MEMORIAL DISCOURSE.
On the thirteenth of January, 1895, her rector, Rev. Eugene J. Babcock, delivered a memorial discourse on the life and character of Mrs. Bloomer in St. Paul’s Church, Council Bluffs. In this he reviewed the main incidents in Mrs. Bloomer’s life, and concluded as follows:
“Mrs. Bloomer also held the relation of pioneer to this parish. On the two registers in my possession the first woman’s name is hers.
“On my journey hither to assume the rectorship, I visited by the way at my former home in Michigan. There I first learned of Mrs. Bloomer from a gentleman whom I had met in a college connection while I was an undergraduate. He was a former resident of Seneca Falls, and informed me that in my new home I should meet a unique and striking person in Mrs. Bloomer, whose early days were associated with a remarkable career; that she was now living quietly, ill health having compelled her to forego active duties; and that she was now advanced in years.
“Our arrival here was signalized by becoming guests in the Senior Warden’s home. In this we did as all the clergy had done before, for no other home in this city has been the hospitable asylum for so many of the cloth. Among ourselves, the happy descriptive of ‘Saints’ Rest’ has come in vogue. From Mrs. Bloomer that pleasant smile, which often had to triumph over bodily ailment, was my greeting. This showing of hospitality was in keeping with her ambition, which she frequently sacrificed to her personal discomfort.
“Going back to a view of her early days, we are prepared now to forecast her activity in church affairs. Such a nature could not sit by with hands folded. Following her acceptance of gospel privileges through which she came into this church, she immediately entered into parish activities at Seneca Falls. Being a woman of action, she did her part in the then somewhat limited sphere of woman’s church work. Little as it may have been comparatively, it was another demand upon her already enlarging engagements.
“Her removal to this city deprived her of the worship of her own church. The then line of demarcation of the religious public into ‘Mormons’ and ‘Gentiles’ very likely infused into the latter a fellow sympathy. Soon after her settlement here, the Rev. Mr. Rice invited her to attend a meeting of a sewing society which was held at his house. This happened to be the annual meeting; she was elected president of the society, and Mrs. Douglas first director. In her ‘Early Recollections’ her felicitous comment is this: ‘Thus putting their affairs in the hands of two Episcopalians.’ But evidently affairs did not suffer at their hands, for they ‘carried through a successful fair’ which secured money to put the first church of the Congregationalists into shape for use.
“Her usual interest in what concerned her came out in the organization of this parish. She entered with the same characteristic zeal and expenditure of means into its upbuilding, both as to what was preliminary and also permanent. She has been a good example of what woman can do, and faithful in her service. The women of this parish have worked so assiduously in raising money that among men it has become a lost art.
“In spite of advanced years and impairment of strength, she responded with her kindly support to my call for organization of a Woman’s Parochial Aid Society. Her kindness to me was ever constant and uniform, and her ingenuous frankness such as I always enjoyed. Plain and albeit of rugged candor in her speech, such is better for this world than the honey covering of deceit. A former Rector, the Rev. Mr. Webb, writes respecting her: ‘My impression of her kindness of heart is that it never failed; and I believe more firmly than ever that it was God’s own cause which she so characteristically espoused, and labored so long and faithfully to promote.’
“She had the habit of clipping from newspapers whatever took her fancy. Her recent quiet and somewhat afflicted living, owing to her illness, was given to reading, needle work and entertaining of guests when circumstances admitted. As the golden clouds brightened in the west of her life’s decline, there came a strong inward faith. A late clipping seems to speak her thought: ‘As the weeks and months fly past, do you not think that the spirit of our daily prayer ought to be—
“‘Break, my soul, from every fetter,
Him to know is all my cry;
Saviour, I am thine forever,
Thine to live and thine to die,
Only asking
More and more of life’s supply’?’
“She passed into Paradise on Sunday, December 30, 1894, and left a name worthy to be entered among the illustrious galaxy of notables whom the past year has numbered with the dead. On a beautiful winter’s day, all that remained of mortality was brought to this church, so large an object of her affection, and here, with impressive funeral rites which speak comfortably our blessed hope, we committed her body to the ground. And as the sweet notes of the committal anthem broke in upon the constrained stillness of the scene, how appropriate were the words—mutely echoed by the hushed assembly: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord * * * for they rest from their labors’!”
In a grassy plat in beautiful Fairview Cemetery, overlooking the cities of Council Bluffs and Omaha, lies the grave of the true woman, the earnest reformer, the faithful Christian, whose history is delineated in these pages; and near its foot stands a modest monument bearing this inscription:
“IN MEMORIAM
AMELIA JENKS, WIFE OF D. C. BLOOMER
DIED DEC. 30TH, 1894
AGED 76 YEARS, 7 MONTHS, AND 3 DAYS
A PIONEER IN WOMAN’S ENFRANCHISEMENT”
And here the author and compiler, commending these pages to the kindly consideration of his readers, brings his labor of love to a close.