Person:Lily Cowden (1)

FORMER RESIDENT OF SAN JACINTO DIES
(From Upland News)

The funeral of Mrs. Lily Ann [(Cowden)] Thompson which was held on Tuesday afternoon at the Draper Chapel on First Avenue was attended by many, many friends, not only from Upland and Ontario, but from Etiwanda, Cucamonga, Redlands and Claremont. Charlotte Shinglen and Elizabeth Lemon sang beautifully a duet, "The Lord is my Sheperd," and Margaret Moreman sang "In the Secret of His Presence," a most fitting song, as it was the secret of Grandma's wonderful life. The singers were all members of Mrs. Hawkinson's Sunday School class. Miss Katherine Jones, who had lived with Grandma during one of her years, away from home, sang "Near to the Heart of God." There was nothing of death or sorrow either in the music or service. It was rejoicing that Grandma was home. The Rev. Greenlee of Ediwanda read a Psalm and led in prayer and the Rev. Stone, after speaking of his friendship for Grandma and her wonderful personality, read the following account of her life written by her granddaughter, Mrs. H. W. Hawkinson, with whom Mrs. Thompson was living at the time of her death:

Grandma was born in Washington Co., Pennsylvania, March 18, 1824. She was living during Monroe's administration, the fourth president of the United States, during the visit of Lafayette after the Revolutionary War, when Bunker Hill monument was dedicated and when the first telegraphic message was sent. Her first sight of a railroad was when she was thirty and that was about the first one seen by any one. When a little girl she went to Pittsburgh in a wagon and her most vivid recollection was watching the farmers sampling rolls of butter at the free market by scraping off a bit from the top of each roll with a dollar and eating the sample. Germs were not in Grandma's day.

She was the eldest of six children and she survived all her brother and sisters but one. There was always a rivalry between these two sisters to see which one had done the most work between letters. The last morning when she fell she had written to this sister in a strong, unshaken hand a clear account of the morning's jelly-making which she had helped to pour for Christmas presents and that same morning she had planned for Thanksgiving Day and had found an especially good recipe for cranberry sauce in her beloved and much read Youth's Companion which had been her paper for all political news and fiction the last 35 years. That and the Independent and Outlook kept her aware of the world's happenings.

She was a good United Presbyterian when going to church meant a long ride on horseback carrying two babies in front of her and staying for two services with a short intermission for a cold lunch. They kept warm those days by carring hot potatoes in their laps which retained their heat during the services. On Communion days Grandma was always very careful to have the "token" tied in a corner of her hankerchief. The Sunday before the minister had given it if her husband had vouched for their readiness to commune. Communion in those days meant real communion with the Lord and a day of fast preceded it in preparation. No cooking was done on the Sabbath; even the pancakes were made the evening before and reheated on Sabbath morning. But Grandma adapted herself to the changing religious conditions of the day and never felt the good old days were the best. To her the immediate present held so much of interest and work and real living that she didn't reminisce much.

She came to California about 30 years ago when she was sixty-seven and, at an age when most folks thing they will soon be reaching a quiet life of memory, she cared for a daughter almost night and day for 15 months until the daughter's death, and then when a mother of four children died she carried the three weeks' baby on a pillow in a buggy all the way from Redlands to San Jacinto over the mountains and she cared for that baby with a love that saved him to the world.

When whe was eighty she kept house for her granddaughter so that the granddaughter might attend High School and college. During that time there was for a year or two, a little High School freshman and a college freshman, and a later there were six girls all under her care and interest. Girls who came and sat on the edge of her bed at midnight to tell her about the party they had just attended or who put her through the gymnastic excercises they were taking to keep themselves young and strong. And when the granddaughter graduated from college she made by hand her graduating dress when her years numbered 83.

Then she was ninety she had a serious fall which resulted in breaking the ball from the femur and leaving it in the socket joint. The femur was forced up about three inches but she made herself to walk and took up her little round of duties again. In the last year she has made three comforts and almost carpeted the house with the carpet rags she has sewed. A few days ago she walked out with her great grandson to see the flowers. When he returned he said, "Oh, Grandma and I have had the goodest time we have ever had together." And so it is good to think that "goodest times" can be for one who almost reached the hundreth mark.