Either her obituary is wrong or her gravestone is, but there's disparity on young Elmira's date of death. The online data that pulls from Peace United Church records and her stone say she died January 13, while her obituary claims she died on Sunday, January 12, 1879, and was interred Tuesday, January 14, 1879. Her stone states she died in 1880, a different year entirely. For the day itself, the stone and church records make the balance 2 to 1, so it seems the 13th is right. I doubt the newspaper misdated itself as well as the church records, so probably the year 1879 is correct, and possibly the stone was made later when memory had dimmed a bit. Whatever the case, young Ella died far too soon.

Ella was a product of a progressive family who saw to it that their daughters got a good education, and thus she attended the excellent local Berrysburg Seminary, as proven by a rare copy of 1916's "Histry of Berrysburg Seminary". A dressmaker and teacher who never married, Ella Romberger died young of consumption, likely tuberculosis. Little was understood about the disease then, and it would be 15 more years until it was even recognized as communicable by the New York City Department of Health.

The local press covered her large funeral, where she was compared to Dickens' Little Nell, and admired for her purity and grace in suffering. But it's best to let her obituary below speak of her rather exemplary life. This is an amazing piece; they just don't write obituaries like this anymore. This one puts you there on that bright winter day of the funeral. The tone set by the pastor, G. C. Henry is to be admired; he was young, and would not be ordained until later that year, September 23, 1879, which happened to be six days before he would officiate his next Romberger funeral, that of young Jennie Esther.

Ella died less than a year before her baby sister Jennie Esther. It was probably a brutal year for the family, the likes of which would not be matched until five years later when they would lose their father Gilbert and sister Annie Gertrude within weeks of one another. It may have felt as bad as 1863 when the family lost both Emmaline and Elizabeth.

She was the eldest child of Gilbert Romberger and Mary Sophia Kiehl/Keihl Romberger to reach adulthood.

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BERRYSBURG ITEMS

Berrysburg, Jan. 14, 1879

To the Editor of the Register:

The slow, deep tones of the bell last Sunday afternoon, about 4 o'clock, announced to its woe-struck hearers the sad tidings of a death in the village. Miss Ella Romberger, the loving daughter, the cherished sister, the faithful teacher and exemplary Christian, had run her earthly course, and at that hour her soul took its flight to the bosom of the Father. The solemn peals of the church bell, the sad faces of sympathizing friends, the grief of the stricken relatives, the mournful refrain sung by that band of her former pupils, the words of the man of God as they fell reverentially from his lips, the sun shining in a clear sky upon the earth clad in a mantle of white, the snow-clad mountains witnessing from a distance the scene transpiring in the valley, around that new-made grave on the hill-side, all conspired to form a picture at once impressive, touching and beautiful, and could not fail to fill all hearts with serious thoughts. Her obsequies were attended by the pupils of the Berrysburg schools, the pupils of the schools of Washington Square, by the Harmonic Society of that place, and by a large gathering of relatives and friends from village and valley. Her pastor, G. C. Henry, who was with her near the closing scene of her life, portrayed in vivid language the unwavering trust of this living disciple of Jesus, as she neared the cold river, to pass into the land of rest, and drew many a lesson from her character and the circumstances of her death. We could not witness this funeral without recalling the beautiful lines of Dickens on the death of Little Nell, and many touching things in it could be truthfully said of gentle Ella Romberger, who now sleeps in the grave on that hill-slope. Deceased was the daughter of Gilbert Romberger.
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Big thanks to contributor Wendy Houck, and the huge amount of work she has done. Wendy, I wondered when I might ever get out to Dauphin County to locate the resting places of the family of my great great grandpa, and laying eyes on your pictures of their stones gives me tremendous peace. Thank you.