The subject of this sketch is our late lamented and worthy sister, Lavinnia Satterlee Lanphier, who passed away from this life on the 23d of July. She was born at Alfred, Feb. 19, 1814. It is a little peculiar that she began this life on the Seventh-day and ended her mortal career on the Seventh-day also. She was the daughter of David Satterlee, who was the oldest son of Elder William Satterlee, for many years the able and successful pastor of the Berlin, N. Y., Seventh-day Baptist church. Her mother's maiden name was Cynthia Saunders. In her father's family there were thirteen children, of whom she was the fourth, eleven being girls.
The early days of our venerable sister's life were spent very pleasantly at her father's home in Alfred, which was then, as now, it is said, a lovely place. She was the subject of early religious impressions, and in her fourteenth year a precious work of peace was made manifest under the labors of Elder Daniel Babcock, when a large number of persons were brought to feel the powers of the world to come, professed to have found salvation through Jesus Christ, and were subsequently baptized and united in gospel fellowship with the church in Alfred. It was a happy day for her, she being one of the number.
She had reached her nineteenth year when she was married to the late Rowlan Lanphier, of Berlin, and removed immediately to her future home, a cozy spot among the hills for which this place is famous. It was in the same house into which she came after her marriage that she spent 66 years of a beautiful Christian life, and here she finished her course in joyful hope. Some little time ago she said, from the time of her removal to this place she had never seen a home-sick day. In those days, when she came here to reside, much of the traveling between Alfred and Berlin was done by horse teams and sometimes by oxen. What a change! We are living amid the swiftness of electricity and steam.
Our departed sister was the mother of seven children, all sons; only two are living, William J. Lanphier, of Hornellsville, N. Y., and Oscar, who lives on the homestead.
Berlin, N. Y., August, 1898, George Seeley
