Melinda R. McCulloh – (1826 – 1847)

(Photo 2013)

On January 27, 1847, the year before Samuel Lewis and Mary Ann McCulloh’s marriage, Mary Ann’s first child, Melinda, died. The identity of Melinda’s father is unknown. As far as can be determined, Melinda was the first of the McCullohs to be buried in the Stone Church graveyard in the Little Cove and hers is the oldest known McCulloh tombstone in the Little Cove. Her grandparents, John and Elizabeth McCulloh and her aunt Margaret McCulloh were buried next to her over the next several years. The inscription on her tombstone was still legible in 2013:

In Memory of
MELINDA R. McCULLOH
was born
April 13, 1826
died Jan. 27, 1847:
Aged 20 years
9 months & 11 days.

God my Redeemer lives,
and ever from the skies,
Looks down and watches all my dust,
Till He shall bid it rise.

The following death notice and verse appeared in the Repository & Whig newspaper in February:

“In Warren Township, on the 27th ult., Miss Malinda McCulloh, in the 21st year of her age – She was a very amiable and interesting lady, and for many years a member of the Methodist Ep. Church.”

Stone Church Graveyard-Little Cove (photo 2007)

Then followed two verses of a hymn:

Why do we mourn for dying friends,
Or shake at death’s alarms?
‘Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call them to his arms
The graves of all His saints be blest,
And softened every bed.
Where should the dying members rest,
But in their living head.

Elizabeth, John and Melinda McCulloh (Melinda’s Tombstone is on the right)