TOWLE, HOLTON, TAYLOR, BARBER

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 at 04:13:26 :

The Marin Journal
Thursday, January 27, 1921
Page 3

Death Asserts Claim For Woman of 78

Early in the morning of Jan. 17, 1921, Mrs. C. B. Towle passed away. She was 78 years, 3 months and 13 days old; being born near Canton, Ill., October 4, 1842, and was the youngest child of Stephen B. Holton, who crossed the plains and mountains in those early days when Mrs. Towle was but a small girl and settled in California near the present town of Martinez in 1852.

Mrs. Towle’s ancestors on both sides came from old New England, the first generation coming to America very soon after the landing of the Mayflower. One of the first records in their family history is that of a member of that first generation while seated as a member of a town counsel in old Plymouth Colony in the year 1622 when the question of liquor came up he voted “dry.”

From this ancestry have gone forth some of America’s most noted spiritual and temperance leaders, among them being Lyman Beecher and D. L. Moody. Their fervent religious spirit was manifested by Mrs. Towle’s parents while crossing the plains in their migration to California. In their train of prairie schooners were certain families who believed it indispensable while crossing the “Great Desert” to travel on the Sabbath Day lest they might perish in the desert for lack of water. Her parents with certain others believed it best to observe the day of worship as directed in Holy Scripture. They did so and crossed the desert in safety while those who refused to so observe the Sabbath were lost because their oxen became exhausted and thus they perished.

In the year 1861 she married C. B. Towle and came to San Francisco to set up their home, and for more than 59 years they were blessed in this happy union. Later the family moved to Vallejo where for 28 years her beloved husband was instructor and principle in the Vallejo schools and where they reared their family. They moved to Alturas, California, in the year 1900, and there enjoyed their home and faithful church life among devoted friends until December, 1919, when they moved to San Rafael to live with their son, C. H. Towle and their daughters, Mrs. H. M. Taylor.

She was the youngest, and last to pass away, of a large family, and leaves on this side to wait that happy future reunion, her husband, C. B. Towle, and five children: Mrs. H. M. Taylor, of San Rafael; Wallace Towle, of DeQueen, Ark.; C. H. Towle, of San Rafael; Mrs. T. E. Barber, of Medellin, Col. S. A. who with her husband and children arrived home a few days before her mother became ill, and S. L. Towle of Oakland. Sweet memories will always follow the life of this devoted, loving mother, who ever found her greatest joy in quietly serving others.