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Note: From the Boone County Recorder newspaper on microfilm -- April 19, 1877, page 3, column 3 : Tributes of Respect. Speedwell Grange No. 487. Boone Co., Ky., March 12, 1877 At Mt. Pleasant Grange, April 7th, 1877, Wm. Watts said: I arise, Brothers and Sisters, to pay a last tribute of respect to the memory of our late Brother John T. Riley. He died at home March 23d, 1877, in the 68th year of his age, having followed the pursuits of agriculture the great part of his life, which proved to him a success. He was buried by the members of our Order at Bulletsburg Cemetery. The deceased was my friend in all the vicissitudes of life--in all the changing scenes from youth to manhood, from manhood to mature age--and for more than half the period of life allotted to man we were knit together in an unceasing friendship; and to me, and all of our members, it is consolation to know that friends, wife and children all contributed to cheer and mitigate his sufferings in the last days and hours of his life. There is no place to those who suffer, like home --no hand to minister, no voice to cheer like that of an affectionate wife. Stricken with a disease which baffled all medical skill and defied the affectionate care of wife and friends, on the 23d of March, without a struggle, his spirit took its flight to the better land. We shall not see his manly form move up and down this hall again. We shall hear his voice no more. We followed him to the grave, where we met brethren, neighbors and friends gathered sorrowfully around his bier to pay their last tribute --- there to gaze for the last time upon that form, once so full of life and action. But it was cold and motionless. His eye, which had so often beamed upon us, was rayless and closed. Sadly we bore his remains to the grave, and softly laid them down to sleep until the morning of the resurrection, and "peace to his ashes" was our prayer. Our brother is gone -- gone on to that other city on that beautiful shore. So we say, Brother, farewell! --Resolved. That this Grange has heard with deep regret the death of Brother John Riley, a member of this Grange, which occurred March 23d, 1877. --Resolved. That, in memory of our deceased Brother, the officers and other members of this Grange wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days. --Resolved. That the resolutions and preface be entered upon our minutes, and a copy sent to the family of the deceased, also, to the Covington Commonwealth, the Cincinnati Grange Bulletin and the Boone County Recorder for publication. Wm. Watts. James Duncan. F.L. Gordon. Committee.
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