"The anniversary of our dear Mother’s death. Twenty six years ago at 4 P.M. she breathed her last, and oh, what a change was made in all the future, for all her family, 10 children of various ages, from the infant of six weeks to the grown up girl of 21 years, were to go on the rest of their lives without a mother, the most necessary, the most valuable of earthly friends, & what an experience has been ours! Such an experience through all these long years that we never could forget even for a brief space our bitter, bitter loss. And such an experience has it been to me that the three words “a motherless child” have more of sorrow, more of wretchedness attached to them than any other three words that can be put together. Oh, my mother, my mother, how faithfully you have been remembered, but it has been with suffering & bitter tears. I often dream of her yet and she is always in some familiar household scene. We feel sensibly, I more so with increasing years, that it is an invaluable blessing to have a father, and a great privilege to have a home. We seldom prize these enough until they are gone from us & are beyond our reach."
In another journal entry, on April 29, 1860, Julia states that her mother was first buried in Rush, at some sacred burial ground, and then was removed to Avon after twenty years had passed. She says it was done without her knowledge, and that she only found out afterward. She was not happy about it, as she says "it is dreadful to have to disturb the remains of the dead. It is better to let them moulder to dust where they are first laid;"
"The anniversary of our dear Mother’s death. Twenty six years ago at 4 P.M. she breathed her last, and oh, what a change was made in all the future, for all her family, 10 children of various ages, from the infant of six weeks to the grown up girl of 21 years, were to go on the rest of their lives without a mother, the most necessary, the most valuable of earthly friends, & what an experience has been ours! Such an experience through all these long years that we never could forget even for a brief space our bitter, bitter loss. And such an experience has it been to me that the three words “a motherless child” have more of sorrow, more of wretchedness attached to them than any other three words that can be put together. Oh, my mother, my mother, how faithfully you have been remembered, but it has been with suffering & bitter tears. I often dream of her yet and she is always in some familiar household scene. We feel sensibly, I more so with increasing years, that it is an invaluable blessing to have a father, and a great privilege to have a home. We seldom prize these enough until they are gone from us & are beyond our reach."
In another journal entry, on April 29, 1860, Julia states that her mother was first buried in Rush, at some sacred burial ground, and then was removed to Avon after twenty years had passed. She says it was done without her knowledge, and that she only found out afterward. She was not happy about it, as she says "it is dreadful to have to disturb the remains of the dead. It is better to let them moulder to dust where they are first laid;"
Family Members
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Elizabeth Ann Wilbur Van Wagoner
1812–1879
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Angeline Wilbur Van Wagoner
1812–1891
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Julia Ann Wilbur
1815–1895
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Theodore Edward Wilbur
1817–1858
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Frances Mary Wilbur Hartwell
1819–1902
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Henry Lapham Wilbur
1820–1877
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Sarah Alice Wilbur Bigelow
1824–1858
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William Penn Wilbur
1826–1907
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Flora Elma Wilbur Albertson
1828–1913
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Mary Lapham Wilbur Van Buskirk
1834–1928
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