MRS. STRINGER DIES AT ELVINS
Was Last Surviving Real Daughter of the Revolution in Missouri --
Her Father Was With Washington at Valley Forge
Mrs. Sarah Stringer, aged 94 years, 10 months
and 15 days, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. M. A. Langdon, Wednesday, December 15
[1915]. The funeral service was conducted this morning by Rev. M. T. Webb, of the Bismarck
Baptist Church. Mrs. Stringer had lived for many years in Bismarck and her remains were
taken there for burial.
The death of Mrs. Stringer removes from Missouri
the only real daughter of the revolution. In the entire United States there are only
thirty-eight daughters of soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary
War known to be still living. She was a member of Nancy Hunter Chapter, {Missouri} Daughters of the
American Revolution.
Mrs. Stringer was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, January
28, 1821--the year Missouri was admitted to the union. She was the daughter of John Andrew
Smith, a soldier of the revolution. Her father was born April 7, 1754, and died in
Lawrence county, Indiana, November 22, 1836.
In August, 1777, he enlisted as a private soldier under Capt.
Elias Edmunds in Col. Thomas Marshall's Virginia regiment of artillery, and served until
August 27, 1780, when he was honorably discharged by Capt. Spiller, at Richmond, Va.
In 1835 Mrs. Stringer was married to George Stringer, who died
in August, 1878. She was the mother of twelve children, only two of whom are now living --
Mrs. M. A. Langdon, of Elvins, with whom she has made her home since the death of her
husband, and Mrs. Hattie Clifton, of DeSoto.
Mrs. Stringer's health had not been good for more than a year,
but up until that time she possessed both her physical and mental vigor to a remarkable
degree. Her father was with Washington's army during the terrible winter at Valley
Forge. She was proud of his military record, and delighted to repeat stories she had
heard him relate of that memorable campaign, in which the fathers of the Republic fought,
bled and died for the liberty which this country now enjoys.
At one time her father, she said, became detached from a corps
of soldiers with whom he was doing duty and lost his way. Before he found his way back to
camp he suffered severely with the cold, and was so badly frost-bitten that he lost three
of his fingers and all of the toes of his left foot.
Mrs. Stringer remembered distinctly the excitement and terror
occasioned by the falling
of the stars in 1833. The heavens, she said, literally rained fire. The people were
panic stricken, and thought the world was coming to an end.
She was an exceptional bible student and possessed such a
retentive memory that she was able to repeat whole chapters of scripture. This she was
able to do up until a week before her death, notwithstanding the fact that for several
years she had been unable to see sufficiently to read.
THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Fri. Dec. 17, 1915,
page 1.
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