Miami Union

December 7, 1867 

CHAPIN, MRS. MARY WATTS - Obituary - Died: near Terre Haute, Indiana, on the 1st day of November, 1867, Mrs. Mary Watts Chapin, wife of Capt. Leonard B. Chapin, aged twenty-three years, six months and twenty days.  Mrs. C. was the daughter of Wm. C. Knight, deceased, and Mrs. Matilda Knight, of Lostcreek township, Miami county, Ohio.  Her disease was sudden and severe, and so intense was her suffering, that in a few days she was changed from healthful, blooming, beautiful womanhood to an emaciated corpse, scarcely to be recognized by her friends.  Just starting in life, with bright hopes and anticipation of the future with a husband she loved, and one that reciprocated that love--with a beautiful infant daughter of which she had become the mother about two months previous--with many relations and friends to whom she was devotedly attached, in short, at a period of life when there was everything to live for, through the inscrutable providence of that God that doeth all things for our good we are bereft of our loved "Wattie".  It is hard to give thee up, to say farewell, to live without thee but is hard to know thou and death.  But, alas! dear as thou wert to us--wife, mother, daughter and sister, though thou wert--such strong ties as these could not bind thee to earth and we must give thee up.  During her last illness, she gave evidence of an abiding faith in that Christ that died for all men, and waking out of a deep but restless slumber, she told her husband and friends who stood around her bed-side, that something had just told her in her sleep, that she would not be with them long, but buoyed up with Christian fortitude, she said: "Leonard, I regret to leave you and my little one, and I feel so sorry for you, but I am not afraid to die," having an assurance that she was only to pass through the valley of the shadow of death to life everlasting and join that loved father and sister and two brothers who had gone before.  Wattie was a favorite with all who knew her, and possessing a beautiful person, and having an amiable and cheerful disposition, her society, was ever agreeable and much sought.  Scarce thirteen months since a happy bride, she started in company with her husband, for her western home, little thinking she so soon would be brought back a lifeless corpse.  Many, very many will mourn her untimely death, and friends will shed bitter tears as they stand around her tomb; but, alas! thou art gone, forever gone, and now thou art singing in Heaven the praises of Him who took thee hence.            A FRIEND      Milan, Ohio, Nov. 15th

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