Page:Women of distinction.djvu/415

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.
335

The following taken from the Gazette, Raleigh, N. C., shows the esteem in which she was held in that city:

The news of Mrs. Scruggs' demise carried consternation all through the city. While many knew she was sick but few thought that death was so near, and at this writing our beautiful city is buried in sorrow and tears, and our community loses one of its purest and brightest characters and society its purest gem. Not within the writer's memory has the death of a lady cast such gloom and left so many sad hearts. The Church loses one of its most valuable members, society its most earnest worker, and the poor their dearest friend. Wherever one went in the city the name of Mrs. Scruggs was held in high esteem. In fact, everybody loved her for her purity of character and personal charms.

For many years Mrs. Scruggs worked incessantly to create a high moral sphere among the people and occupied for a long time the chief place in many social and literary societies of the city, and not an effort was made without receiving her support for the amelioration of the poor.

As a wife she was true, as a mother loving, and as a neighbor kind. As a housekeeper she was a model, and as to her business qualities, the stricken husband owes much of his success, and to repeat his own words, "Her place can never be supplied." The citizens of Raleigh, regardless of race or sex, who knew Mrs. Scruggs regret her death while 3'et in the bloom of life.

The following in reference to the funeral of Mrs. Scruggs is clipped from the Richvioiid Planet of December 3, 1892:

Her funeral was very largely attended. Several ministers of other denominations spoke in praise of her lovely Christian life, and also offered consolation to the bereaved family. The two institutions, Shaw University and St. Augustine Normal and Collegiate Institute, suspended studies that the students might attend in a body the funeral. This was never before known in the history of Raleigh—the closing of two schools to allow their students to attend the funeral of a private citizen.