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- The Recorder, Milledgeville, Georgia, Tuesday, 22 October 1844
Died
At the residence of her son, John Bass, Esq., of Newton county, Sept. 14th, 1844, after an illness of seven weeks, Mrs. Elizabeth Bass, in the 66th year of her age.
Mrs. Bass was the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Wade of Prince Edward county, Virginia, and was born on the 8tyh of November, 1778. At the early age 15, she was married to John Bass, Esq., of Nottaway county, Va., who died in December, 1804, and left herself and four children to the loneliness of widowhood and orphanage. It was not, however, till November, 1817, that she removed from the place of her nativity to the State of Georgia. Since that time, her offspring, one by one, have gone to their graves, until one son only survived, to extend to her the filial hospitalities of the dying hour, and smooth her passage to the tomb.
During the autumn of 1824, she proved, in her own blessed experience, the invaluable truth that Christ ?had power upon earth to forgive sin,? and soon after, became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, around whose altar, for the fifth of a century, she happily and faithfully worshipped, and from whose course, she has triumphantly ascended to the purer devotions of the upper temple. Characterized by a mild, amiable and retiring disposition, sustained by a calm, cheerful and heavenly confidence in the merits of the Great Atonement, she spent the last 20 years of her unobtrusive but exemplary life, in reciprocating the kindest sympathies of religious friendship ? rejoicing with those who died rejoice, and weeping with those who wept.
In short, her piety, like the gentle moon-beams upon Palmyra?s ruins, shed a soft and attractive lustre upon the very wastes of human life, and consecrated the ills which it could not remedy.
When seized with her last illness, she seemed to have a presentiment that it would be fatal; and hailed with sincere pleasure, the prospect of her approaching rest in Heaven. Indeed, the close of life, the present comforts of an abiding Christian faith, and the blessedness of a coming eternity, constituted the chief subjects of her thoughts, and the engineering theme of her conversation. Although once timid and fearful when contemplating death in the distance, she now triumphed in the consciousness of an indwelling power, which has disarmed Death of his sting, and deprived the Grave of victory. With her spirit thus at peace, and her sky unclouded, she longed for the hour of her exit. At one period during her illness, authorized by the mitigation of the symptoms, her son ventured to inform her that she was ?better?. Oh, my son,? said she, ?I am disappointed ? I had hope I was near my eternal reward.? The hope, however, on the part of her friends, which prompte4d this announcement, was evanescent; for she soon began again to decline rapidly. Rejoicing in the conviction, that ?the time of her departure was at hand,? she maintained an unwavering and cheerful faith in God, her Redeemer ? submitting, in the mean time, to the counsels of her friends, and to the prescriptions of her kind and intelligent physician, but not desiring to recover ? preferring rather ?To depart and be with Christ.? When the eventful crises was near, and her son reminded her that she was ?almost home,? her prompt reply was, ?Thank God! Thank God Almighty!? The last accents which fell from her lips, were in the tone of heavenly confidence. ?Do you feel that the Saviour is still with you?? ? was the enquiry of her anxious son. ?That I do,? was the brief but triumphant reply of the dying mother. Happy spirit! who, then would withhold thee from they test.
Away, away, on the wings of Love,
For the grave is the age to glory;
Away, to the Home of the saints above,
Where a Saviour's gone before thee.
Oxford, Oct. 7 1844. A MENAS
(The papers in Richmond and Petersburg will please copy.)
October 22, 1844
At the residence of her son in Newton County on Sept. 24th in her 66th years, Mrs. John Bass, after a 7 weeks illness. She was a dau. of Charles and Elizabeth Wade of Prince Edward Co., Va. and was born Nov. 8, 1778. At the age of 15 she married John Bass of Nottoway Co., Va. He died Dec. 1804, leaving her and four children. She removed in Nov. 1817 to Georgia. Only the one son now living. She united with the Methodist Church in 1824; very pious.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1778 - 1844 (65 years)