In Milton, Wis., Oct. 30th, Mrs. Nancy Goodrich, wife of Joseph Goodrich, in the 62d
year of her age.
Her death was sudden and unexpected. She had complained for a short time of a cold,
but was not prevented from engaging as usual in her domestic labors. For a day and a half
previous to her decease, she had even worked very busily in fitting up portions of the
house for the coming Winter. On the day of her death, she sat at the dinner table,
entertaining some friends from a distance; and it is supposed, feeling somewhat faint, she
retired into the parlor to lie upon a lounge, where she was found dead in two or three
minutes afterwards. It is thought that she died of some affection of the heart.
Sister Goodrich was the daughter of Luke and Lydia Maxson, and was born in Petersburg,
N. Y. She united when upwards of twenty years of age with the Seventh-day Baptist Church
in that place. Upon her marriage, she removed to Alfred, N. Y., and identified her
religious interests with the First Alfred Church, in which she was an active member until
the winter of 1839, when with her family, and some friends, she started for Milton, Wis.
Here they arrived on the 4th of March of that year. Through her suggestions and influence
a meeting for worship and for study of the Scriptures was opened upon the first Sabbath
after their arrival, and maintained almost weekly until a church was formed in the year of
1843. To this Society she has been a mother in Israel. Until her departure she ceased
not to be interested in the promotion of its welfare in her prayers, her counsels, and her
large liberality. Her praise is in the church.
She has left a deeply afflicted family and a large circle of mourning relatives, to
whom her loss is irreparable. Their great consolation is that she is among those of whom
it is written, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; they rest from their labors, and
their works do follow them."
The community mourn her departure as that of a most valuable and esteemed friend. Her
amiable disposition, her ready sympathy, and her active benevolence, had endeared her to a
large number of acquaintances. Interested in the formation and growth of a new
settlement, she had frequent opportunities to exhibit the kindness and Christian grace of
her heart in assisting both temporally and spiritually many households, which always
gladly received her and now regard her loss with poignant grief. A large and sympathizing
congregation attended the funeral exercises and followed her remains to the burial.
Our social, reformatory, and religious enterprises have lost a faithful advocate and
supporter. She has dedicated much time and property to the establishment and fostering of
the Academy in the place, and to the education of many young people. She has sacrificed
temporal ease and comfort to keep a public house, where intoxicating liquors would be
excluded, and where our Seventh-day friends visiting this country could be hospitably
entertained. She has expended systematically for many years a considerable amount of her
earthly substance for missionary purposes. Her last public donation was the pledge of
twenty-five dollars to our Foreign Missionary cause. Nearly all the property which she
received from the estates of her father and Maxson Green, was devoted to benevolent
objects. She purchased soon after her arrival in this country a quantity of land, the
income of which she annually gave away. May her examples of piety, kindness, and large
benevolence be long remembered and imitated by an afflicted community. W. C. W.
