St. Clair County Obits

JEMIMA ASENATH SCOBEY

St. Clair Co. Republican
14 November 1907
Jemima Asenath Scobey.
On the nineteenth day of the present month there passed from amongst us to such place as there may be in the Beyond where it is good for mortals to abide, one whose resting place will be marked by a stone upon which will be inscribed “In the memory of Jemima A. Scobey, born at Hartsville, Tennessee, A.D. 1823; died at Osceola, Missouri, September 19th, 1907.”
Born to the common lot of earth’s children, for a generation there will be memory of her, and then she will pass to the throng of the forgotten who, since Time was, have slept the last sleep. One who speaks for the dead has no hearers save among the narrow few of the then living who know his voice or remember that of the subject of his story. There is, here and there, exception to this as to that very few who come to be known as “historic characters”. Yet these characters have generally rested the structures which gave them fame on the sure foundations in hand of some or many of the departed and forgotten. The real builders of States and Nations – and especially so it is with us and with our people – are the pioneers who blaze their way into – not through – the wilderness, and then set up a new State and society, whose original seat of power and promise is not a palace but the rude log-cabin; and whose voice and example beckons others to follow and help it in the work. The pioneers of Missouri, those of the very earliest coming, the traders and adventurers, have all passed away. The earlier home-makers, the true state-builders, are well nigh gone. Those who now till the cleared fields and enjoy the broken paths “have entered into their labors”, and are their debtors. How many of that class can yet be named as among the living within the circle who knew the subject of this sketch? Is she not well nigh the last of the advance guard who carried the home into Southwestern Missouri? The debt which the present possessors of the land owe to those vanished people is very great, and especially so to the wives and mothers among them. To the men that were compensation; there was glorious hunting and fishing, in those days, and many primitive joys, but the woman was a drudge. Distance deprived her of neighborly intercourse; she had not only the usual household cares, such as we know, but the clothing of the family, from picking the cotton and carding the wool from which it was made to its spinning, weaving and making, was the work of her hands and brain. The plaint of the woman, who, writing back to the old Tennessee home of her new surroundings, said: “This country is fine for men and dogs, but hard on women and oxen”, was rudely eloquent and sadly true. Mrs. Scobey, if not one of the very earliest, was yet one of this noble company, and her passing away well nigh silences its roll-call.
Nature fitted her for her life’s task. She was strong in mind, will and body, yet with a true woman’s charitable kindness of heart, a love of things right, and a detestation for things evil.
She early allied herself with the disciples of Him who has given us the best example of how to live here.
Our true epic is not in the conflict of wars or politics, which have happened in our short national history, but in the “marvelous tale” of how the American citizen has lived and labored, “how he has subdued the wild and waste lands, how he has made the desert to blossom as the rose, and how he has builded up an empire with axe and plow”. The amazing results achieved are the works of many hands, but each hand was that of a sturdy warrior who bent himself to the task of subduing obstacles which Nature had spent her strength in establishing for myriad of years. The results we see and enjoy are the monuments to that all-conquering host, and to each who had a place in its ranks.
Mrs. Scobey, whose maiden name was Jemima Asenath Osborne was born at Hartsville, Tennessee. At the age of sixteen she was married to William Howell Scobey, and in 1842 the newly married pair took up the journey to Missouri. The responsibilities and trials of the married and pioneer life thus fell to her lot whilst little more than a child. The first settlement was made near Chalk Level.
In 18__ (1886?) the family removed to Osceola. There, in 1889 the husband passed away, honored and respected by all who knew him. There were born to them seven children: Ophelia, Eliza Jane, Florilla Anne, Martha Virginia, Ada Howell, William Edgar and Jessie Stanwood. All, save the eldest and youngest, survive to mourn the loss of a mother who, to her latest day, remained a mother to a widening circle of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The good old age she reached bears testimony to the vigor of her frame and the undaunted spirit which possessed her.
She had many traits which evidenced a masterful mind and character, among them a remarkable memory. The writer of this sketch recalls being present a few years since when she was called upon by a gentleman engaged in writing a history of the part borne by Kansas in the history of the Rebellion. He was seeking information as to that disastrous episode, which in the early days of the struggle resulted in the destruction of Osceola. He had spent a day or two among the older people with little result, when some one advised him to call on Mrs. Scobey. His interview with her was more than satisfactory. The names of the actors, the day and hour of every occurrence, the reasons for sparing the few residences which escaped the general destruction, and the cause for each exception, were given with the clearness of the trained historian, and without a moment’s hesitation. In the olden times, when history as tradition, it was such as she who gathered and transmitted the deeds of Gods and men to the later ages when the hands of men had learned to record what the tongues of the father’s had spoken.
In her earlier years, in addition to fulfilling the duties of the household, she taught school in the new country, thus carrying into the wilderness the light of knowledge. Her own education had been of rather remarkable scope for the time in which she lived, as is shown by the books she preserved from her own school days.
Her qualities of heart, her graciousness of manner and of speech, her interest in the aims and struggles of all ages, made her beloved by a large circle. She was the sympathetic friend of the friends of her grandchildren as well as her own contemporaries. Of what she was to her own wide family circle, their grief is eloquent. To the one who pens these lines, it seems impossible that the flame of her vigorous personality and loving heart can have been quenched by death. Such a life is immortal in its influence for good; its noble forces will pulse through generations yet to come.
S.S. Burdett.