Mary was the daughter of William and Prudence Hoel Smalley. She married Zara Stearns on October 29, 1818 in Warren County, Ohio. They were the parents of four children Almeda, Rachel, Zara T. and John.
"Mary Smalley Stearns was born in the state of Ohio, February 25th, 1799, and died at the residence of her son, Z. T. Stearns in Williamsport, Indiana, January 11th, 1889, lacking but one month and fourteen days of being ninety years old. Her father was one of the first pioneers of Ohio, and in her girlhood days she saw much of frontier life, having had many a romp with the little Indian children.
She was married to Zara Stearns October 29, 1818, with whom she lived happily until February 2d, 1882, when he died. She, with her husband, came to Indiana in an early day, but after a residence of but two years in this state, they removed to Vermilion County, Illinois, where they lived until 1846, when they moved to Texas and staid ten years. In 1857 they settled in Warren County on the old homestead two and one-half miles north-west of Williamsport, where the husband of her youth passed away on the date above stated.
She was converted and joined the Baptist Church at the age of 16 years. On coming to Warren County in 1857, she cast in her lot with the people of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and remained a faithful member until her death. She was a woman of great faith, and possessed an unshaken confidence in the power and merit of Jesus Christ to save. She had a deep religious experience, which manifested itself in her amiable disposition and consistent life. With her religion was not an abstraction. It was not simply an ideality, living in the brain and leaving the heart untouched. But it was the divine touch of all the power and sensibilities of the soul, giving the consciousness of the fullness of God's love. That divine love which filled her soul, was the motive to all her actions. It radiated from her being and became visible in her daily walk and conversation. It made her a blessing to all with whom she mingled. It gave her that constant peace which floweth like a river, and filled her heart with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.
On the morning preceding her death, when she had been hardly conscious of those around her for several hours, she began singing one of her favorite hymns to a tune old and familiar to Methodist of fifty years ago, and sang tune and words through to the end without faltering or making a mistake.
Grandma Stearns was the mother of seven children, two only of whom survive: a son, Auditor Z.T. Stearns, and a daughter, Mrs. Almeda Blankenship, who now resided in Butler County, Kansas. "Well done thou good and faithful servant, - it is enough come up higher!"
"Her youth was innocent; her riper age
Marked with some act of goodness every day;
And watched by eyes that loved her, calm and sage,
Faded her late declining years away.
Meekly she gave her being up, and went
To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent."
THe funeral was held at the family residence of her son, in this place, on Sunday, January 13th, 1889, at 1 o'clock p.m., the services being conducted by Rev. J.T. Abbett. The remains were interred in the Slauter Cemetery, in Liberty Township, beside the remains of her husband. The pall bearers were: Messrs. J. Hodgson, H.C. Johnson, sr., J Ammerman, sr., I. Smith, H.D. Thomas and P.W. Anderson." - Warren Republican, Williamsport, Indiana, January 17, 1889
"Mary Smalley Stearns was born in the state of Ohio, February 25th, 1799, and died at the residence of her son, Z. T. Stearns in Williamsport, Indiana, January 11th, 1889, lacking but one month and fourteen days of being ninety years old. Her father was one of the first pioneers of Ohio, and in her girlhood days she saw much of frontier life, having had many a romp with the little Indian children.
She was married to Zara Stearns October 29, 1818, with whom she lived happily until February 2d, 1882, when he died. She, with her husband, came to Indiana in an early day, but after a residence of but two years in this state, they removed to Vermilion County, Illinois, where they lived until 1846, when they moved to Texas and staid ten years. In 1857 they settled in Warren County on the old homestead two and one-half miles north-west of Williamsport, where the husband of her youth passed away on the date above stated.
She was converted and joined the Baptist Church at the age of 16 years. On coming to Warren County in 1857, she cast in her lot with the people of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and remained a faithful member until her death. She was a woman of great faith, and possessed an unshaken confidence in the power and merit of Jesus Christ to save. She had a deep religious experience, which manifested itself in her amiable disposition and consistent life. With her religion was not an abstraction. It was not simply an ideality, living in the brain and leaving the heart untouched. But it was the divine touch of all the power and sensibilities of the soul, giving the consciousness of the fullness of God's love. That divine love which filled her soul, was the motive to all her actions. It radiated from her being and became visible in her daily walk and conversation. It made her a blessing to all with whom she mingled. It gave her that constant peace which floweth like a river, and filled her heart with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.
On the morning preceding her death, when she had been hardly conscious of those around her for several hours, she began singing one of her favorite hymns to a tune old and familiar to Methodist of fifty years ago, and sang tune and words through to the end without faltering or making a mistake.
Grandma Stearns was the mother of seven children, two only of whom survive: a son, Auditor Z.T. Stearns, and a daughter, Mrs. Almeda Blankenship, who now resided in Butler County, Kansas. "Well done thou good and faithful servant, - it is enough come up higher!"
"Her youth was innocent; her riper age
Marked with some act of goodness every day;
And watched by eyes that loved her, calm and sage,
Faded her late declining years away.
Meekly she gave her being up, and went
To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent."
THe funeral was held at the family residence of her son, in this place, on Sunday, January 13th, 1889, at 1 o'clock p.m., the services being conducted by Rev. J.T. Abbett. The remains were interred in the Slauter Cemetery, in Liberty Township, beside the remains of her husband. The pall bearers were: Messrs. J. Hodgson, H.C. Johnson, sr., J Ammerman, sr., I. Smith, H.D. Thomas and P.W. Anderson." - Warren Republican, Williamsport, Indiana, January 17, 1889
Mary was the daughter of William and Prudence Hoel Smalley. She married Zara Stearns on October 29, 1818 in Warren County, Ohio. They were the parents of four children Almeda, Rachel, Zara T. and John.
