Obituary of Susan Thompson (Davenport) Jarrell (1815-1898)

Obituary from the Athens News and Banner, newspaper dated 5 May 1898:

Jarrell.--Mrs. Susan Thompson Jarrell, relict of the late Stinson S. Jarrell, died in Athens, Ga., May 1st, 1898. She was born in 1815 at Charlottesville, Va., and was descended from the well known families of Thompson, Lewis, Meriwether, and Davenport. In 1821 [a note says should be 1823], her widowed Mother, Mrs. Davenport, moved to Georgia, settling at the "Glade" in Oglethorpe County. The family were Episcopalians, but finding no Church at their new home, they soon enterprised the building of a house of worship, which was set apart as the First Methodist Church in this old community. The mother led the daughter into the membership of the new Church for the erection of which she had largely contributed, and neither removed from its fellowship until transferred to "the house not made with hands". At the time of her death Sister Jarrell had been a Methodist for more than seventy years--the oldest member of the "Glade" Church and one of the oldest Methodists in Georgia although changing her residence for brief seasons to Clark, Madison, and Green Counties, she clung to the old home altar in Oglethorpe, where as a child, she had given her heart to God. It was fitting that at the close of her long, useful life she would have a last resting place in the quiet graveyard of the Church of her early love. She was a lady of the olden type, quiet and dignified in manner, yet of commanding, positive character. Her religious life bore the impress of the former days. She knew that Christ the Lord had formed himself within her the hope of glory, and every day she enjoyed the exhilarating grace of consscious acceptance. Modest of her attainments she was nevertheless emboldened by the assurance of faith and always able to give a reason for the hope she had. The sweetness and beauty of her religious confidence gave a glad cheer to the daily duries of home. and all who came in contact with her knew the comfort of her life and whence it came. Her children rise up to call her blessed, and cherish her memory as God's legacy of love, to give them strength and hope. They know where she has gone, and must themselves enter enter the city of God if they can see her again. -J.W.H.