A Tribute
in Memory of
Miss Annie L. Grout
Daughter of
The Rev. Lewis and Mrs. L. B. Grout,
of West Brattleboro,
Vermont.
From Her Father.
Printed for Her Friends.
Brattleboro, Vermont,
1901
Press of
E. L. Hildreth & Co.
Brattleboro, Vt.
"The suddenest and the heaviest grief which can come to us in life is
not sent to crush us, but to be to us another, a more mandatory summons,
to the Lord Himself; another of
-'the great World's altar-stones,
That slope through darkness up to God!' "
On the 13th of March, 1901, the Rev. Lewis Grout's only daughter, Miss Annie L. Grout, the only surviving member of his family, was taken ill with the grip, which resulted in pneumonia, and after a few days of much suffering, on the 18th of March, went peacefully, hopefully, joyfully hence.* The funeral services, held on the 21st, at the church and conducted by her pastor, the Rev. L. M. Keneston, witnessed a large attendance.
*Miss Grout's father being taken sick also, about the same hour as his daughter, was able to see but little of ber during ber illness.
Miss Grout was born July 28, 1847, at Umlazi Mission Station, in Natal, South Africa. Previous to leaving Natal, as she did, with her parents, March 12, 1862, for this country, she assisted her mother in her school for the natives. Soon after reaching this country she started on a course of study for a liberal education, entering Prof. Orcott's Glenwood Seminary in the autumn of 1862; after which, in 1864, she went to Mount Holyoke Seminary for two years; then returned to Glenwood for two years more; after which, in 1868, she went to Abbott Academy, Andover, Mass., where she graduated in 1870. In 1871 she established a select boarding school, Belair Institute, in her father's house in West Brattleboro. After four years of teaching here, being obliged by the state of her mother's health to give up this school, she taught a year in Philadelphia, and then, in September, 1875, went to teach in Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga. At the end of two years impaired health compelled her to return home and rest off. With health partially restored she eventually resumed teaching again for a time, and then took a position as clerk in Mr. George E. Crowell's Household printing and publishing office. When this work was transferred to Boston, she went there with it and continued there, still serving as clerk, till the enterprise was well established in its new quarters; after which she returned to her home in West Brattleboro, where in addition to social and domestic duties, she devoted herself in large measure, to those nature studies in which she had begun to take a deep interest before she left Natal. It waS in the prosecution of these studies, on one of her botanical rambles, that she discovered a fern, the Asplenium trichomanes, var. incisum, not before known to have been found in this country. She was a member of the Vermont Botanical Club, and at its second annual meeting in Burlington, in February, 1897, she read an essay on "Some Ferns that grow in Bratt1eboro," which was reported in the papers at that time as "one of the most delightful, interesting and instructive of the many valuable papers presented at the meeting. * * * It was her work to show, as she did, that here in this corner we have some of the rarest of the rare plants of the State. Her paper was a revelation of the beauty that lies all about us for the eye trained to study nature in some of her sweetest tracings."
Among her house plants, her exotics, the charming South African Amaryllis and the magnificent Strelitzia Alba, were always much admired. Her rich, orderly arranged garden, its neat, unique, moss-covered walks, choice shrubs, the many early-appearing, modest, yet courageous crocuses and hyacinths, the seven hundred and fifty bright and lovely tulips and nearly three hundred freighted stems of the pure, fragrant lilium candidum, and other flowers, the fruit, all of them, of her own planting, putting in a most welcome appearance, each in its own time, the season after her departure, all testified to her love of the pure and beautiful, as well as to her skill and success in garden work; and, to her bereaved father, proved helpful to sacred conceptions and meditations on the beauty, bliss and bounty of that higher life she had gone to live in the heavenly paradise.
