Obituaries

[ John Taliaferro Scogin was born 23 April 1850 in Spring Ridge, DeSoto Parish, LA. He married Martha Emma Lacy on 26 Nov. 1874 in Caddo Parish, LA. They were the parents of six children: Annie Mai Scogin Sisson, Ruby Taliaferro Scogin Colbert, William Lynn Scogin, John T. Scogin Jr., Myrtle Lacy Scogin Limerick, and Emma Inez Scogin Odom. John T. Scogin died 10 Dec. 1930 in Bastrop, LA.]

DEATH CLAIMS WELL KNOWN CITIZEN--John T. Scogin, Former Sheriff

Passes Away Wednesday---

John T. Scogin, aged 80, prominent Bastrop citizen, died at his home on East Cypress Avenue Wednesday morning at 6:25 following an illness of more than a year. Funeral services were held Thursday morning at 10:00 o'clock at the First Baptist Church with Rev. H. M. Bennett, pastor, conducting the services. Interment followed in the old city cemetery.

Mr. Scogin was born near Keatchie in DeSoto Parish and moved to
Morehouse Parish in 1878. He has been a resident of Bastrop since 1887. Mr. Scogin took an active part in civic affairs and served as Sheriff of Morehouse Parish from 1904 to 1912. He was also a member of the town council and school board member for many years.

In 1874 he was married to Miss Emma Lacy, who died in 1892. Mr. Scogin was a member of the First Baptist Church, Knights of Pythias and Oddfellows.

He is survived by one son, J. T. Scogin, Jr., of Dallas, Texas, and four
daughters, Mrs. W.B. Limerick of Bastrop, Mrs. Henry W. Colbert of Monroe, Mrs. Fred M. Odom of Shreveport and Mrs. W. E. Sisson of Mer Rouge.
Morehouse Enterprise--Bastrop. Louisiana--Thursday, December 11, 1930.
 

RESOLUTIONS OF RESPECT

In memory of our friend and brother, J. T. Scogin, who was taken to be with our Heavenly Father on Wednesday, December 19, 1930, the membership of the Men's Bible Class of the First Baptist Church, of Bastrop, Louisiana wishes to place this memorial for him whom his friends loved and held in highest esteem,

And Whereas, the All-Knowing and Loving Father has thought best to claim him for His Church above, knowing that our loss is for the enrichment of His Kingdom,

And Whereas, his life as a man and as a Christian was above the reproach of any one who knew him,

And Whereas, in his going the First Baptist Church of Bastrop, Louisiana has suffered the loss of a faithful Deacon, and the Men's Bible Class a staunch supporter, therefore, Be it Resolved, that the Men's Bible Class of the First Baptist Church, in testimony of our love for him, tender to the family of our departed Brother our sincere and Christian sympathy in their deep affliction, and that a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family.

J. Noble White,
Dr. O. M. Patterson,
J. A. Sandifer,
Committee.

{appeared in the Morehouse Enterprise, Thursday, December 18, 1930}

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[ Martha Emma Lacy was born on 19 Feb. 1852 in Sumter Co., AL and lived in Keatchie, DeSoto Parish, LA. before marrying John Taliaferro Scogin on 26 Nov. 1874 in Caddo Parish, LA. She died 31 Jan. 1892 in Mer Rouge, Morehouse Parish, LA. Their children are listed with the obituary of John T. Scogin.]

from The Appeal:

Mrs. J. T. Scogin's sad death called to her funeral a tremendous crowd of people, who sympathize profoundly with the afflicted family who mourn her death most keenly. A more popular nor lovable lady has ever been buried in this town.

Rev. W. M. Alfred, of Monroe, was in our town this week. His presence here was by special request to perform the funeral rites at the burial of Mrs. J. T. Scogin. An obituary of this lady written by him appears in our columns to-day.

Last Sunday Mrs. J. T. Scogin, a most estimable lady, died at the home of her brother, Mr. R. C. (Reuben Cole) Lacy, in Prairie Mer Rouge, and was buried in this town Monday. An appropriate obituary, written by a gentleman who has known her from childhood, appears in this issue. The Appeal sorrows with those who are bereft of a noble mother, and with him who has lost a most excellent wife. We can say nothing else that would more forcibly express our sympathy for those who mourn because she has been taken away from them.

WHAT IS HOME WITHOUT A MOTHER?

Again the hill city of Morehouse has been called to pay the last tribute of respect to one of their best and most highly esteemed mothers, Mrs. Emma Scogin. This lady was born in Sumter County, Ala., Feb. 19th, 1852. Died in Mer Rouge, LA., Jan. 31st, 1892, aged 39 years 11 months and 12 days.

