UnmaIn Memorandum_Maude Harman, daughter of Solomon & Sarah Harman, was born in Pendleton Co., WV March 19, 1874. At the age of 8 years she removed with her parents to KS, living at Valley Falls for 5 years & in Topeka for the same period. The family then moved to Las Vegas, NM. At this place on Saturday, March 14, 1896, her death occurred. On the following Wednesday beautiful & fitting funeral services were conducted at Topeka, in the presence of many sincerely mourning relatives & friends. The remains were taken to the Topeka Cemetery where they were consigned by the side of a loved sister, gone before. Within the last year the deceased suffered from a lingering fever which caused a vast drain of her vitality. Though apparently improving for a time, she was yet very susceptible to the encroachment of disease, & it is thought by physicians who made a study of her case that pneumonia, almost universally fatal in that locality, was the immediate cause of her death. Many welcome, joyous visits were made by Maude from her happy home in Las Vegas back to KS, her last visit ending so recently on Feb. 1 1896, when she started home after a month's stay with dear friends in Valley Falls & Topeka, expecting to return in September to attend the State Agricultural College at Manhattan. The sorrowful shock experienced by her many friends upon receipt of the sad intelligence of her death can be realized only by those into whose garden the Death angel has come to gather the fairest, sweetest blossom there. From childhood Maude was blessed with a merry, affectionate disposition that made her loved by all. And beneath this sunny exterior, her near friends found developing with the years, a character, not only genial & loving, but a character, rich with the power of a generous, self sacrificing, girlish heart. Her patience through the months of suffering, her thoughtful, loving consideration of those about her at all times, her sweet soul, shining through the beautiful loved form & features will remain ever with those bereft as the strongest inspiration toward all that is pure and good.
Maude is Asleep.
In a home among the mountains
'Mid their splendor, grand and wild,
Came to dwell one happy morning,
A treasure true, a little child.
Sweet and graceful as a wild flower
Grew the lass, who romped and played
Till aft the wee brown head drooped drowsy
When, stepping soft, the mother said,
"Maude is asleep."
Childhold's fleeting hours soon over,
all it's griefs and pleasures flown.
Leave its still our blue eyed Maude
Taller, fairer, gra_er grown.
Ever gentle, cheery, loving.
She helped to guide the true home _ark
Father's right hand, mother's comfort
When lo! A voice came whispering-
Hark!
"Maude is asleep."
Tread ye soft or tread ye heavy.
"I will not wake the sleeper now.
Griefs of home, of friends, of loved ones
Cloud no more the quiet brow,
All the plans, the aspirations,
The name of love, by sweet hope fawned
All, all are o'er, their mission ended.
An while as still as that dear hand,
Maude is asleep.
______ _____ the laughing spring days
So __ the young life, just begun,
That the frost of death has blighted.
If a glad beam from the sun
Pierce a prison cell; the darkness
Thrice as black follow that ray.
The prisoner is purer, better.
Having once behald sweet day,
Maud is asleep.
And the darkest gloom enshroud us,
O, we miss our darling's face
Earth is fairer, brighter, better,
Having been her dwelling place.
Where the western flowers bloom beauteous,
Violets blue, like Maud's own eyes,
There the robin and the brown thrush,
Sing softly, sweetly where she lies.
Maude is asleep.
_The Vindicator, Valley Falls, KS, 1896
Contributor: Sue Holmes (48736055)
rried source from brother Harper Harman posted on his mothers memorial.