23 Aug 1904, p 3 -
McAlister - Mrs. Katherine McAlister, aged 81, died suddenly at the home of Mr. R. H. Bronaugh at Crab Orchard at 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon. The burial will take place in the Crab Orchard Cemetery after services at the Baptist church there by Rev. O. M. Huey at 10 o'clock this morning. Mrs. McAlister was the widow of Mr. James McAlister and was a half sister of Hon. Fontaine Fox Bobbitt. She was a splendid woman and much sorrow is caused by her death. No children survive her.
2 Sep 1904, p 1 -
HON. FONTAINE FOX BOBBITT'S TRIBUTE TO HIS DEAD SISTER
Crab Orchard, Ky., Aug. 30th - On the eve of the sacred Sabbath day, Aug. 23rd, the sanctified soul of Kate McAlister took its flight from the scenes of earth to its eternal home in heaven. Born in Pulaski away back in 1823, when the 19th century was young, she by her strength of years lived four score and one. She lived the life of as good and noble a christian woman as ever the sun shown upon. Always blessed with ample earthly store, she and her husband, the late James McAlister, bestowed bountifully to the preachers, the poor and to every charitable object that appealed to them for aid, always remembering the poor Confederate soldier starving in Northern prisons in a land of plenty. Married before I was born, I was often at their hospitable home, which for near three quarters of a century was the Mecca to which the poor and hungry made their daily pilgrimage for bread, and never did the meal sack or hand of want go back unfilled. With a copious stream of charity flowing from this granary, their supply never gave out. They gave bountifully for a long lifetime and neither ever knew what it was to want. They gave and Providence blessed and gave more abundantly, and up to the day of her death many, both black and white, blessed the coming of her feet. Blessed with no children herself that all her kinsfolk might call her mother. The anguish of my heart was no greater when the sainted spirit of my own darling mother took its flight to heaven. We would give the wealth of all the Indies to have her back only a few more years. Oh! who will minister to our dying wants now, dear sister has gone? My dear brother could with the greatest courage, bid farewell to the scenes of earth because she was by his dying couch. My dear darling sister I can never forget, nor never will my aching heart cease to bleed for you. I loved you with the deep and abiding affection that I did my mother.
Capt. Thomas S. Hays, of the Confederate army, and Samuel E. Hays, of the Federal army, were her brothers. James E. Bobbitt, Lizzie P. James, Mrs. M. V. Sigler and the writer were half brothers and sisters to the dear departed one, but we never knew any difference in the half and the whole blood. How sad and lonely will dear old Crab Orchard be now that sister Kate is gone! Farewell dear sister, farewell for awhile. Though we shall soon meet again if kind Providence smiles. F. F. B.
