Mrs. Mary Jane Bond was born in Rockford, near Lost Creek, W. Va., August 27, 1831, and died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. E. B. Saunders, in Ashaway, R. I., April 25, 1909, in the seventy-eighth year of her age. She was the daughter of Isaiah and Marie Jett Swisher, and a member of a large and prominent family in that part of West Virginia, - a family which, with the exception of one sister, Mrs. B. W. Bee, of Salem, W. Va., has now all passed to that fair land where families reunite never to be broken up.
Her childhood and youth were spent in West Virginia till 1849, when she and Daniel Moore Bond were united in marriage and soon moved to Milton, Wis. This was before our country was a network of railroads as it is today, and the entire journey was made with a team, a wedding trip worth while and a journey rich in experiences never to be forgotten. In Wisconsin her husband studied medicine and took up its practice; this took them away from those of like precious faith, causing them to reside in Johnstown Center and Janesville, Wis., and Iron River, Mich. The greater portion of their lives was passed in the last named place. Notwithstanding her separation from those of her own faith, she remained faithful to the Sabbath and the church of her adoption.
The exact date when she consecrated herself to Christ is not preserved, but it is sufficient to know that in early life she made a profession of faith in Christ and, as her parents were Methodists, she affiliated with that people till about the time she and her husband settled in Milton, Wis., when she joined the Seventh-day Baptist church of that place. This church she ever after cherished as her church home, always refusing to change her membership from the church of her youth to any other, though the last years of her life she participated in the interests and work of our people at Shiloh, N. J., and Ashaway, R. I.
To Dr. and Mrs. Bond were born three children: Mrs. E. B. Saunders, of Ashaway, R. I., with whom she passed the last years of her life; Dr. Frank L., who died some years ago., and Lillian M. who died in 1901. Doctor Bond, her husband, passed to the fair land of rest seventeen years since.
Mrs. Bond was cheerful, active and unassuming. Wherever she went she won friends by the quiet and gentle womanly graces which had come to adorn her life and to reveal themselves in her words, deeds and countenance. The years of her life, with their activities, hopes, joys and sorrows, had not only given spiritual adornment, but they also had increased her trust in God apace, and during the last days of her life she was often heard to say, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
A farewell service was held in Ashaway, R. I., April 27, at the home of Rev. and Mrs. E. B. Saunders, after which the tenement of clay was taken to Milton, Wis., where a second farewell service was held and her earthly house was laid to rest by the side of her husband.
Wm. L. B.
