Joseph F. Stillman, aged eighty-one years, died at his home in Hammond, La., February 16, 1912.
He was born in Rockville, Hopkinton, R. I., March 16, 1831. His ancestors were the early settlers of Rhode Island, and among the earliest to embrace the Seventh-day as the Sabbath. He was a descendant of George Stillman, the second, who settled in Westerly, R. I., in 1703, and who was one of the constituent members of the First Hopkinton Seventh-day Baptist Church, when it was organized in 1707.
He was the son of William and Charlotte Champlin Stillman. Most of his boyhood days were spent at Westerly, R. I. When eighteen years of age he was baptized and joined the Pawcatuck Seventh-day Baptist Church. He was married to Ada C. Burdick of Genesee, N. Y., August 19, 1865.
For eighteen years he worked as a silversmith with the Gorham Manufacturing Co., of Providence, R. I. He moved to Kansas in 1870, during the pioneer days, where he resided for thirty-one years. Most of these years he lived on the "Seventh Day Lane," near Nortonville, Kan. His life was one of religious activity, the cause of Christ being one of the greatest concern to him.
In the spring of 1901 he moved to Gentry, Ark. The last five years have been spent in Hammond, La., with his daughters, Phoebe and Margaret, who are teachers in the Hammond school. He also leaves four sons, - Edwin C., and Arthur of North Loup, Neb., Laverne, of Gentry, Ark., and Benjamin of Manhattan, Kan. His only surviving brother is Hon. Elisha C. Stillman of Ashaway, R. I.
His last days were not days of suffering, but like a sheaf of wheat fully ripened, ready for the garner, he peacefully left us to go to his Lord, where the communion begun on earth is now unbroken. Funeral services were conducted by Rev. A. P. Ashurst, from John xvii, 16, "They are not of this world." The body was taken to Gentry, Ark., for interment beside his wife who passed on ten years ago.
