LIVED BEYOND EIGHTY. DEATH OF THE VENERABLE MOTHER OF AUSBURN TOWNER. OF STRONG, STURDY STOCK.

For Nearly Sixty Years a Resident of Elmira—All Her Life One of the Choicest, Noblest Of Elmira's Splendid Womanhood-Lovely In Character All Her Years, and In Her Youth Handsome of Face and Figure—Her Splendid Memory Pleased Elmirans.

Mrs. Maria Birdsall Towner, widow of Dr. D.A. Towner a resident of the city of Elmira for more than sixty years, died at Washington, D.C, on Sunday morning at 4 o'clock. October 28, 1894, at her home, the residence of her son, Ausburn Towner. Some ten days previous she suffered a second stroke of paralysis that affected the muscle's of her throat and the digestive organs. It was impossible for her to speak or to take food that would nourish her. She was almost eighty-five years of age. She was rational and conscious to within a few hours of her death, smiling faintly upon her children, all of whom were present, or upon those attending her, nodding her head in recognition, or gently pressing their hands. Brief services were held at the residence in Washington on Monday afternoon, and the body was brought to Elmira on Monday night, being taken, on its arrival Tuesday morning, to the residence of E.B. Youmans of William street. Services were held in Trinity church at 3 o'clock on the afternoon of that day, conducted by the rector, Rev. Dr. George H. McKnight. The pall bearers in attendance were Gen. A.S. Diven. Hon. John I. Nicks. William E. Hart, John S. Hoffman, Jesse L. Cooley and L.D. Pratt. Besides the regular ritual of the church, remarks were made by Dr. McKnight that were especially apt, tender and appropriate—they might almost be said to have been inspired by the occasion and the surroundings; and Miss Elizabeth Slee sang most exquisitely the "Portuguese Hymn," the piece of sacred music that had always been Mrs. Towner's favorite. A number of relatives were present from out of town, two brothers of the deceased—William and Thaddeus Birdsall, of Otego, N.Y., and the Hon. Stephen T. Hayt and daughter, and E.P. Graves and sister, of Corning. The body was buried in the Second Street cemetery, in the family plot that was bought when the cemetery was first laid out, and when it was thought it would be an amply sufficient grave-yard for Elmira for all time to come.

Mrs. Towner came of the sturdiest and strongest races that helped to settle and make this country. Her father, Michael Birdsall, was a descendant of the Huguenots who fled from France and settled on Long Island. He himself, in the latter part of last century, went into the wilderness of what is now Otsego county, and hewed out there a home, now occupied by his two sons, William and Thaddeus Birdsall, that is one of the most charming places in the Susquehanna valley between Cooperstown and Chesapeake bay. He died at nearly ninety years of age. Mrs. Towner's mother was Wealthy Webster, of kin to Daniel Webster, her father being Daniel Webster's father's own cousin, and she was born among the New Hampshire hills. The years of her life reached beyond eighty. There was a marked family likeness existing between her and Daniel Webster. There were ten children in the family, eight boys and two girls. Of these, at advanced ages now remain only four boys. Mrs. Towner in 1833 married Dr. Daniel A. Towner, and came to Elmira to live. Few remain now that were contemporary with her. Among them were General A.S. Diven, J.S. Hoffman and William E. Hart, who were in attendance as pall bearers at the funeral services. For many years Mrs. Towner lived in the residence on Lake street built by Dr. Towner and now occupied by Miss Margaret Stephens. It was one of the homes among the many of those days, where there was a constant, generous hospitality and a social center of refinement and culture. In those days, there were music and dancing, and life swept by as fresh, hearty and beautiful as though on the wings of the morning. In early life and young womanhood, Mrs. Towner was exceptionally comely in face and figure and her mental strength, which was marked, she retained until almost the last moments of her life. She had a most tenacious memory, and all of those reminiscences of this locality that have heretofore been published in the Telegram, which have given so much satisfaction and which were so accurate and truthful, were her recollections. Mrs. Towner was strongly attached to the church and to Trinity church. Long before Dr. Andrew Hull came to Elmira, he was rector of the church at Otego, Mrs. Towner's birthplace, and his eventual coming here riveted still closer the ties that bound her to that communion. She loved old-fashioned things, old-fashioned music, old-fashioned friends. At the funeral services the church bell was tolled eighty-four times, an old-fashioned custom which she particularly liked, and the old-fashioned Portuguese hymn, so beautifully sung" by Miss Sleek, was her favorite through her long life. She had her own opinions about everything, perhaps in nothing so strong as in political matters . Her father was a Jefferson and Jackson Democrat, all her eight brothers were counted in the same faith ; she married one of the same kind, and her sons drew from her breast nutriment of the same nature. None of them ever departed from that plain straight, honorable path. As an incident of her profound interest in the matter it might be said that when she was almost eighty years of age, she went up to the capitol in Washington to hear the Hon. John G. Carlisle, now secretary of the treasury, deliver his speech on the famous Mills bill. Of course, the house and all of its approaches were crowded. She was procured a place in one of the committee rooms, but it was only standing room. No seat was to be had for love or money. But during the delivery of the speech, extending to almost two hours, she stood without support, except the knob of the door near her, and when she went to her home was able, to give the whole argument, not in the exact words, of course, but its substance.

In 1886 Mrs. Towner accompanied her son to Washington, D.C, and her life there was almost an ideal one. Without care or responsibility, her home was on one of the hills easy of access, near the city, with a view from the window at her rooms, of surpassing beauty, extending for miles over Washington and down the Potomac river. She saw and enjoyed everything that the capital of the country had to offer for the delectation of the eye, ear or taste. Mrs. Towner was a widow for more than thirty-seven years. She was the mother of seven children, only three of whom .................. E.B. Youmans, of this city, and Charles F. Towner, of Brooklyn. N.Y. The fireside where she sat so many years, at once an ornament and a comfort, has a vacant spot now, that can never be filled and the shadow left there, will long remain, brightened perhaps, eventually, by the memory she has left of a good mother and a woman of marked, exceptional characteristics.

AUSBURN TOWNER.
Elmira Telegram, ELMIRA, N.Y., SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1894.