TNGenWeb Project/TNGenNet, Inc., (a Tennessee nonprofit public benefit corporation). "The Howard-Smith Collection" Transcription copyright: 1998, by Mrs. F. A. Augsbury; all rights reserved. The originals are at the McClung Library in Knoxville. This file is in text format. Please use your browser's "back" button to return to the previous page. ******************************************************************************** To: J. Howard Smith From: Anna M. Scott, Orphan Asylum & Light House, Cape Palmas, Africa -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orphan Asylum & Light House Cape Palmas, Africa July 30th 1855. Rev. J. Howard Smith As Mr Scott is very busy, and will continue to be so until the vessel sails, I think, dear Mr Smith, ---stranger though I be---, I will venture to write you a few words of sympathy, and send you a copy of a note, written by your lamented brother, only three days before he died. It was the last he ever wrote. You will be struck, as we were, by the resigned and cheerful manner in which he speaks of his sufferings. The note was on business, and ends thus: "My lungs trouble me much. As fast as I get them clean I take fresh cold-and thus I am kept on my back-most of the time coughing, and throwing of masses of yellow excretions. The consequence is I get but little exercise-have no appetite-am weak, and have something like the piles, and other painful resultants. But God helps me, and is leading me all the way for my good, and future usefulness." Yes: God did help him. Oh! how often have I heard him say that his greatest comfort was his close communion with God; and that his sleepless nights were often made inexpressibly happy by his Saviour's presence. Oh! no; he was not left to suffer alone. God never deserts those in death who earnestly seek him through life. Beneath his sinking head were "the everlasting arms." Your brother, dear Mr. S., was evidently ripening for heaven. This was observed by all who saw him. His nurse tells me that when he could not sleep at night he would pray incessantly, and talk to her about heaven. She is a very good woman, one of the best of our church members. She was nursing me at the time your brother began to decline. As soon as my life was out of danger, I would give her up; for I knew it would be difficult to get one so good. He said afterward that she was a very great comfort to him. The servants were very much struck by his implicit faith in an overruling Providence. He would not take a ride, they said, without praying to God for direction. While at Cape Palmas he spent the greater part of every day with us. He could not sleep here, because the only finished rooms in the house had been newly painted; and the Dr. said it would injure him even more than me. He was a very great comfort to me. Truly "his conversation was in heaven." Sometimes he would begin to tell me how much he missed you and his cousins, but he would always check himself, and say, it was "not right to repine; for, was not God-his best friend-ever near him? Was not his compassionate Saviour ever sympathizing with his poor, trembling heart"? Speaking of death he once said, "for his part he was glad we had to lay our bodies in the grave-they were so corrupted." I cannot tell you how much we miss him! In the Church; in the heathen towns, in the family circle, we shall behold his familiar form no more forever. We were looking forward with pleasure to the day when he would join us at the Asylum. The day before he died he spoke of his sweet, airy room, which he hoped would soon be completed. It will be finished soon; but, alas! where is he? Where? Thank God, for the certain hope that "he has a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." I do feel very much for your loss. I can well imagine that the love between two brothers, of the same pursuits, tastes, and calling, was of no common character. I do not pretend to comfort you. I leave you in the hands of that precious Jesus, who wept over the grave of Lazarus. I too have tasted of the bitter cup you are now drinking. Twelve months ago my own precious brother (Dr. Steele) died at Carolla, under similar circumstances. Your brother visited his grave two days before his death, little suspecting that, in a few brief hours, he would be laid beside him. Such is life! It is a sweet spot where they now sleep. In life both of them greatly admired it. The trees and flowers bloom throughout the year, and the song of the bird is rarely absent. I know it matters little where our bodies lie; for "God will watch o'er our sleeping dust Till he shall bid it rise." Yes it must be a comfort to surviving friends to know that the graves of their loved ones in a heathen land-which they may never look upon-are protected and cared for. Mr Scott unites with me in love. That God may sustain you under this great bereavement, is the prayer of Anna M. Scott. P.S. You will receive per brig "Pierce," a paper containing an account of your brother's death. For that reason I leave much unsaid that I might say. Our hearts feel very heavy. If there is anything I can do for you do not hesitate to ask me. I have been collecting together some of his stray books. Mr Scott will forward his books, journals, clothes etc. as soon as he hears from you. He would send them by the "Pierce," but Mrs Payne advises delay until your wishes can be known. I am in favor of sending a few articles in a box. Trunks are so often broken into. Your brother was a close student. His progress in the Grebo language was astonishing for the short time devoted to it. Enclosed you will find some of your brother's hair. I am sorry that the nurse did not cut more. I do regret so much that illness prevented me being with him in his last hours. I should have thought it a great privilege. Yours most affectionately, A. M. S.