Miss Grout made several large and choice herbariums, which, in accord with a memorandum found among her effects after her decease, were all given to the Brattleboro High School, together with all her books and pamphlets relating to the subject of botany. This being done, the gift was afterward: spoken of in one of the local papers as "a collection containing many valuable specimens not often found in the possession or private individuals. Especially noticeable is a large portfolio of ferns, containing many rare varieties found only in Africa. The school is fortunate in coming into possession of the results of Miss Grout's lifetime of study and observation." The collection of minerals she made was, by her direction, given to a fellow student in that line of study; after which, a notice from the recipient, in a local paper, speaking of the gift, said, among other things: "This collection consists of about two hundred and fifty specimens, many of which are rare and very fine, having been collected in all parts of this country and in Africa."
Miss Grout, being among those in the vicinity of her home who had an early "desire for a broader basis for literary and social improvement," was naturally among the first to take an active part in efforts to organize a woman's club for that purpose. A letter of sympathy from a committee of the Club to her father, after her decease, spoke of her as "a faithful and able worker and charter member of the Club, and for a long time our efficient and painstaking secretary."
And yet, with all her interest in the social and literary club, in the mineral kingdom and in the floral world, Miss Grout could not forget the animal kingdom, least of all the birds. Nor did any of her associates in these departments of life and labor fail to appreciate her interest and services in these several departments. After her decease, "A Tribute to her Memory," which a committee of the Bird Club addressed to her father, said: "One of the first to propose the formation of a bird club in Brattleboro, and one of the most interested, active and efficient in carrying on its work, was Miss Annie L. Grout. Always a lover and student of nature, especially in plant life, and more recently in her observation of birds, which she tempted with food to frequent the shrubbery about her home, she was in sympathy with every movement to awaken and extend interest in these things, so closely related, as they are, to our own welfare and happiness." She was secretary and treasurer of the Club from the time it was organized till her departure. On the 4th of January, 1901, only a few months before her death, The Vermont Phoenix published an article from her pen which gave a list of more than one hundred and fifty Brattleboro birds.
In all of Miss Grout's various fields of activity and many sources of improvement and enjoyment, nothing was ever anticipated, experienced or remembered with more of satisfaction than her occasional spending of a few days or weeks in East Northfield during the summer meetings or conferences held at that place. While there, her great effort always was to make the most of every opportunity of getting Biblical, religious and spiritual instruction, inspiration and strength. In going to the meetings she took care never to forget her note book or pencil, and made it a rule to record every best thing she saw or heard, and many were the full pages, even booklets, of these records, found among her effects after her decease. To anyone intimately acquainted with her, it was very evident that in this way especially, as in others also, she was making a marked and healthy progress in the divine life, as she drew nearer and still nearer to the end of her pilgrimage.
As the writer opened her large depository of records of this kind after she had gone hence, the first thing that met his eye was her notes of an address by the Rev. G. C. Morgan, August 15, 1899, on "The Believer's Outlook Upon the Future," or "The Completeness of Believers in Christ;" of which notes the following is but a brief extract:
The hymn,
"On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wistful eye," etc.,is all wrong. Believers have no business in the wilderness, but in Canaan already; should not be trembling on the brink, dreading the "swelling river." They should have crossed it long ago.
True Views of the End of Life in the New Testament. John 11: 21. "Lord, if thou hadst been here," "I am the resurrection and the life," v. 25. "He that believeth in me though he were dead," v. 25. But he "shall never die," v. 26. Of course not, Lord, we can not die, for thou hast "abolished death." 2 Tim. 1: 10.
What have we in place of death? The Master himself. "Let not your heart be troubled." John 14: 1. The true attitude of the believer is to live, not looking at death, but always looking to Him that died. First Thessalonians, first three chapters show our relation to the coming of Christ. In 1: 9, 10, find threefold description of the believer: 1. Turned from idols; 2. To serve the living God; 3. Waiting for His Son-: past, present, future tenses. The believer's outlook is the coming of Christ. Whether it be in His second coming, or whether He takes us first to Himself, makes no difference; the end of life to us is Christ Himself, and we pass through the bed of the river emptied of its flood (of death), out into life. There is no death to the man who believes in Christ. We cannot die; we only make a change of residence; first, absent from the body; at once, second, at home with the Lord."
