Sunday's Obituary ~ Peace Wherever She Goes

Eliza T. McSherry
b. January 05, 1827 - d. March 25, 1868 wife of 1st cousin 5x removed of husband
buried - St. Aloyisus Cemetery, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Added paragraph breaks for ease of reading.
"To the memory of Mrs. Eliza T. McSherry, wife of William McSherry, Esq., of Littlestown, Pa., and daughter of our venerated fellow citizen, Dr. McSherry of Martinsburg.

The recent death of this excellent lady who departed this life, on the 25th day of March, at her residence near Littlestown, has carried sorrow to the hearts of many of our citizens who knew her in her youthful days, who have always rejoiced to welcome her, in her visits to her native place.
She was best known to those who could remember her fine acquirements as a scholar and who had the opportunities of tracing her up through life as wife, mother, daughter and friend. She was modest, retiring, while dignified and quiet in her manners and deportment.

Her 'voice was not heard in the streets,' her presence not found in the scenes of gaiety and dissipation, but she was a fair and faithful example of the wise matron so beautifully portrayed in the last chapter of the book of Proverbs. 'She opened her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue was the law of kindness.'

She has left nine children, - 'They rise up and call her blessed,' - 'her husband also, and he praiseth her.'
She died as she lived - calm, self-poised, resting upon her God and Saviour, and desiring, when she inquired and was told she would probably die, that nothing of worldly care or concern should interfere with her holy meditations and last devotions.

She was a consistent member of the church of her fathers - The Roman Catholic Church - and died in that Communion.
One of her neighbors once told a near relative of hers (whom he did not know to be related to her): 'Mrs. McSherry! ah, yes, she always makes peace wherever she goes' - and now in a higher sense, may she rest in peace, Amen!" - From the Martinsburg New Era, April 2d, 1868.
Mrs. McSherry did not need the aid of her distinguished ancestry to win for herself the admiration and love of those who knew her. Her intelligence, beauty, refinement, and kindness of heart indicated superior origin.

She was of a family distinguished for service to church and state. On her father's side she was a descendant of Samuel Lilly, the first, who came from Bristol, England, and settled in Conowago, Penn'a, in 1730; Lord Baltimore, to whom they were related. She was the daughter of Richard McSherry, the second, a distinguished physician, of Martinsburg, Virginia, and Ann Catherine King, a daughter of George King, a prominent merchant, of Georgetown, D.C.

She was born in Martinsburg, Jan. 5th, 1827. Her mother died when her daughter was about ten years old. She was educated at the Academy of the Visitation, Georgetown, D.C., where she graduated.
On Tuesday, October 15th, 1844, she was married to Wm. McSherry (not a relative), a young lawyer, of Adams county, Pa. He was then twenty-three, and she was not yet eighteen years of age. If any marriage was ever happy and perfect, this one was.

Both parties were young, well educated, and of high social standing. The young wife yet blushing from her graduating honors, was beautiful in her bridal array. Her every moment, full of grace, added charm to her rounded form. Intelligence and affection beamed from her dark eyes; and her black hair gracefully encircled her fair brow, while the blush of health added beauty to her dimpled cheeks.
Her many charms, with her youth and beauty, at once gained for her many friends in her new Pennsylvania home. Her practical charity, so quietly bestowed, soon won for her the friendship of the poor and needy.

For nearly a quarter of a century no domestic trial had come to mar the pleasure of those two who had started out together to share the joys and sorrows of life.
She, who had come to the happy home with the flowers of May but three short years ago, was with the roses of June to fade and die.

Lilly was the youngest child and yet the first to be called away. She joined the Angels, June 18th, 1866. The mother's grief was too deep for human consolation; but mother and child were not long to be separated.

Death too soon called again to break up the once happy home. Amid the snows of March, 1868, the 25th, - the anniversary of Gabriel's salutation tn (sp) the Virgin Mary, 'blessed art thou among women," - the angel child welcomed its sainted mother to everlasting happiness."

Memorial from "History of Saint Aloysius Church of Littlestown, Pennsylvania" by William McSherry, Jr., A.M., published Gettysburg: J.E. Wible, Printer, Carlisle Street (Second Square), 1893, Google Books, pgs. 90-92.