Death of Walter N. Brent
Saturday afternoon word passed rapidly among young and old that Walter N. Brent was dead. To whomsoever it was told, there at once followed expressions showing the hold this young man had on the hearts of the community and the esteem in which he was held.
His death was sudden. It followed a period of better, stronger, and more hopeful feeling. He was to all appearances better Saturday morning. He walked out to his dinner that day, a thing he had not done for days before. When death came to him he was sitting in the rocking chair in the room so long the scene of his cheerful, hopeful illness. He was talking to his grandfather, Mr. N. Lukens, when all at once an ashen paleness, and “O! Grandpa!”, a falling of his hands by his side, and death had relieved the sufferer. Walter had been sick for nearly three years. Subject from childhood to trouble with his throat and especially his tonsils, he contracted a cold nearly three years ago, that brought on heart trouble and ended in death. Walter was a manly young man. He was possessed of proper self respect, was bright, polite, full of cheerfulness, and he had started out in the world with the determination “to be somebody and have something.” This he had time and again repeated to the writer. Young as he was he accomplished the one, and won respect and had started well on the road to a competence if not a great deal more.
Monday afternoon the casket containing the earthly remains was taken to the Baptist church. James and Chester Fouts, Walter Graham, Dal Stuard, Jacob Hatton and Mr. Irv Travis bore it from the funeral car to the place before the altar. A large concourse of citizens filed in and filled the pews. Messrs. Arrick and Becket and Misses Hatton Harlan and Hartzell sang. Rev. Cutler spoke the appropriate words for the solemn occasion.
Walter N. Brent was in his twenty-fifth year. He was a son of Mr. L. H. Brent, a soldier of the rebellion. His mother a daughter of Nicholas Lukens. He was a member of the Baptist church. He had accumulated through thrift, some property and his life was one of promise and usefulness, had it been prolonged.
From McConnelsville Herald, 3 Jan. 1900