Staats, Jacob Sr.

Passed: 1857-07-20

Age: 62

Source:

Death Notice:

Obituary Date: 1857-07-25

Information: Jacob Staats, Sr, died at his residence near Ripley, Jackson County, Va., on the 20th day of July, 1857.  He was born in Harrison County Va., on the 6th day of May, A. D. 1795, being at the time of his decease 62 year 2 months and 15 days old.  He made a profession of the religion of the Saviour at an early age and connected himself with the M. E. Church at the 16th year of his age, in which he lived a worthy and consistent member to the time of his death.  At the time of the division of the M. E. Church, he took his position with the South.  At the age of 19 years he was joined in holy matrimony to Miss Eleanor Evans, who still survives to mourn her loss.  Brother Staats had been for many years a subject of affliction, being deprived partially of his hearing he was cut off to a considerable extent from those social and religious enjoyments, connected with the intercourse of friend and ""communion of saints"".  When permitted he could say, "" I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord.""  The last time he attended the house of God, after service, in the class room in looking around and seeing so few present, he said to his pastor: ""others may forsake this place, yet by God's grace here shall be my delight as long as I live.""  The last few years of his life were, more than they ever had been before, given up to the service of God, and very frequently he referred to his approaching dissolution.  Placing his tempsral affairs in charge of one of his sons, he balanced his own accounts ready for his final settlement.  On the 7th of July, on visiting his saw mill to prepare some fingers for a cradel for one of his sons, by the springing of the timber his right hand was thrown against a circular saw which took off one of his fingers and cut the thumb and other fingers partly off from which he suffered so much that in a few days it threw him into the lock jaw which soon closed his earthly existence.  All his sufferings were born with christian resignation, he said to his friends, ""If I live all is well, and if I die all is well."" On being asked by Bro. King, who sat near him if ""his sky was bright,"" not being able to speak he twice nodded assent.  He selected and pointed out to his son the place where he should be buried, and also selected the text for his funeral discourse, from which on the 21st inst the writer preached his funeral, it being that beautiful language of the Psalmist (Psa. 61 2) ""Lead me to the rock that is highter than I"", to a large assembly of weeping relatives and sympathising friends.  He leaves a widow and many children and grandchildren to morn for him. A christian soldier has fallen in the battlefield with his face zionward. July 25, 1857   George D. Poage. From the Virginia Chronicle newspaper (Burial in Old Settler's Cemetery in Ripley)