"Mary Smalley Stearns was born in the state of Ohio, February 25th, 1799, and died at the residence of her son, Z. T. Stearns in Williamsport, Indiana, January 11th, 1889, lacking but one month and fourteen days of being ninety years old. Her father was one of the first pioneers of Ohio, and in her girlhood days she saw much of frontier life, having had many a romp with the little Indian children.
She was married to Zara Stearns October 29, 1818, with whom she lived happily until February 2d, 1882, when he died. She, with her husband, came to Indiana in an early day, but after a residence of but two years in this state, they removed to Vermilion County, Illinois, where they lived until 1846, when they moved to Texas and staid ten years. In 1857 they settled in Warren County on the old homestead two and one-half miles north-west of Williamsport, where the husband of her youth passed away on the date above stated.
She was converted and joined the Baptist Church at the age of 16 years. On coming to Warren County in 1857, she cast in her lot with the people of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and remained a faithful member until her death. She was a woman of great faith, and possessed an unshaken confidence in the power and merit of Jesus Christ to save. She had a deep religious experience, which manifested itself in her amiable disposition and consistent life. With her religion was not an abstraction. It was not simply an ideality, living in the brain and leaving the heart untouched. But it was the divine touch of all the power and sensibilities of the soul, giving the consciousness of the fullness of God's love. That divine love which filled her soul, was the motive to all her actions. It radiated from her being and became visible in her daily walk and conversation. It made her a blessing to all with whom she mingled. It gave her that constant peace which floweth like a river, and filled her heart with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.
On the morning preceding her death, when she had been hardly conscious of those around her for several hours, she began singing one of her favorite hymns to a tune old and familiar to Methodist of fifty years ago, and sang tune and words through to the end without faltering or making a mistake.
Grandma Stearns was the mother of seven children, two only of whom survive: a son, Auditor Z.T. Stearns, and a daughter, Mrs. Almeda Blankenship, who now resided in Butler County, Kansas. "Well done thou good and faithful servant, - it is enough come up higher!"
"Her youth was innocent; her riper age
Marked with some act of goodness every day;
And watched by eyes that loved her, calm and sage,
Faded her late declining years away.
Meekly she gave her being up, and went
To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent."
THe funeral was held at the family residence of her son, in this place, on Sunday, January 13th, 1889, at 1 o'clock p.m., the services being conducted by Rev. J.T. Abbett. The remains were interred in the Slauter Cemetery, in Liberty Township, beside the remains of her husband. The pall bearers were: Messrs. J. Hodgson, H.C. Johnson, sr., J Ammerman, sr., I. Smith, H.D. Thomas and P.W. Anderson." - Warren Republican, Williamsport, Indiana, January 17, 1889
"Mary Smalley Stearns was born in the state of Ohio, February 25th, 1799, and died at the residence of her son, Z. T. Stearns in Williamsport, Indiana, January 11th, 1889, lacking but one month and fourteen days of being ninety years old. Her father was one of the first pioneers of Ohio, and in her girlhood days she saw much of frontier life, having had many a romp with the little Indian children.
She was married to Zara Stearns October 29, 1818, with whom she lived happily until February 2d, 1882, when he died. She, with her husband, came to Indiana in an early day, but after a residence of but two years in this state, they removed to Vermilion County, Illinois, where they lived until 1846, when they moved to Texas and staid ten years. In 1857 they settled in Warren County on the old homestead two and one-half miles north-west of Williamsport, where the husband of her youth passed away on the date above stated.
She was converted and joined the Baptist Church at the age of 16 years. On coming to Warren County in 1857, she cast in her lot with the people of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and remained a faithful member until her death. She was a woman of great faith, and possessed an unshaken confidence in the power and merit of Jesus Christ to save. She had a deep religious experience, which manifested itself in her amiable disposition and consistent life. With her religion was not an abstraction. It was not simply an ideality, living in the brain and leaving the heart untouched. But it was the divine touch of all the power and sensibilities of the soul, giving the consciousness of the fullness of God's love. That divine love which filled her soul, was the motive to all her actions. It radiated from her being and became visible in her daily walk and conversation. It made her a blessing to all with whom she mingled. It gave her that constant peace which floweth like a river, and filled her heart with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory.
On the morning preceding her death, when she had been hardly conscious of those around her for several hours, she began singing one of her favorite hymns to a tune old and familiar to Methodist of fifty years ago, and sang tune and words through to the end without faltering or making a mistake.
Grandma Stearns was the mother of seven children, two only of whom survive: a son, Auditor Z.T. Stearns, and a daughter, Mrs. Almeda Blankenship, who now resided in Butler County, Kansas. "Well done thou good and faithful servant, - it is enough come up higher!"
"Her youth was innocent; her riper age
Marked with some act of goodness every day;
And watched by eyes that loved her, calm and sage,
Faded her late declining years away.
Meekly she gave her being up, and went
To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent."
THe funeral was held at the family residence of her son, in this place, on Sunday, January 13th, 1889, at 1 o'clock p.m., the services being conducted by Rev. J.T. Abbett. The remains were interred in the Slauter Cemetery, in Liberty Township, beside the remains of her husband. The pall bearers were: Messrs. J. Hodgson, H.C. Johnson, sr., J Ammerman, sr., I. Smith, H.D. Thomas and P.W. Anderson." - Warren Republican, Williamsport, Indiana, January 17, 1889
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