Dancharthos : Genealogos : Transcribed August 2002
William Edgar Holsinger "Bun" (1877-1915) Obituary
from [1915? Cottonwood Falls/Chase County?] newspaper clipping xerox --
no date or newspaper name included.
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WILLIAM EDGAR HOLSINGER
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His Companions Called Him Bun.
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He was the only son and oldest child of William H. and May Holsinger of this city. He was born January 31st, 1877, was a native of Cottonwood Falls, aged 37 years, 1 month and 5 days at the time of his demise. He left this earth February 26th, at 3:30 a.m. 1915. He was married July 31st, 1904, to Carrie E. Pickens at Las Vegas, New Mexico. Two children were born to them, Dorothy May, born March 20th, 1907. The little girl passed away Oct. 12th of the same year. Dolores Eugenia born August 31st, 1908. The mother and this sweet little child are left behind to wander alone and in the shadow face the storms and sunshine of human life. He also left a father and mother and four sisters, whose care and attention to him during his illness was sure a great consolation to him and to all his friends.
He had been ill since last September. He suffered much, but his father and mother were at all times by his side. the author of this sketch knew Bun all of his life. Knew him as a little boy lisping his child talk on the street, knew him as a school boy with his books under his arm, knew him when at the end of the week he made a regular pilgrimage to his grand-mother's house west of town, knew him as a little fisherman on the banks of the sequestered stream, knew him also as he approached manhood and I never knew him to be discourties or rude to anyone. He was always pleasant with a smile on his face and to speak to him was a guarantee that he would answer you with respect. This young man had many friends. He grew up like any other boy and faced the cold realities of life with a courage and stoicism to be admired. The last fourteen years of his life he had been in the employee of a rail-way company, I see him now as a part of his duty, waving his little signal flag, a warning of danger. I must and do believe that when the end came to him he saw a signal flag fluttering over the battlements of heaven, informing him that the way was clear.
The Holsinger family were among the first to locate in this county. They met the hardships of pioneer life with a fortitude characteristic of early settlers. Bun's mother too was an old settler, a daughter of A. P. Gandy, who is well remembered here as one of the purest of men. The friends of the Holsinger family and the Gandy family will and do deeply sympathize with Mr. and Mrs. Holsinger in the loss of their first born. To live is not to live for one's self alone. Let us help each other. (One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.) The hope of the Christian is depicted in the Bible. It is a grand hope, but if we were to sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, our obligations to God and man would be unchanged, we would have the same path to tread, only our lamp would be gone. We would have the same voyage to make. Only our chart and compass would be overboard.
Bun's remains were laid to rest in Prairie Grove cemetery. Among those that attended the funeral were Robert Cochrane and his wife, Nettie, of Chicago; Arabella another sister lived here, two sisters, Lillie and Margaret, who resides in California.
The Rev. Bryan of the M. E. Church of this place made a nice talk, and it seemed to me as I listened to the good words of consolation as they fell from the minister's lips I thought that I could hear voices singing in the air, "Welcome Home."
Thos. H. Grisham.
TRANSCRIBER'S COMMENTS:
Persons mentioned in the obituary:
- The four sisters: Nettie (Mrs. Robert Cochrane), Arabella (Pickie), Lillie, Margaret (Maggie?).
- Father and Mother: William Henry Holsinger and May Gandy [Holsinger].
- Widow: Carrie E. Pickens
- Surviving Daughter: Dolores Eugenia (6 and a half years old)
Grandmother's house. Was this his mother's mother, Nancy Ellen, who died in 1883, when Bun was 7? Or his father's mother Julia Ann, who died in 1906, after Bun was grown and married? The writer says he remembers Bun as infant, schoolboy, and then "...at the end of the week he made a regular pilgrimage to his grand-mother's house west of town...." so it is just barely possible it could be the earlier grandmother, except... a seven-year-old making a regular pilgrimage? The writer gives the location of grandmother's house "west of town" as one clue which can be followed up by referring to grandmother Julia Ann's obituary, which says that in 1857 she moved "to the home about two miles west of this city where she lived until her death." It now becomes possible to infer that Bun made the regular pilgrimage 1) to his surviving grandmother's house for several years, and 2) he made it because she was his surviving grandmother... the other had died when he was seven and made him realize that grandmothers don't last forever.... Thus the word "pilgrimage" takes on a deeper, read-between-the-lines connotation. Or "hermeneutic," as the longhair egghead bigwig literati like to say. Hee hee.
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