#1-Published in the Pilot July 9, 1913

W. H. Belknap’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Anna Calkins, who has made her home with him since her husband’s death in 1893, passed peacefully away at 5:10 Monday evening, aged 90 years, 3 weeks and 1 day. She had been gradually failing for some tine, not having left her bed for about two months. She was conscious up to within a few moments of the end when her pastor, Rev. F. M. Sturdevant, called to sing and pray with her, as he did almost daily. When he had finished singing her favorite hymn, “Jesus Lover of My Soul, Let Me to Thy Boson Fly,” and rose to bid her goodbye, she had lapsed into unconsciousness. Death soon came like the lighting of a dove.

The funeral will be held at the Baptist Church at 2 o’clock this afternoon, and the frail old body will be laid to rest in the Blair Cemetery.

Anna Scott, was born near Manchester, Va., the place made memorable by the famous ride of General Phil Sheridan to the battlefield “twenty miles away,” only it was long and long before that famous ride was made, for it was June 15th, 1823, the last year of President Monroe’s last term.

At the age of 14 she removed with her parents to Delphi, Ind., and was there married to Mr. Louis Royster. Two children were born to them, Emma, who afterwards became Mrs. W. H. Belknap, and Stanhope, both of whom have long since been dead. Her husband, a physician, got the gold fever, in’49 and went to Pike’s Peaks, where he contracted mountain fever and died. When the son was old enough he went out to see about some mining claims his father left and he, too died.

In 1866 was married to Sullivan Calkins and in ’69 they moved to Kansas. In ’82 Mrs. Calkins nearly lost her life in a tornado, receiving injuries from which she never fully recovered. Mr. Calkins died in 1893, in Yonkers, N. Y., and from that time Mrs. Calkins made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Belknap. They moved to this state in 1896 and Mrs. Belknap died in November, 1897.

In early life, Mrs. Calkins joined the Methodist Church, uniting with the Baptist Church some twenty years ago. Concerning the latter event she wrote Mrs. Belknap: “I was baptized Sunday night, April 11, 1894. May the Lord bless and help me to live a Christian life, and in the end take me home to meet the dear friends who have gone on before.” That prayer was longer deferred than she thought at the time, but her beautiful life has been a blessing and a benediction to all who have come in contact with her through the long years since them. And for her those years have been softened by every care and attention that Mr. Belknap and his family could give. Her long life is ended but her influence will live on for many, many years. She leaves two sisters, Mrs. Barry, of Pilot Mound, Ia., and Mrs. Petty, of Hebron, Neb., the latter having come several days ago to help care for and be near her sister when the end came.

#2-Published in The Tribune, July 9, 1913

MRS. CALKINS DEAD

Mrs. Anne Calkins died at the home of her son-in-law, W. H. Belknap, in this city at five o’clock Monday afternoon, July 7, aged 90 years.

Mrs. Calkins was born in Virginia in 1823. She leaves two sisters, one in Iowa and the other in Nebraska. She has made her home with Mr. Belknap for the past twenty years.

The funeral services will be held from the Baptist church at two o’clock tomorrow afternoon and interment will be made in the Blair cemetery. Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file at the Blair Public library.