MINOR HUDSON SAMS
MINOR HUDSON SAMS WAS BORN AT WHITELY, GREEN COUNTY, PA., NOVEMBER 10, 1862. WITH HIS PARENTS HE MOVED TO IOWA IN SEPTEMBER OF 1868 AND IN THIS STATE HE GREW TO MANHOOD. HE WAS MARRIED TO MYRTLE J. STEPHENSON OCTOBER 5, 1892. THEIR FIRST HOME WAS ON A FARM WEST OF BENTON, WHERE THEY RESIDED FOR SOME YEARS, LATER MOVING TO MALOY, WHERE FOR A TIME HE WAS ENGAGED IN THE LUMBER BUSINESS. FROM THERE HE TO MOUNT AYR IN THE FALL OF 1907 AND IT WAS HERE THE GREAT SORROW OF HIS LIFE CAME TO HIM WHEN HIS BELOVED WIFE WAS TAKEN FROM HIM BY DEATH AND THOUGH HE WAS NEVER KNOWN TO MURMUR OR QUESTION GOD’S WISDOM, HE WALKED THE REMAINDER OF HIS LIFE ALONE, BENEATH THE SHADOW OF THIS GREAT SORROW.
HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN EARLY IN LIFE AND UNITED WITH THE BAPTIST CHURCH WHEN BUT THIRTEEN YEARS OF AGE AND REMAINED STEADFAST IN THAT FAITH UNTIL THE TIME OF HIS DEATH WHICH OCCURED AT THE EMSWORTH HOSPITAL IN ST. JOSEPH, MO., SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1918, AT 10:15 O’CLOCK. HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE MASONIC ORDER AND HELD IN HIGH REGARD HIS SACRED DUTY TO THIS ORDER BUT PLACED ABOVE ALL ELSE HIS MORE SACRED VOWS TAKEN WHEN HE UNITED WITH THE CHURCH AND PLEDGED HIS LIFE TO THE SERVICE OF THE MASTER, WHOM HE LOVED TO HONOR WITH HIS SERVICE AND HIS MEANS. HE WAS A DEACON IN THE CHURCH AND FOR MANY YEARS HAD SERVED AS CLERK OF HIS HOME CHURCH. HE WAS ALSO SUPERINTENDENT OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS AND WAS EVER READY TO TAKE HIS PLACE IN ANY LINE OF SERVICE TO WHICH THE MASTER CALLED HIM.
HE HAD BEEN FOR YEARS A SUFFERER WITH STOMACH TROUBLE THOUGH FEW EXCEPT THE MEMBERS OF HIS OWN FAMILY REALIZED WHAT HE SUFFERED SINCE HE BORE PAIN AS HE BORE SORROW WITH NO COMPLAINT. HIS LAST ILLNESS WAS OF ONLY TWO OR THREE WEEKS DURATION BUT HIS SUFFERING AT TIMES DURING THIS PERIOD WERE ALMOST INDISCRIBABLE AND HE WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL IN HOPE THAT HE MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIND RELIEF BUT THIS AS ALL PREVIOUS EFFORTS PROVED IN VAIN. HE REALIZED HIS CONDITION AND FACED DEATH AS CALMLY AS HE HAD MET THE ISSUES OF LIFE.
HE LEAVES TO MOURN HIS DEATH HIS ADOPTED SON, ORR SAMS, IS AGED MOTHER, MRS. D.T. SAMS, ONE BROTHER, W.T. SAMS, OF MALOY AND FOUR SISTERS, MISS DELPHENE SAMS OF DIAGONAL; MRS. G.E. PRENTIS OF SHANNON CITY; MRS JAMES BURDETTE OF DIAGONAL;’ AND MRS. JOHN ROBINSON, OF MOUNT AYR BESIDES A HOST OF OTHER RELATIVES AND FRIENDS.
THE FUNERAL WAS HELD THIS FORENOON AT ELEVEN O’CLOCK FROM THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF THIS CITY, CONDUCTED BY REV. ORR CAMPBEL, ASSISTED BY REV. CHARLES G. WRIGHT, AND THE BODY WAS LAID TO REST IN THE BENTON CEMETERY.