Such are the first two out of the six sheets of notes on the address above referred to, a specimen, not only of the way in which Miss Grout listened to the teachers she found at Northfield; but also a picture of her prevailing "attitude" toward the future, and of the way in which she finally went hence.
An interesting obituary of Miss Grout, in The Phcenix of March 22, 1901, from the pen of her pastor, closed with saying:
She was for many years teacher in the Congregational Sunday school, and although well versed in the Scriptures, spent much time in the direct preparation of the lesson in hand. She was collector for the McIntosh school for colored people, and was deeply interested in that work. One of her last acts was to arrange with a friend for the completion of the canvass, and the sending of funds to that school. Identified with the activities of her own church, her interest and benefactions yet reached out to a broader sphere, and, according to her ability, she spared no effort to assist in every noble cause, but bestowed her means and her strength unsparingly for others.She was devoted and faithful to her parents, one of whom, her father, survives her.
The Master's call to "come up higher," came suddenly, Monday noon, March 18, and found her prepared to go, her plans and wishes for the future, and memoranda for the guidance of her friends carefully made.
As we stand again face to face with an awful mystery, made doubly mysterious, and to human thought, doubly sad, by the existing circumstances, we are almost dumb, and our minds were filled with consternation but for two facts, either of which in itself is paramount to all mystery and doubt, and even sorrow. The two, therefore, combine to fill our hearts with joy and peace, even in the midst of this great sorrow.
The first of these facts is, God is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth and faithfulness endure to all generations. Millions upon millions of mortals have proved His goodness and it has never failed. Therefore we will trust in Him though all the lights of earth go out in darkness, and though the earth be removed and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.
O trust in Him, ye people, pour out your hearts before Him, for though all else fail, He is ever constant.
The other fact is, Annie Grout was a Christian. For what else in earth or heaven would we exchange this fact? "Say to the righteous, it shall be well with him. They that seek me early shall find me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." From the tender age of twelve years, teaching the natives in the remotest corner of the dark continent about the Saviour she had always been taught to love, and, to the very close of her life, blessing those whom the world had passed by, the blacks in our southland, and the poor and friendless anywhere she found them, oh, what a company of earth's outcast will rise up to call her blessed. Then remember that it was of such as she that Jesus said: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto these, ye have done it unto me."
Mr. Keneston closed the address from which the above is taken, with the following poem:
"He giveth His beloved sleep."
IN MEMORIAM.
Servant of God, well done.
Now haste thee to thy home.
A heavenly mansion waits for thee,
Thy Father bids thee "Come."
Enter into thy rest.
Thy labors all are o'er,
Safe folded in the Saviour's love,
And weary nevermore.
Who sow in faithful toil,
In rest the harvest reap;
After life's weary day, God gives
To his beloved sleep.
To loved ones, thou wast as
The Everlasting Friend,
Whose goodness never wanes,-so thine
Was constant to the end.
Thou livest evermore,
In loving hearts enshrined,-
Thy only thought, in life's last hour,
The dear ones left behind.
They'll miss thy tender care;
But He whose watchful eye
Sees sparrows fall, hath said, My God
Shall all their needs supply.
Loved ones beyond the tide
With their glad welcome wait.
Greet they with joy thy angel form,
At heaven's beauteous gate.
We miss thy voice and smile,
The parting gives us pain.
Thy benediction on us rest,
Until we meet again.
With joy we'll greet thee then
By God's unfailing grace,
And share in heaven's eternal peace
Before our Father's face.
What joy! as we shall come
From lands afar and near,
From every nation, tribe and tongue,
The welcome call to hear:
"Come, blessed of the Lord,
Come, ransomed sons of men,
Enter into, My people's rest."
Dear Lord, we come. Amen.
L. M. K.