15 July 2011

A Fruit Fully Ripened for Eternity

The Quincy Whig
Thursday, January 24, 1878
Page: 4



From the "Loraine Notes"






This is the short obituary for Keziah Elliott Holden who died in Adams County, Illinois, in 1878. The last sentence struck me as slightly unusual, ending with she "passed away like a fruit fully ripened for eternity." One just has to love obituaries with phrases like that.


Keziah's son Daniel P. Holden's step-daughter likely married Montivelli Harness, the adopted son of my ancestors James and Elizabeth Rampley, in the 1880s in Adams County, Illinois. Keziah and James Rampley were first cousins. The step-daughter likely died sometime between her marriage and Montivelli's apparent re-marriage in Oklahoma in the early 1900s.


Montivelli's life is not too well documented and we're working on an update on him for an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues.