In Alfred. N. Y., September 19, 1914, Mrs. Thomas T. Burdick, in the seventy-third year of her age.
Mrs. Harriet V. Dowse Burdick was the daughter of Roswell P. and Mary Ann Crandall Dowse and was born in South Brookfield, Madison Co., N. Y., March. 18, 1842. She was fortunate in being born and reared in a Christian home of the highest type, one of those homes which give the strongest incentive to Christlike living and noble achieving. Her education, commenced in the schools of her home community, was continued at DeRuyter Institute, DeRuyter, N. Y., and was finished by a course at the Oswego State Normal, Oswego, N. Y. After graduating from the Oswego Normal, she taught in the school in Leonardsville, N. Y., awhile, then in the grammar school in Hamilton, N. Y., for three years, and for three and one-half years in the grammar school in Alfred.
Forty-one years ago, on July 24, 1873, she and Thomas T. Burdick were united in holy wedlock. They first established their home in Alfred, but after about two years moved to South Brookfield, her childhood home, where they resided till twelve years ago, when they returned to Alfred, completing the more than forty years of married life in the place where their home building was commenced. To them were born four children: Lester D. of this village; Herbert I. of New Berlin, N. Y.; Mary A., who became the wife of Prof. Clarence L. Clarke and who died six years ago, and George A. of Homer, N. Y. Besides her husband and sons, she is survived by three sisters: Mrs. John R. Groves of Coudersport, Pa.; Mrs. U. N. Holmes of DeRuyter, N. Y., and Mrs. G. T. Brown of Leonardsville, N. Y.
When a child she gave her heart to Christ and at the age of eleven she was baptized by Eld. Joshua Clarke and joined the Seventh Day Baptist church at West Edmeston, N. Y. Of this church she remained a member till coming to Alfred twelve years since, when she joined the First Seventh Day Baptist church of Alfred. In the churches at West Edmeston and Alfred her husband has served as deacon, and she loyally and faithfully met the requirements outlined in the New Testament for the wife of a deacon in the church of Christ. Freely she gave of her time, strength, thought, and love to the churches and communities in which she lived, but her great joy and delight was her home, and here she rendered her chief and greatest service. She was also a most loyal member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and an ardent supporter of the temperance and other reforms for which that society efficiently worked.
Funeral services, conducted by Pastor William L. Burdick, assisted by Dean A. E. Main, were held at the house on September 22, and interment took place in Alfred Rural Cemetery.
