DEATH NOTICES FROM THE NATIONAL BANNER AND NASHVILLE WHIG FOR 1827

February 3, 1827
Deaths in Nashville. A gentleman who has taken much pains to ascertain the facts with accuracy, has furnished us the following statement of the number of deaths in Nashville during the year 1826. Whole number: sixty-nine; viz: Whites 45, Blacks 24. Of the whites 21 were male adults, 9 female adults and 15 children. Two were killed by violence, one by accident and one was drowned. Of the blacks, 5 were male adults, 8 female and 11 children. One was drowned, the rest were natural deaths. The number of deaths in 1825, as certained by the same individual, was fifty-six.

February 3, 1827
Died in this county, Capt. John Bradford in the 65th year of his age.

February 10, 1827
OBITUARY. Died on the 28th ult., at his residence near Nashville, Capt. John Bradford, in the 65th year of his age. Capt. Bradford was an officer in the War of the Revolution, which established the liberty of our country, and gave the United Stated her present proud rank among the nations of the world. In those days of trying difficulty and alarm for the people who were then regarded as revolted colonists of a transatlantic nation, Capt. Bradford, though yet a stripling, and not legally subject to perform military duty, waved, without hesitation every right of exemption from non-age, and enrolled himself in the ranks of his countrymen in arms. Though a youth, he was not insensible of the insults and injuries heaped upon the colonists; and impatiently indignant at their multiplication and protacted enormity, his heart was fired with enthusiasm and sought every occasion to avenge the aggressions and defend the rights of his country.

Having entered the service, he was never absent when duty called. He was engaged in several battles and was present at the memorable seige of York when the army under Lord Cornwallis surrendered their arms to the patriot soldiers of freedom. Capt. Bradford emigrated from Virginia to this state about sixteen years ago and has resided in this vicinity every since.

Few men have enjoyed a more irreproachable reputation in every situation in which the casualties of life have placed him. As a soldier of the Revolution in which he held a subaltern command, the testimony of many witnesses establishes his character for fidelity and the most cool and unbending courage. As a neighbor and a friend, in the walks of common life, no man has possessed a more enviable consideration. The foulest slanderer has not dared to breathe the slightest whisper impugning his integrity; whilst all who have known him, establish by universal assent, the benevolent and philanthropic character of his feelings. To all, he was just, generous, sympathetic and urbane in his demeanor.

But it was in the domestic circle, in the tender and delicate relations of husband, father and master, that the character of Capt. Bradford is beheld in the most eminent and enviable aspect. In the bosom of his family, apart from the restrictions imposed by the criticism of the world and the rigid operations of civil obligations, he enjoyed unbroken tranquility and gave pleasure and confidence to a community of which he constitued the natural and favorite head. To his family and neighborhood, Capt. Bradford was allied by the most tender connections of consanguinity and friendship. The latter acknowledge his worth and deeply deplore his loss which constitutes a bereavement on the part of the former exciting regret and sorrow which human language can but faintly portray. The demise of kings and princes who often glitter upon the high places of society but to scourge mankind, and the death of men of wit and learning, with all the levities incident to their character, have been proclaimed to the world by prescriptive seasons of public mourning, or poeans of general sorrow. In the death of Capt. Bradford the world is called upon to deplore the loss of the noblest production of its great architect; for an honest man has been stricken by the hand of fate from the rolls of the living; and admonished by the instructions of this solomn lesson, we may well declare that, "A wit's feather and a chief's rod, An honest man's the noblest work of God."

February 17, 1827
Died in this town on Friday night last, Mr. Charles C. Torrey, engraved, in the 27th year of his age. We cannot permit the death of such a young man to pass without something more than the ordinary record of the melancholy occurrence. Mr. Torry was not only a man of taste and genius in the fine arts but the purity of his morals, the warmth of his social affections, the sincerity and ardor of his friendships, the industry of his habits, the extend of his reading, and the general cultivation of his mind, all conspired to render him a peculiarly estimable member of the social circle and of civil society.

He was indeed unostentatious and rather retiring in his manners. His acquaintance was not extensive and he visited little, except among his intimate friends and companions. But those who knew him not only respected and esteemed but admired and loved him. He knew full well the value of time and he devoted every moment to some valuable object. His habits were systematic and every hour was regularly appropriated to its peculiar occupation. This system in the arrangement of his time enabled him to accomplish much and without neglecting his business, to lay up an extensive fund of valuable information.

For time previous to his death, he had been principally engaged in engraving a very excellent Portrait of General Jackson, copies of which the people of Tennessee and the friends of that distinguished man throughout the union ought to procure and preserve, not only as a faithful delineation of the striking features of the hero it represents, but as a handsome specimen of the arts executed among ourselves. The loss of Mr. Torry in our community as an artist is no trifling misfortune. He undertook nothing which he did not execute well. To his worthy father who is an accomplished and skillful physician in Salem, Mass., and to his other distant relatives and friends, it may afford some consolation amidst the heavy affliction which the unexpected intelligence of his death will overwhelm then, to learn that he left behind him in this land of his adoption an untarnished reputation and a highly respected memory, that the tear of friendship has been shed over his early grave and that the hearts of many in this remote region sincerely sympathize with them in their deep distress at his premature loss.

March 10, 1827
Died in this town, Mr. Thomas Moorefield.

March 10, 1827
Died in this county, Mr. William T. Norment.

April 21, 1827
Died in this town on Tuesday last, Mr. John Moore.

April 28, 1827
Died in this town on Sunday last, Mr. Samuel Hopkins, formerly of Powhatan County, Virginia.

April 28, 1827
Died on Tuesday last, Richard, infant son of Mr. James Barrett.

