Transcribed by Wendy L.MAYFIELD,
and graciously provided by Betty Massicot.
Mrs. Margaret MASSICOT
After an illness of several
months, Mrs. Margaret MASSICOT died at the
home of her daughter, Mrs. Otto SCHMIDT, Baltimore Md., on Mar. 12,
at the age
of 73 years. In early life she was received by confirmation into
the
fellowship of St. Paul's German Church, under the pastorate of the
late Dr.
MARCUS BACHMANN, who afterwards officiated at her marriage to Mr. ROBERT
MASSICOT. Five children were born to them, two sons, and three
daughters, of
whom four, all of them married, remain, with their families to mourn
the
departure of Grandmother MASSICOT.
In 1890, an infant daughter
died, and three years later, at the early
age of 39, the father followed the child into the unseen world, thus
leaving
the widowed mother in sole charge of the remaining four young children
and
responsible for their Christian upbringing. To that responsibility
Mrs.
MASSICOT addressed herself with exemplary Christian fortitude, and
with a
devotion and fidelity that were truly admirable and successful.
Within a few months after
the founding of Faith Church in the
neighborhood of their residence, Mr. and Mrs. MASSICOT identified themselves
with it, under the ministry of Dr. A.S. WEBER, who at Mrs. MASSICOT's
funeral
declared that through the 35 years following there was no one more
loyal and
useful that this humble widow. The reason for the transfer of
their membership
from one congregation to another, was her desire to give the advantages
of an
English Sunday School to her children, and her husband the privilege
of
worshipping in a Church whose preaching he could understand.
He was of French
antecedents. The outcome proved the wisdom of the step the mother
decided to
take. Her husband, all of whose relations belonged to another
branch of the
Church, very soon became a communicant of the Protestant Church, as
did her
children in the course of the years that followed. This was a
source of not a
little satisfaction to Mrs. MASSICOT's mother-heart-to see her entire
family,
like herself, vitally related to the Saviour and actively engaged in
forwarding
the interests of His Church. In early manhood one son became
a deacon in the
congregation; the other an active worker in Sunday School and a leader
in young
peoples work. One daughter's husband became an elder in the Church
and the
other's husband a deacon, both of them coming from other than Reformed
communions. And while all this was no doubt largely due to the
mother's fine,
unobtrusive Christian character, it must not be supposed that her personal
religious influence was restricted to her family circle. Her
consecrated life
counted for much in the Church, in the community, among her friends
and
neighbors. Her humble, consistent, child-like devotion to the
Lord was an
inspiration to all who came in touch with her. It won their interest
in the
Church, and silently led them to seek the peace, the joy and the comfort
which
were radiant in her beautiful life. Her example wielded a constant
and growing
spiritual power. She was regularly in her place at public worship,
never
absent at the celebration of the Holy Communion, all through the years
helpfully and self sacrificingly active in the missionary society and
in other
forms of good work. She was intelligently interested in the enterprises
of the
Church at large, and unfailingly ready to do what she could do to promote
the
coming of the Kingdom of her Lord. Her's was a blessed and joyous
and fruitful
Christian career.
Mrs. MASSICOT will be greatly
missed by her pastor and by all who were
associated with her for so many years in Faith Church. She will
not be
forgotten by them. They will cherish the memory of her and her
abounding
services in the years to come. By her children and grand children
she will, of
course, be even more greatly missed, particularly in the family group
in which
in these later years she received the most gracious and tender attentions
to
the very last.
Funeral services were conducted
by her pastor, Dr. CHARLES. E. WEHLER,
with the assistance of Dr. A. S. WEBER, on Mar. 15, at the residence
of Mr. and
Mrs. SCHMIDT, with whom she made her home the past 22 years.
"Well done, good
and faithful servant, enter thou into joy of thy Lord."
-W.