http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohwarren/Obits/corwin.htm#MatthiasCorwinSr
The Late Mrs. Gov. Corwin.
We take the following sketch of Mrs. Corwin’s life and death from the Cincinnati papers:
Mrs. Sarah Ross Corwin, relict of Gov. Thos. Corwin, died at her old home in Lebanon, at half past five o’clock Monday morning of apoplexy. She had been in unusually good spirits up to a short time before her death. On Sunday evening she retired about half past nine, and early yesterday morning expressed fears that she was suffering from indigestion. Her grandaughter awakened other members of the family, but none thought at the time that the old lady was dangerously ill. She passed away peacefully and quietly, as though dropping into a pleasant slumber.
Mrs. Corwin was the daughter of Dr. John Ross, and was born in Westchester, Pa., on July 19, 1795. On her mother’s side she was connected with John Randolph, of Roanoke Va. Her father removed to this State and settled at Lebanon in 1819. She was married to Thomas Corwin November 13, 1822, in the house where she died, her bridal chamber at that time becoming her funeral chamber at death. At the time of her marriage Thomas Corwin was a practicing attorney in Lebanon. Her brother, Thomas Ross, was a member of Congress from the Lebanon District of Ohio in 1828. Her married life, with the exception of two or three years spent in Washington during President Filmore’s term, when her husband was the Secretary of the Treasury, was spent in Lebanon, surrounded by her children. Previous to her marriage she was a member of the Society of Friends, and after that became a member of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Corwin was a woman of decidedly domestic tastes. She had little inclination for the gay and fashionable life her husband’s position would naturally place her in. Her inclinations were toward her household and her children, all of whom survive her. Of these Eva is the wife of Mr. George R. Sage, of Cincinnati; Louie the wife of the Rev. E. B. Burrows, of Mount Vernon, and Carrie, the wife of Dr. Charles Cropper, of this city. The others are Catherine F. R. Corwin and Dr. W. H. Corwin.
Mrs. Corwin was a tall and stately woman, of quite commanding presence up to within a few years of her death. Of late, in her advanced age, she was feeble and bent with age. For some time she had premonitions of death, but patiently reconciled herself with the hop frequently expressed, that she would not live until she became helpless and a care to her friends. A singular coincidence connected with her death, was in the fact that nearly all her close relatives took occasion to visit her within the few weeks preceding her death. Among these were four from Baltimore, who had not seen her for twelve or fourteen years, Governor Corwin’s sister, Mrs. Morris, of Wilmington, and her married daughters from Cincinnati and Mr. Vernon. The Loan Exhibition just closed had in a conspicuous place a handsome piece of her needlework performed in 1806.
She is remembers as a woman of remarkable common sense, whom the brilliance of public life never dazzled; a woman of great strength of character and independence, and one whom her relatives all loved to honor, and will revere long after the green sods have knitted over her grave.
The prominence of her distinguished husband, however gratifying to her pride and affection, had little influence in weaning her from quiet life here in Lebanon, and during much of his active public service she remained at their home, caring for their children, and keeping a haven of rest for him in his days of relaxation from official duty.
Perhaps in no other mansion in the State has there been dispensed more generous or genial hospitality than in the large old house which was the home of the CORWINS. The most distinguished men of the land during the honored husband’s active days in political life, were guests there, enjoying the rare geniality of the host and the true hose-wifely skill of the hostess. It was a place where the young have always felt themselves to be privileged characters in their youthful pranks, and where the visiting clergy were at liberty to gather without notice. Such homes, monuments of the peculiar and most grateful hospitality of pioneer days, are becoming very rare indeed. Few octogenarians remain privileged to enjoy for nearly three score years the protection of the same rooftree and gather friends of successive generations around the same honored hearthstone. The house, substantial and firm yet on its ancient foundations, can not hereafter be the home it was, for they who fitted it by the habits of another (can we help saying better?) days are gone – lamented, but honored.
Source: The Western Star 13 June 1878 [copy obtained from obituary collection at the Warren County Genealogical Society]