May 19, 1827
Died in this county on the 15th inst., Clemment Washington Hays, aged three weeks and four days, son of Mr. John Hays.

June 9, 1827
An unfortunate accident happened on Sunday last. Mr. William Williams, a boatman, of this place, fell from a keelboat into the river and was drowned. He was drawn under the boat and never rose after he fell. His body, we believe, has not been among found.

June 9, 1827
Communicated. Departed this life on the 12th day of May, in the 32nd year of his age, the Rev. Joshua C. Hill, after an illness of more than twelve months. During the whole of his illness, his resignation to the will of Heaven evinced to his friends that he had an unshaken confidence in divine grace. A few moments before he died, he called his wife to his bed side, affectionately bid her adieu, and exhorted her to try to meet him in Heaven; he next bid his children adieu, then his servants, and all who were present; then fell asleep to wake no more until the resurrection of the just. He was a kind and affectionate husband, a tender and indulgent parent, a friendly and obliging neighbor and honorable and respectable citizen, a true and warm friend, a zealous Christian and a sound divine. Death to him seemed entirely to have lost its sting. "Tis finished! so his spirit cried, He meekly bowed his head and dyed; Tis finished! yes, his race is run, the battle's fought, the victory won."

June 30, 1827
OBITUARY. Departed this life the 24th inst, Susanna Dunn, daughter of Michael C. Dunn of Davidson County, aged 14 years, after a short, but most severe indisposition. Her funeral obsequence were attended by many friends and acquaintances on the 25th and a suitable discourse given by the Rev. William Hume. Her soul wafted to the regions of beatitude is no longer subject to the anxieties and dispositions of mortal life. Her gentleness and disposition, suavity of manner, and intelligence, endeared her to the wide circle of her acquaintances, and her immediate relatives suffered the most poignant affliction. But the stern degrees of fate are incalculable and the pangs of natural affections and the sympathy of friends should subside into calm fortitude and resigned to the will of Heaven. "So the end in the dreadful storm, Puts on its most destructive form the opening rose not yet full blown, Thus from the parent stem unknown, the queen of dowers, the pride of May, thus withers and dies in a day. Divine service in the Presbyterian Church as usual, tomorrow 1/2 past 10 o'clock.

July 14, 1827
Died in this county on Tuesday last, Josiah Horton, Esq. former sheriff of this county and father of the present sheriff, a worthy citizen and useful man.

July 21, 1827
Died in this town on Sunday morning, Miss Mary D. Stothart, daughter of Mr. Robert Stothart.

August 18, 1827
Died in this county, Major William C. Ward.



August 25, 1827
Commmunicated. Yesterday about 1 o'clock, P. M., Mrs. Elizabeth Owen, wife of Mr. James Owen, of Davidson county, departed this life, after a very short and painful illness. Yes, dear shade! thou art gone! This is the lot of all: dust shall to dust return. Thus, when least, we fear, the sacred hand of death steals from us away, the dearest objects of our fond affection. Thus seemest to sleep: to thee, the shades of evening - even now, have veiled the face of Heaven. And shall light no more to thee return? No! Thine is night, to which nor light, nor day succeeds. Nor more shall thou wait with restless anxiety, to greet the glad Messenger of Day, that so oft hath banished the long and wearysome night, and shed about thy feeble bed of languishment, a ray of sweet relief, or joy, to hail the bright glories of the cheerful morn! Thou sleepest: tis the sleep of death! Were it give to mortalman to rule, the destinies of Fate. It had not been so! But God is God; let him do whatsover seemeth Him good. This amiable and worthy female, had long been the unfortunate victim of painful affliction. Bitter was the cup of her sufferings, and filled to overflowing. Yet, she was every gentle, patient and resigned; and always through the thorny path of life, and the afflicting scenes of varied misfortune - steady in the exercise of piety and virtue. Ever teaching, as well by precept, as by the example of her life, that pleasure can only be found in the exercise of virtue; and that to be happy, is to be good! Humble and charitable, she was a friend to the friendless and knew to feel anothers woes.

She is gathered to the land of rest; where, as she would often say, when sufferings weighed heavily on her soul, the wicked shall cease from troubling and the weary be at rest. In her last moments, when the curtain of death was closing upon the scenes of mortality and brighter words unfolding to her view, the retrospect of her pure and spotless life, afforded the sweetest consolation that earth could give. The grim monster's approach caused her gentle bosom not a pang, save that of parting with her affectionate and devoted family to whom she was most fondly and tenderly endeared. She welcomed the friendly messenger that summoned her away and willingly yielded her feeble form into the arms of Death. Happy that her longing spirit, freed from its wretched habitation of suffering, soon would reach its destined home in fairer, brighter, happier worlds.

September 15, 1827
Died in this town, Mr. William Snead, Jun. aged 22. The death of this excellent & promising young man is a severe blow to those with whom he was connected. He removed to this place from Lynchburgh, Va. about two years since and has been engaged in business for an extensive mercantile house since that time. His morals were irreproachable, his habits industrious, his talents for business uncommonly good, his disposition amiable, and his character altogether such as to endear him to his friends and to afford a prospect of eminent usefulness and distinction in future life.

October 20, 1827
Died in this town, this morning, Mr. Benjamin R. Howland, late of Providence, R. I.. Funeral this afternoon at 3 o'clock. Members of Cumberland and Nashville Lodges are summoned to attend and transient Masonic brethren are invited to pay the last tribute of respect to his memory.

December 29, 1827
Died in this county on the morning of the 25th inst, Thomas K., aged seven years, oldest son of Sarah E. and Benjamin S. Williamson.
 

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