ELIZABETH ANN McALISTER NEWBERRY
We believe it is the right to cherish the memory of loved ones that have gone before, and endeavor to profit by their example. A mother in Israel has fallen. Anxiously we look around and ask who will fill her place?
Sister E. A. Newberry, daughter of Daniel and Susan McAlister, was born in Lawrence County, Alabama June 5, 1821, died in Parker County, Texas January 27, 1884. Her parents moved to Illinois in 1828. Her mother died in that state in 1834. Two years after this deep affliction, the bereaved children laid their beloved father, beside her in the grave, and realized deeply and sadly that they were orphans indeed. In 1837 she was taken by her uncles, James and Mitchell Cowan, to Franklin County, near Winchester, Tennessee. She professed religion at Old Goshen Camp Ground and joined the Goshen congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in August 1838. Her grandfather, Major John Cowan, was one of the Elders in the organization of the congregation. She was married to Robert Cowan Newberry August 24, 1843. Her husband professed religion a few years before they were married and joined the C. P. Church. In their marriage they were joined in a full and holy wedlock, both to each other and to their God. They moved to Texas and settled in Parker County in 1859. That county was on the extreme frontier of Texas. It was full of danger and anxieties, and almost entirely destitute of the gospel, and the ordinances of the Churches. They were in the midst of Indian troubles until 1874. A great many men were killed in their neighborhood, and woman and children were sometimes murdered or carried into captivity. Those were times that tried men's souls and developed a wonderful heroism in women.
Aunt Betsy as she was familiarly known, was indeed a Mother in Israel. She was a living power in the hands of God, and in the advancement of His cause on the frontier of Texas. To attempt to record her labors of love, and her earnest and faithful efforts to bring souls to Christ, and to build up the Cumberland Presbyterian Church on the frontier, would require a volume and involve the rise, progress and development of that church in this county. She lingered long on the bed of affliction, waiting patiently the call of the Master, to join the blood-washed throng in Heaven. She died as she had lived, a humble, trusting Christian, leaving the soul cheering testimony that all was well. She left a husband and five children deeply afflicted on account of their loss; while a host of friends extend heart-felt sympathies. We feel that our loss in the death of Sister Newberry is great, but to her it is everlasting gain. Though our loved ones are gone from us, we feel assured they are present with Our Father in Heaven, living still, living ever in the presence of God and angels in the home immortal.
The obituary notice appeared in Weatherford, Texas, paper at the time of her death and was written by her Pastor and close friend of the family Rev. B. D. Austin.