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Mary J. Dickinson Bissell

The Choctaw Intelligencer June 13, 1850
transcribed by Ron Henson

     It is our painful duty to record the death of Mrs. Mary J. Dickinson Bissell, who spent more than six years as an assistant Missionary among the Choctaws.
     Mr. and Mrs. Bissell left us in April last, to return to their friends in Massachusetts. Five days from Little Rock, and while ascending the Mississippi river, Mrs. Bissell was attacked with premonitory symptoms of Cholera. On the second day from the first appearance of the disease, her peaceful spirit was released from its frail tenement of clay, and was received, as we trust, to dwell with the redeemed around the throne of Him in whom she had believed, and in whom was all her hope.
     She died on Tuesday, the 30th of April, and her earthly remains quietly repose on the banks of the Mississippi, fifty miles below St. Louis. Before her departure she called to her children, her husband, and Miss Caroline Gooding, who was in company with them, and bade them all farewell. She entreated the latter not to put off a preparation for death till her dying hour. When asked by her husband if she was afraid to die; she replied not - "only dreaded the pangs."
     For nearly three and a half years Mrs. Bissell labored as an assistant teacher in the Female Seminary at Pine Ridge.
     Two years Mr. and Mrs. Bissell assisted in the labors of Spencer Academy. The last year they spent at the Norwalk Mission Station.
     Mrs. Bissell had repeatedly expressed it as the desire of her heart, that she might live and die on mission ground. It was a trial to her to leave the field of her loved labors. Duty constrained her go, that she might render assistance to an aged and afflicted mother, and an infirm and suffering sister. But how mysterious are the ways of Providence! She was not again to see those afflicted relatives, nor to render to them those kind offices which her filial and sisterly affection had so strongly prompted.
     But for relatives and friends there are precious consolations mingled with this bereavement. Those with whom she has been associated will long cherish a grateful recollection of her patient, cheerful and self-denying labors for the children and youth of this nation. Her desire was to be useful. She loved her Savior, and was happy in his service. The best and brightest of her days were spent in labors of love, for the good of others. We mourn her early and sudden departure, but we rejoice in the hope that our loss is her unspeakable gain.
     Her bereaved husband, while he pursues his lonely journey through this vale of tears, with his two motherless babes, has your sympathy and our prayers.
     Nor can we forget that aged mother and those afflicted sisters on whom this bereavement has fallen with crushing weight. [remainder unreadable]