THE DAILY COURIER, FRIDAY OCTOBER 30, 1903

VENERABLE CENTENARIAN PASSES TO REWARD

Mrs. Sarah Flowers, the Oldest Resident of Zanesville, Died Thursday Evening at the Home of Her Daughter, Mrs. Martha Moore.

CAME TO THIS COUNTY EARLY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
With Band of Sturdy Pioneers Who Sought New Homes in the Fertile Valley of the Muskingum
Saw the Fifth Generation of Her Family.

    Mrs. Sarah Flowers, a venerable pioneer who enjoyed the distinction of being the most remarkable citizen of Zanesville and perhaps the oldest resident of the state, died Thursday evening at 10:45 o'clock at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Martha Moore, on Wayne avenue, at the age of one hundred years, six months and twelve days.

    Mrs Flowers was a remarkable woman in many ways. Up until within the past five years she enjoyed robust health. Her last sickness was a general decline due to her extreme age and not to the ravages of disease. Her memory was remarkably clear and she was able to give vivid accounts of many of the stirring scenes which transpired during the early history of the state.

    In February, 1901, Mrs. Flowers received a severe fall from which she never fully recovered. For the past twenty years Dr. S. F. Edgar had attended Mrs. Flowers whenever she had need of the services of a physician and he announced a few days ago that the end was near.

    The deceased is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Martha Moore, and Mrs. Charlotte Daughtery of this city and a daughter, Harriett, who resides in Illinois. In addition to these fifteen grandchildren, thirty eight great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren are left to mourn the death of the venerable centenarian.

    The funeral services will be held Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock from the St. James Episcopal church. The interment will be made in Greenwood Cemetery.

    Mrs. Sarah Flowers was born in Loudon County, Virginia, on the seventeenth day of April, 1803. A family by the name of Trout adopted her at birth and but little is known of her antecedents. Mr. Trout removed from Virginia to Ohio in the summer of 1809. Mrs. Flowers was then so small that she had to ride in the wagon.

    The journey over the mountains was long and tiresome. Settlers were but few and far between and the pioneers were forced to carry everything with them for their subsistence. Bears and other wild animals were so plentiful that guards had to be placed about the stock each night lest it should be killed by the beasts of the wood.

    When the sturdy settlers came to the Ohio river they were forced to ferry. The wagon with its precious freight was placed in safety. All of the farm yard animals were forced into the river and made to swim after the boat.

    After crossing the river Mr. Trout came over the hills to the Muskingum Valley, where he thought he had found the place he was seeking. He took land a few miles down the river from Zanesville, but soon became dissatisfied and moved to Perry county, Upon their departure Mrs. Flowers was adopted into Mr. Ellison's family, near neighbors. They lived in a log cabin on the east side of the Muskingum just below what is now the McHenry farm.

    About this cabin, Mrs. Flowers spent her girlhood and learned the useful arts of spinning and weaving. The pioneers raised their own flax, which Mrs. Flowers helped to bleach, hackle, card and spin. They also carded, spun and wove their own wool. After a woolen mill was erected their better garments were made there.

    At the age of sixteen Miss Trout left the Ellison family and came to Zanesville, where she entered the home of James and Harriet Caldwell as a domestic. They lived in the brick house on Sixth Street just above South. For many years she stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell and in 1831 became the wife of Timothy Flowers, a butcher.

    Eight children were born of this union. Sarah was the oldest, followed by James, William, Martha, Harriet, Charlotte, Mary and Elizabeth in order named. James died in childhood, and Mary lived but three years. Martha, Harriet and Charlotte are still living. Harriet lives in Illinois, while Martha and Charlotte are residents of Zanesville.

    For a short time Mr. and Mrs. Flowers lived near McConnelsville. One day in 1834 when her husband was absent, the bears came into the garden. Mrs. Flowers had a narrow escape, but managed to get into the cabin and bar the door. When the bears saw that the couldn't get her they proceeded to demolish the garden. The guns were in the house, but there was no ammunition, so all Mrs. Flowers could do was to await the arrival of her husband, who drove the animals away with the assistance of neighbors.

    During the cholera epidemic about 1852 Mr. and Mrs. Flowers lived in the property in the rear of the Caldwell house. Here her oldest daughter, Sarah, died at the age of twenty years. While Sarah lay dead on one side of the room, her two sisters, Martha and Elizabeth, battled with death on the other. Soon after the epidemic of cholera the family moved into a log house, that served as a barracks during the war of 1812.

    Mrs. Flowers was but a little child in 1812, but she could remember of the raising of recruits and of the men leaving their farms and going to war. The barracks was on Third street adjoining the old Wheeler foundry, now Jones' foundry. It was a two-story log house. Here the wedding of her fourth child, Martha, was celebrated.

    After several years residence on Third street their next home was on Sixth street, where the Roekel flats are now located. This was during the fifties and John Ford had a tin shop on the corner of Sixth and Main at that time. From Sixth street, the family moved into a house by Hall's planing mill on Third street, then to the Freeman house on the corner of Hughes an Roe streets. Her next home was in the Turrell property on North Seventh street. From Seventh street Mr. and Mrs. Flowers removed to a brick property on Hughes street owned by a Mr. Wilson. In this house Timothy Flowers, the husband and father died of paralysis during the last year of the civil war.

    After the father's death, the family lived on Eighth street, near South. Next they went to Fourth street, where the patrol house now stands, then to the corner of Seventh and Hughes, next on Eighth in a cottage, adjoining Millfelts. From that place Mrs. Flowers moved to the pleasant home on Wayne avenue, which is owned by her granddaughter, Miss Annie Moore.

    Mrs. Flowers had lived in or near Zanesville ever since the city, then a town with brush in the lanes, was the capital of the state. Her recollection went back to the time when that flat boatmen loaded their crafts with salt, furs and wool and carried them to New Orleans. She distinctly remembered when there were no bridges at Zanesville and ferries were used. Buckingham's tragic death on the Y bridge August 17, 1832, was fresh in her memory, as well as the construction of the canals when communication was opened between Cleveland and New Orleans. She also recalled the building of the old Third street bridge in 1845. A number of her personal friends were in the Mexican war and during her childhood she knew "Old Pensioner Davis" a revolutionary soldier. She gave up her only living son for her country during the war of the rebellion. This was William, who was a corporal in Company F, 178th regiment, Ohio Volunteer infantry. He died in 1863 at the hospital at Washington park, Cincinnati, of fever contracted in the army.

    The execution of Shoemaker made a deep impression on her mind. It was the first legal execution in this country. Mrs. Flowers remembered what a stormy day it was and how she saw Shoemaker sitting in the buggy with the rope about his neck, talking to the sheriff.

    Mrs. Flowers narrowly escaped being caught in the ruins of the market house when the building collapsed. She had been to market and had returned as far as Kerker's on Market street, when the structure fell, killing one person and fatally injuring several.

submitted by Leslie Bevens