Isabella and Samuel were married Christmas Day, 1834. After living side-by-side 61 years, they died the same day, side-by-side, in the same bed. Now they rest always, side-by-side.
Samuel and Isabella were married 187 years ago this coming Christmas Day — December 25, 1834. The couple lived together for the next 61 years. They farmed in the same community, raised a family of nine children, attended worship most every Sunday, experienced all the ups and downs of a very common and rugged life in rural northeast Missouri in the 19th century. They lived through the Civil War, facing all kinds of dangers, toils and snares …in the same way all their neighbors had (during the Civil War more civilians died in Missouri than in any other state). When buried, they were within shouting distance of their first home — the home they went to the day of their wedding…and where they lived most of their lives. The old homestead literally could be seen from the cemetery.
In short, their life was about as ordinary as farmers’ lives could possibly be between 1834 and 1894 on the Missouri frontier. There’s no particular reason you would have heard of Samuel and Isabella Inlow, great grandparents of all those descended from Mabel and W.H. Inlow (they are my – Hart’s – great great grandparents…they are Babe Inlow Hamilton’s great grandparents…you can calculate their relationship to you from there).
Despite that, when they died their story appeared in newspapers all over Missouri, including the ‘big city’ newspapers – which usually were much too busy to care about simple farmers from northeast Missouri. Family members saved, and have passed down for generations, newspaper clippings about them. Now I’m posting this because I’m hoping whole new generations of their grandchildren will, upon learning about Samuel and Isabella, be similarly touched and inspired by their love story.
Actually, we know little about them, except the circumstances of their deaths. But those circumstances seem to speak volumes about how they lived together, and the high regard which all those who knew and shared life with them, had for them.
I’ll post one of the actual newspaper accounts for you to read yourself, but here’s the gist of it. Near the end of the 61st of their years together their health deteriorated to the point they could no long live in their own home, by themselves. So they went to live with their son, Thornton Riley Inlow, and his wife, Geneva Seely Inlow (those are parents of our grandfather, W. H. Inlow…and noteworthy ancestors in their own right). In January, 1896, they both fell ill with pneumonia. Up to that point they had insisted on staying together, in the same room…sleeping together in the same bed. Their children urged them to move into separate rooms where they could be more comfortable and, hopefully, recover more quickly. But Samuel and Isabella responded, “why separate us now, when we have journeyed together so long and never been separated?” They insisted on staying together.
On the 16th of January, 1896, about 2:00 in the afternoon, Isabella died. About four hours later, at 6:30 p.m., Samuel died. One of the newspaper accounts said it this way: “When their Master was ready to call them, they were both called at once, there being but a few hours between. They died on the same bed, and were buried in the same grave.”
A 61 year love affair…then they left this life to enter the next, together.
Another account added, “Their remains were followed to Pleasant Hill Cemetery by a long procession of mourning relatives and friends, and they sleep there, side by side, in one grave, in plain view of the old Inlow mansion, where 61 years ago last Christmas Day they came home a happy young bride and groom.”
I don’t know about you, but it stirs something deep in my heart to know that’s part of my lineage and heritage. I’m proud Samuel and Isabella are my great great grandparents. I’m challenged by the example of their love and commitment to one another, and the knowledge they simply wanted to be together. After sixty-one years, there was no place they wanted to be more, than just to be next to one another.
Photo Album — Pleasant Hill Cemetery – Samuel and Isabella Inlow
