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(NOTE:  Wife of James N. Drane - brother of T.J. Drane)

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James N. Drane

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IN MEMORIAM

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Died--At her home, in Durant, Miss., on the 28th of December, 1886, Mrs. Cecilia N.  Cully, wife of James N. Drane.

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The subject of this memoir was born in Mumfordville, Hart county, Ky., June 29th, 1824.  She was of Presbyterian parentage--a child of the covenant.  In early life, she gave her young heart, with its sweet and tender affection to the Lord Jesus, and united with the Presbyterian Church.  Her subsequent life of forty-five years witnessed the sincerity of her first love and the completeness of her consecration to her redeeming  God.

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She was happily married to Mr. Drane, September 21st, 1848.  In 1855, they moved to Mississippi, and in February 1856, settled in Raymond, where they continued to reside until the Fall of 1876 when they removed to Durant.

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At the time of their settlement in Raymond, there was only one other Presbyterian in the village.  It was my pleasure to make their acquaintance in 1858.  I was then supplying the Lebanon church, in Hinds county, two Sabbath's a month..  The church was fifty miles from my home--ten miles beyond Raymond.  "The Prophet's Chamber" in their hospitable house was always in readiness for me and for any minister of the everlasting Gospel.  They felt quite lost in their new home without Presbyterian preaching and a church of their own choice.  At their earnest solicitation, I used to return from Lebanon, of a Sabbath eve, and preach at night in an upper room in Raymond.  Thus, through their influence and an occasional sermon by the wayside, the way was made clear for the Rev. I.J. Daniel to organize the Raymond Presbyterian church in 1860, with eight members.  Mr. Drane was ordained a ruling elder.  The war came and ceased, but the band of disciples remained true to the Master and to one another.  After the war, though few and weak, they realized the urgent need to have a home of their own in which to worship the Lord Jehovah.  It seemed like a hopeless task amid their dark surroundings.  The thicker the darkness, the brighter doth faith shine.  Real faith in God never finds an obstacle too great to be surmounted.  Mrs. Drane was especially intent on building a church.  So she, with a few other good ladies, undertook the work by issuing circulars and sending them to distant friends.  Thus, they realized several hundred dollars.  With this the foundations of the building were laid, and forward the good work went, until a neat and substantial house of worship was completed and paid for; and there it stands, the monument of a working faith.

The Raymond Church is largely indebted--under God--for its organization and for its house of worship to Mrs. Drane.  The deceased was to the last an earnest Christian worker. Her hands were quick to reach out in a helping grasp to the weak, and her feet were swift on errands of mercy to the needy.  Nothing but sickness could detain her from her Sunday school room and the sanctuary.  And it was most befitting that the messenger sent to call her up higher should find her with her class in the Sabbath school.  She was conveyed home and, in a few days, in meek submission and holy joy, she laid her armor off--burnished by use--for the victor's crown.  "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

But it was within the hallowed precincts of home that her Christian graces shone with even greater lustre.  Then, for more than thirty-eight years the heart of her husband did safely and lovingly trust in her.  She made his home happy beyond expression--it was to him the sweetest, the dearest spot on earth.  She did him good and not evil all the days of her life, and was faithful even unto death.  Her life was a sacred stream, in whose clear depths the beautiful and pure alone were mirrored.  But she is not, for God hath taken her.  That delicate vase of mortality is dispersed, and the beauteous exotic that blooms so long therein is transplanted in the eternal garden of our God.  

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     "Where loved ones shall greet us again

       In the beautiful world of the blest."

     "A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised; 

       For her price is far above rubies."

C.M.A. 

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(NOTE: the following obituary was written by T.J. Drane - relationship unknown)

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DEATHS

Departed this life, near Nicholasville, Ky., sister Elizabeth W. Mitchell, consort of Bro. James A. Mitchell. and daughter of Moses Wilson of Fayette county.  Sister Mitchell was 31 years of age when she died.  She was baptized into the fellowship of the  Baptist Church at David's Fork, by Rev. R.T. Dillard, in the fall of 1837, after which she became a resident of Jasamine county where she ended her career, a member of the Baptist Church at Nicholasville, and was in the constitution of said church., February 1849.  As a member of the Church of Christ, not an indiscretion was ever marked against sister Mitchell, but on the contrary, the influence of her deep-toned piety was felt by all with whom she associated--and to say that she was an extra woman is but to echo the sentiment of all who knew her; she was a devoted wife, am affectionate mother, and a kind mistress, kind and unobtrusive in her entire deportment.  Sister Mitchell, when impressed with the belief that her sun of life was fast declining, evinced no alarm, but gave satisfactory evidence of her preparation and willingness to meet death.  We feel that in this instance, death has chosen a prominent member of our church--torn from the fond embrace of a devoted husband, the wife who by her gentle disposition smoothed the rugged path of life--and robbed four interesting children, one an infant, of a fond and watchful mother.  May the Lord sustain the afflicted family and relatives, and may the afflictions be satisfied and serve to bind the bereaved ones closer to the throne of God.

T.J.D.

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