SATURDAY, December 31.  At home.  In this year I traveled 3,929 miles, mostly on Nell’s back.  Good, patient Nell!

WEDNESDAY, February 29, 1860.  Up to this date there is nothing of special interest in the Diary.  It is mainly a record of visits in the way of medical attendance upon the sick; matters relating to the church; meetings attended, and neighborhood items of business looked after and settled.  Brother Kline assisted Brother John J. Bowman in surveying lands.  He also wrote wills and deeds, making himself useful in almost every way in which an active man of eminently practical good sense can serve his neighborhood and country.  I here give his entry in the Diary for this day exactly as it stands, word for word: 

“WEDNESDAY, February 29.  Go to Benjamin Miller’s.  Old Sister Miller is buried; seventy-four years, five months and ten days old; buried at Myers’s graveyard.  Preach at Green Mount; dine at Jacob Miller’s; then come by Strine’s home; rain in the afternoon.”

The Editor was present at this funeral, and very well remembers some of Brother Kline’s words.  He said that instead of being distressed or grieved at the departure of one whose measure of life was so full of the good works of faith and love, thereby showing eminent fitness for heaven, we should rather rejoice.  He spoke of the wisdom and fortitude with which she had borne her separation from her husband, the dearly remembered Elder Daniel Miller, years before.  It is true, said he, her children cared for her with all the tender assiduities that love could suggest; they still could not completely fill the place of the one who she had fondly hoped would be the earthly comforter of her declining years.  She lived and died with her youngest son, Benjamin Miller, who, at this time [1899], has the oversight of the Green Mount church.  She was the mother of eighteen children.  Sixteen of these grew up to manhood and womanhood.  Six of her sons, viz, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Benjamin and Frederick, were put into the ministry, and all served the church acceptably.  Most of these are now fallen asleep.  But their children are filling their places; and how long this remarkable sister may continue to work in the vineyard of the Lord, through her children and children’s children, time only can tell.

I well remember that Brother Kline, on this occasion, was the first to rise.  After a few brief but appropriate remarks, he lined out that joyful old hymn: 

  “There is a land of pure delight;
  Where saints immortal reign....”

At the close of the singing he led in prayer, and the burden of his prayer was thanksgiving for the glorious hope set before us in the Gospel.  He then delivered a brief but feeling address suited to the occasion; and Brother Benjamin Bowman, after giving some interesting facts connected with the Miller family, closed the church services.