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OBITUARY
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Mrs. Sarah R. Gochenour
By Rev. Howard Hyde Russell, D.D.
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We honor today in this memorial service the life of Sarah R. Gochenour, a devoted Christian daughter, wife, mother and grandmother.

Mrs. Gochenour was the daughter of James A. and Esther Crabb Gibson, and she was born in Scioto Township, Pickaway County, in 1856. There, upon May 20, 1886, she married Littleton Gochenour, an energetic young farmer in the same township. All the families named were thrifty, prosperous farmers, warmly religious and patriotic citizens.

Mrs. Gochenour became the mother of four children. Two of them died in infancy, and two daughters, Mary Leora, born in 1896, and Martha Ruhama, born in 1899, survive their mother. about twenty-five years ago the Gochenours came to Westerville to educate their children. They lived the later years of of that period in a pleasant home upon East Broadway.

Mr. Gochenour became active here, as he had been in Pickaway County, in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Gochenour, whose family had been Presbyterians, continued her membership in the Presbyterian church at Commercial Point, in Pickaway County. Upon the death of her husband several years ago, Mrs. Gochenour decided to move to California where her two daughters have lived in recent years. Since then, most of the time Mrs. Gochenour has lived in the home of her younger daughter, Martha, whose husband, Ernest Clement Russell, was then a Y. M. C. A. secretary at Los Angeles and who now is a member of the staff of the Adjutant General of California.

Her last years have been very useful in helping her daughter in the home and in loving care of her grandson, Ernest Russell Clement, Junior.

When serious ill health came a few months ago, it was deemed best for her to be removed to the home of her older daughter, Mary, who lives in Mariposa County, in the Sierra foothills. It was hoped the more favorable climate would tend toward her recovery. These loving efforts of her children were in vain. Her death came upon the 20th of March. Her last wish is fulfilled today in placing her remains in the crypt next to her honored husband, Littleton Gochenour.

Very kind memories are cherished by Westerville neighbors and friends of both the mother and father, who grew older among us. Littleton told me how he had for years voted the Prohibition ticket, and Sarah said she too had been many years a regular member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Because of his loss of hearing we agreed that at the daily prayer service Father Littleton should read the Bible and lead in prayer. Thus we would most fully unite in the worship of God. He was unusually gifted in prayer and we shared in his earnest supplications for our families, for God's salvation of our nation from its perils and for the extension of Christ's kingdom throughout the world. Our sittingroom thus became a real shrine where he is lovingly and gratefully remembered.

Mrs. Gochenour was a gracious and spiritual woman. Her presence with us in the home of our son is a very precious memory. More than once she spoke of the poem she loved which she know had been the favorite verses of Abraham Lincoln: "O why should the spirit of mortal be proud".

It will be quite appropriate today, and it will emphasize the simple-hearted humility and patience of our friend Sarah if we may hear again verses of that significant and suggestive poem. Several verses were then read by Rev. A. A. Pratt and the benediction was pronounced by Doctor Russell.

Public Opinion - May 26, 1938