs dry.
One by one, beyond recall,
God takes them to his home on high.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Disembling (malapropism?) my Tisdale folder, found letter from Aunt Myra Carey referring to Eunice Booksh who seems to have died of tuberculosis at Greenwell Springs Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Amusingly, in one of her letters she spoke of an argument with my father, her brother, about Tisdale/Booksh relation which he at first denied, then later, said he knew all along to be correct. Great uncle, Benjamin C Tisdale I, my great uncle, a resident of NOLA, died in GS. I speculate the Tisdale sisters and daughter/niece, nurses, moved from NOLA to Baton Rouge to work there when Benny, NOLA resident, was hospitalized. Nursing was one of the few professions open to women in those days. By the 1930's each had need for self-support. Great Uncle Benjamin Cornwall Tisdale I died in Grenwell Springs. Perhaps that is why toe rest of the family moved from NOLA to BR. (Your lists of deaths in this blog get me started.)