In Memoriam -- November 30th

1732 John Loomis age 81 in Windsor, CT the son of Joseph Loomis.  He was born in Windsor, CT in 1651.

1874 In Memory of John Gentle

John Gentle was born in Washington County, Indiana, May 11, 1816, and died at his own residence in Jefferson County, Illinois, November 30, 1874, in the triumphs of a living faith, aged 58 years, 6 months and 19 days.

It was not until the spring of 1871 that he was deeply convicted of sin and saw that he was without God and without hope in the world; but he soon found the Pearl of Great Price, and was happily converted to God, in his own house, about the first of March 1871.  He soon afterwards attached himself to the Methodist Episcopal Church at Black Oak Ridge, Middleton Circuit, Mt. Vernon District, Southern Illinois Conference.  From thence he moved his membership to the Mt. Olivet Society, on the same circuit.  He was then licensed to exhort, by the Rev. W.R. Taylor, who was at that time Preacher in Charge.

Father Gentle was an acceptable member and zealous worker in the cause of our Holy Christianity, until God called him to his reward.  His death was occasioned by his team running away and throwing him from his wagon, so severely injuring him that after intense pain and suffering for the space of two weeks, death relieved him, and his weary soul passed peacefully and triumphantly from the confines of earth to joys immortal.  All that medical skill could do was done to restore him, but in vain.

During his last days he was cheerful and often very happy while meditating upon the goodness and mercies of God.  He greatly delighted in singing and nothing soothed him more than one of the songs he loved, and would often repeat the following lines, which are a portion of one of his favorite songs:

“Oh, I long to be with Jesus,

In the mansions of the blest,

Where the wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest.”

After the space of about four years of active labor in the Master’s vineyard, he obtained his discharge and went to his glorious reward on high.  He leaves behind a deeply afflicted wife and children to mourn the loss of a kind husband and loving father; but God is a Father to the fatherless and a husband to the widow.

Father Gentle was held in high estimation in the community in which he lived and the society to which he belonged.  To know him was to love him.  May we meet him “on the other side.”

Peace to his memory.

1929 Alice (Gurley) Perrine age 60 in Springfield, IL.  She was born in Wayne Co., IL in 1869 the daughter of Leonard & Susanna (Morehead) Gurley.  Alice was the youngest child and her father died the year after she was born.  Her older siblings sued Susanna Gurley for their inheritance.  Alice was living with the John Jones family in 1880 at the age of 10.  Her mother Susanna died in 1883 and afterwards Alice moved to Sangamon Co. where her siblings were living.  She married Joseph Perrine in 1893.  The couple moved around a bit before settling in Springfield.  They had no children.  Alice is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, IL.

1971 William Erkman age 76 in Algeria, the son of John & Mary (Wiegele) Erkman.  William was born in Illinois in 1895.  He served in World War I.  William married Dora Wintizer.  He is buried in Big Ridge Cemetery in Harrisburg, IL.

1994 Edward Erkman son of John & Emma (--?--) Erkman in Belleville, IL age 83.  He was born in 1911.  Edward married Bernice Reay and they had two children:  Edward and Dorothy.  He is buried in Lake View Memorial Gardens in Fairview Heights, IL.