In early girlhood she moved with her parents, Wm. L. and Mrs. N. W. Lacy, to Spring Ridge, Caddo Parish, La., and there received a primary education in that lovely home of "Ante Bellum" days. After the late war she moved with her family to Keatchie, DeSoto parish, and was placed under the care of Rev. Peter Crawford, President of the Keatchie College, where she took a full course and was in one session of graduation when her widowed mother was forced to take her from school, her father Wm. L. Lacy having died in 1867, Nov. 26th. In 1874 she was married to John T. Scogin, a young man of one of Caddo's best families. He needs no comment from me to the good people of Bastrop. The fruit of this marriage is six lovely children, four girls and two boys.

This brings us to the heading of this short sketch of her life, "What is Home Without a Mother?" If you could have seen the strong frame of husband and heard the shrieks of the children as they attempt to enter their home where she had recently presided over--with that motherly care that an angel would covet, then you would have but a faint conception of what this home is without a mother. It is true to nature, although it , it be expressed in a figurative form that a mother is both the morning and evening star of life. The light of her eye is always the first to rise and often the last to set upon man's day of trial.

Sorrow has its useful lessons when it is legitimate, and death is the gate that opens out of earth toward the house "eternal in the heavens," when we lose them -- heaven gains them. If we hang our harps on the willows they tune theirs in the eternal orchestra above; rejoicing that we shall soon be with them.

Shall we not drown our sorrows in the flood of light let through the rent veil of the skies which Jesus entered where death never enters and where partings are never known?

We may still love the departed, like Saul and Jonathan, they were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their "death" they were not "divided". (2 Sam. 1.23). They are ours as ever, and we are theirs. The ties that unite us are not broken. They are too strong for death's stroke.

Over the grave of a friend or a brother or a sister I would plant the primrose emblematical of youth, but over that of a mother I would let the "green grass" shoot up unmolested, for there is something in the simple covering which nature spreads upon the grave that well becomes the abiding place of her memory.

Oh! a mothers grave! Earth has some sacred spots, where we feel like loosing shoes from our feet and treading with reverence.

One suggestion more. Perhaps the saddest sentence that can fall upon the ear regarding any child is, "he has no mother;" she is dead. This dear family of six sweet children are left without a mother. In that condition they are deprived of their most tender comforter, and their wisest counselor. Will not the Christian mothers of this community in some measure fill this vacuum so recently made by death? I commend them to every loving heart and home in this town. And best of all-- to Him, who cares for the fatherless and motherless of this cold world. "Though father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up."

"Our homestead had an ample hearth
Where at night we loved to meet;
There my mothers voice was always kind.
And her smile was always sweet;
And there I've sat on my father's knee.
And watched his thoughtful brow,
With my childish hand in his raven hair.
That hair is silver now;
But that broad hearth's light,
Oh that broad hearth's light;
And my father's look and my mother's smile,
They are in my heart to-night."

W.M. Alfred.
Monroe, La.

 

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[Myrtle Lacy Scogin was born 4 Dec 1879 in Morehouse Parish, LA. She was the daughter of John Taliaferro and Martha Emma Lacy Scogin. She married William Bentley Limerick on 11 Oct. 1905 in Bastrop, LA and they had a son, William Bentley Limerick. She died 20 Jan. 1958 in Bastrop.]

A Tribute published in the pages of Monroe Morning World, Monroe, Louisiana, Jan. 21, 1958:

Memorial Obituary

MRS. M. LIMERICK, KIN OF RETIRED STATE JUDGE, DIES

Bastrop (Special)-- Mrs. Myrtle Scoggin (Scogin) Limerick, sister-in-law of retired State Supreme Court Judge Fred Odom of Bastrop, died yesterday at her Bastrop home following several months illness. She was 78. Funeral services will be held 3 p.m. today at Blackwell-Golden Funeral Home Chapel with burial in the Old City Cemetery.

Officiating will be the Rev. Ray Rust and the Rev. Robert Newcomb.

Survivors include one son, W. B. Limerick, Bastrop; one sister, Mrs. Henry Colbert, Monroe; one brother, John T. Scoggin Jr., Dallas, Tex.; and two grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be Dan Files, James Shell, E. F. Madison, Mac Barham, Joe Rolfe White, Woodrow Wilson, Harvey Todd and James Madison.

All members of the local bar and judiciary will be honorary pallbearers.

