Obituaries as Literature

I'm amazed at the beauty of old obituaries. I have two for my great-great grandfather, Jacob Houck DEATRICH (18 Mar 1843 - 17 Jan 1916). The first is from a paper in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where he was born. These are too wonderful not to share.

At 2:30 p. m. Monday, January 17, at his home in Collyer, Trego County, Kansas, Captain Jacob H. Deatrich died, after a lingering illness in his 76th year. Capt. Deatrich is well remembered by many as a Saint Thomas boy, a son of Samuel Deatrich (many years deceased) and who was reared along the pine clad hills of Back Creek.

The military spirit which was early infused into the life of the St. Thomas youth was heightened by the music of fife and drum as it echoed along the wall of the North mountain and young Deatrich was one of the first to respond to the call for troops in 1861 for the war of the rebellion. Leaving his plow stand [sic] in the furrowed field, he first enlisted and served his time with Col. Elder in the 126th Pa. Regt., after which he again enlisted and served in the 20th Pa. cavalry with such conspicuous gallantry that his comrades presented him with a beautifully engraved sword. After the civil war, with his wife and family he moved to Kansas, first settling at Wilson, Ellsworth county, where he became an employee of the North Pacific railroad company. Later he moved to Trego county, where still working for the railroad company he acquired a whole section of land on which his home town of Collyer was latterly built.

Capt. Deatrich is survived by his wife, Martha, and several sons and daughters, his wife being a sister of Squire Van T. Haulman of Chambersburg. A sister and other numerous relatives reside in this county.

Capt. Jacob H. Deatrich, cousin also named Jacob Deatrich, resides in Kansas. The latter was a member of Capt. Hez. Easton’s famous battery, and who, when Easton was killed in the bloody battle of Gaines’ Mill Deatrich rode Easton’s horse from the field. All the other gray horses of the battery were killed by the charging foe.

The friends of Capt. Jacob H. Deatrich, by this notice will learn that his funeral took place from his home at Collyer, Kansas, Friday, January 21, at one o’clock. Interment in the cemetery of that place, whither he had sent and erected a large granite memorial marker a few years ago from a Chambersburg sculptor for his family burial plot.

There upon his last camping ground
The veteran’s silent tent is spread;
Memorial marks of valiant service
Is the record of the honored dead.