Obituary of Harriet (Bagby) Gilliam.
Seldom has it fallen to the mournful task of the writer to record a death more generally regretted than that of Mrs. Harriet Gilliam, who left the scenes of earth for the enjoyment of the presence of God on the 3rd. day of January, 1864.
Having lived through the changes of 63 years, passed through the vale of poverty to comparative independence, and reared four daughters and a son to be ornaments of society, she left the earth knowing she had fulfilled her trust. The ordinary course of a virtious and useful life left nothing remarkable to record except her changes of abode. Born in Buckingham Co., Virginia, she married James Gilliam in 1819 and removed with her husband to Tennessee, in 1821, then to Missouri and ultimately to Texas in 1842.
In all her removals she left behind an enviable name, and a large circle of mourning friends testify to the social virtues of her life. Her domestic virtues were known to all who had the pleasure of entering her abode, and the manners of her now married daughters prove how she reared her family. The [illegible] charity with which she relieved the distressed is known by the regret of the widows, orphans & destitute in her vicinity and perhaps the partiality of the writer toward her may be caused by this knowledge of her character. Above all her fervent piety, and love of God and of his church has embalmed her memory in the minds of christians wherever she was seen, having lived in communion with God.
