Obituary: Catherine Priscilla Smith

Died in this place, April 29th 1863, Catherine Priscilla, daughter of E. J. and J. E. Smith, aged 13 years 11 months and 20 days:

Alas! how mournful come life’s changes
O’er every heart!
Grief haunts the fields where pleasure ranges.
Never apart.
That one short day ah! who had thought
Would such a fearful change have wrought
Disease to thee so deathly fraught –
Little Priscilla?

O, sad the lot to mourn unblest;
But Jesus saith
That he will give the mourner rest
From sin and death.
‘Tis done! ‘tis Past! the bolt hath riven,
And yet this honor God hath given
That you should have a child in heaven
Little Priscilla.

– Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Saturday, May 2, 1863