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Morehouse Enterprise
Bastrop, Louisiana, Thursday, July 23, 1942

W. B. LIMERICK, SR. DIES SUDDENLY- HEART ATTACK

Well Known Railroad Man, Kiwanian and Former Candidate for Mayor Succumbs After Brief Illness

William Bentley Limerick, Sr., 67 years old, of Bastrop, died last Sunday, July 19 in the Bastrop General Hospital after a short illness. Mr. Limerick had been a resident of Morehouse Parish all his life.
Funeral services were held July 20, at 5 p.m. in the Bastrop First Methodist Church, with Rev. C. E. McLean officiating and Rev. H. M. Bennett of the First Baptist Church assisting. Rev. Bennett led the congregation in prayer and Rev. McLean delivered the sermon to an over-flowing church.
Interment was in the family plot in the old City cemetery on North Washington street. Active pallbearers were Frank Hawthorne, J. H. Nunnally, Jack Tyer, Sampson Snyder, M. V. Orr, L. C. Ingram, C. J. Goodwin and Tom Naff. Honorary pallbearers were all the members of the Bastrop Kiwanis club and J. M. Payne, J. L. Adams, Earl Bullis, Dr. Smith I. Sims and T. G. Franklin.
Mr. Limerick was born on Oct. 1, 1875 in Oak Ridge, the son of James Henry and Martha Bentley Limerick. He attended school in Oak Ridge and in Lindale, Texas. After finishing a course in telegraphy and railroad accounting he conducted schools in this special training in Dallas, Texas and Shreveport. In 1903 he opened a school of telegraphy and railroad accounting and short-hand in Bastrop.
On Oct. 11, 1905 Mr. Limerick married Miss Myrtle Lacy Scogin of Oak Ridge. At that time he was also operating the telephone exchange in Bastrop. Later Mr. Limerick conducted schools of telegraphy and railroad accounting in El Dorado and Monticello, Ark. and Ruston, returning to Bastrop in 1912 to accept a position with the Arkansas and Louisiana Missouri Railroad Co. (at that time the A. L. & G.) as telegraph operator, station agent and train dispatcher, a position he held until the time of his death.
Mr. Limerick had a record of 30 years of loyal and capable work for the A. & L. M. Railroad. Two years ago, when he was 65, he became eligible for the railroad's retirement pension, but he preferred to keep on working. He was a candidate for mayor in the last city election, opposing A. B. Andrews, but was defeated.
Mr. Limerick was a member from a very early age, of the Methodist church and at one time was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school in Bastrop. He took an active part in civic affairs and was a member of the Bastrop Kiwanis club, for many years, having served as its president. Mr. Limerick was very much interested in the underprivileged child committee. Out of respect to Mr. Limerick, the Kiwanis club adjourned Tuesday without having a program.
Mr. Limerick also belonged to the local camp of the Woodmen of the World, having been one of its first members.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Myrtle Scogin Limerick of Bastrop, one son, W. B. Limerick, jr., a practicing attorney in Bastrop; three brothers, Marvin T. Limerick of Oak Ridge, Hal Limerick of Lafayette and Linn Limerick of Pomona, Calif., and one sister, Mrs. Georgia L. Lee of Mississippi.


submitted by Jane Limerick Monroe
granddaughter of William Bentley Limerick, Sr.

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W. B. LIMERICK (Jr.) DIES FOLLOWING SHORT ILLNESS

William Bentley Limerick, (Jr.) 62, lifelong resident of Bastrop and former city attorney died Sunday at Garnier's Clinic following a short illness.
Mr. Limerick was educated in the local schools and graduated from Louisiana State University Law School. He was a member of Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity and the Fifth District Bar Association. He had served as an inheritance tax attorney for many years.
Mr. Limerick was city attorney during the early 1940's and also was associated with the clerk of court's office for several years. He served in the U. S. armed forces during World War II.
A member of the Bastrop Kiwanis Club, he had served as secretary and treasurer of the organization. He was a member of First Presbyterian church.
Survivors include his wife, Margaret; a son, William B. Limerick, Jr., of Bastrop; one daughter, Mrs. Jane Mizell of Monroe and one grandchild.
Funeral services have been set for 10 a.m. in the Blackwell & Golden Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. C. E. Pickens as officiant. Interment will be in Christ Church Cemetery.
Pallbearers include James P. Madison, Merrvin Brandon, Joe Rolfe White, Harry Hawthorne, Woodrow Wilson and Lemmie Hightower.

submitted by Jane Limerick Mizell Monroe
daughter of William Bentley Limerick