Abigail Cooper Rowley
Oct. 19, 1796-May 22, 1866
Niles Weekly Times, Thursday, May 31, 1866, page 2, col. 3, microfilm Niles District Library
OBITUARY
DIED- in this city, on Tuesday, May 22d, 1866, at one o'clock P.M., after a short illness, ABIGAIL COOPER ROWLEY, wife of Silas Rowley, Esq, aged sixty nine years, seven months, and three days.
The deceased was born in Shoreham, Addison County, Vermont, on the 19th day of October, 1796. She was the daughter of Jonathan and Mary Cooper. Her great-grandfather on her father's side was one of three brothers who emigrated from England to this country, from whom also descended James Fenimore Cooper, the distinguished author, and Peter Cooper, the eminent philanthopist[sic] and founder of the Cooper Institute in New York. She became a young lady of great personal attractions, and retained traces of early beauty to the day of her death. At the age of twenty she was married to Silas Rowley, also of Shoreham, with whom she lived an affectionate and happy life for nearly fifty years. Four sons and three daughters were born to them--all of whom, except one daughter, survive her, and are themselves married and gone from their parental home. Some years after her marriage, she made a public profession of her faith in Christianity, uniting with the Congregational Church in her native town. Through the remainder of her long life she exemplified the high and holy principles of her religion, living without reproach in all her relations as wife, mother and friend, as member of the church and of society. Quiet, modest, and undemonstrative, she did not live to be spoken of for her devotion, but looked to the rewards of eternity alone. In her daily walk and conversation she was ever a faithful witness for her Lord, and truly died one of the "Mother's in Israel."
In June, 1857, Mrs. Rowley came with her husband to Niles to join other members of the family already here, where she has since resided. For a number of years she had been afflicted with heart and lung disease, but bore up under her sufferings with a fortitude and Christian patience and resignation beautiful to see.--Her indomitable will long refused to permit her bodily ailments to triumph, and she continued her visits to relatives until the week before her death. Only three days before her final summons came she gave way and took to her bed, calmly and peacefully awaiting the coming of the death angel. And so her fearless spirit bade farewell to earth, swallowing up death in victory, and giving the best assurance of a glorified Immortality. On a bright spring afternoon, the Thursday following her death, her funeral took place, thirty relatives (among them but one who bore her family name) surrounding her coffin. The services were conducted by the Rev. T. Dwight Hunt, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, who delivered an address of much impressiveness and beauty. A long procession accompanied her remains to their resting place in the Silver Brook Cemetery, near this city.