Lily Annabel Allabough

1869-1909

Pittsburgh Gazette, May 10, 1909. Deaf-Mutes Journal Vol. 38 No. 19, 5/13/1909

Mrs. Lily Annabel Allabough, wife of Prof. B. R. Allabough, for 23 years as an instructor in the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, at Edgewood, died at her home, 465 Ella Street, Wilkinsburg, yesterday, from a cancerous affection. She was born in Fredericksburg, Pa., 40 years ago, was educated at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in Philadelphia and graduated from Gallaudet College at Washington, D.C. She married Prof. Allabough in 1902, who, educated in the same institution as his wife, is president of the Gallaudet College Alumni Association and treasurer of Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf. Besides her husband, Mrs. Allabough leaves a daughter and a son. Funeral services will be held at the home tomorrow afternoon. The Rev. Dr. A. W. Arundel of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church will officiate. The funeral will be at Norristown, near Philadelphia.

In Memoriam by Reider, published in Deaf Mutes Journal Vol. 38 No. 21, May 27, 1909.

On Sunday, ninth of May, 1909, by the will of Divine Providence, Mrs. Lily Annabel Allabough, beloved wife of Mr. B. R. Allabough, passed away at her home in Wilkinsburg, Pittsburgh. Surviving her are her husband and two little children, who are yet too young to realize that they are left motherless.

The news of Mrs. Allabough's untimely end came like a thunderbolt in a clear sky, for few of her many friends living outside of Pittsburgh had been apprised of her severe illness, and none had expected it to result fatally for the time, at least. Consequently, it cast a deep gloom among her friends scattered all over the State.

Lily Annabel Allabough, whose maiden name was Bicksler was born on March 14, 1869, at Fredericksburg, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. She attended the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, at Broad and Pine Streets, where she was considered an unusually bright pupil and a general favorite all around. She acquired such a clear, easy, and graceful command of the sign language that many demands were made upon her on various occasions to give song renditions or to declaim literary pieces, and she easily excelled others in such renditions. Her poise on these occasions was admirable, as her deportment was excellent at other times, and yet she was as cheerful, sport loving, and sociable as any of her schoolmates. On leaving the Institution she entered Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., where she graduated in the class of 1894, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Her popularity at college may be attested by the fact that she was chosen Valedictorian of her class, a position in which she acquitted herself with rare grace.

In the same year she was married to Mr. Harvey Delong, whose acquaintance she had made at school. They then resided in Staunton, Va., where Mr. Delong taught at the school for the Deaf. In 1897, Mr. Delong was stricken with appendicitis, and died soon after an operation. Mrs. Delong then removed to Pennsylvania with her child, a boy, who died about 3 years later.

On the 30th of June 1902, Mrs. Delong married Mr. Brewster Randall Allabough, in Lebanon, Pa. The couple made their home in Wilkinsburg, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where Mr. Allabough is engaged as a teacher in the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Her husband deeded the house, in which they have been living, to Mrs. Allabough as a wedding present. This union has been blessed with 3 children, two of whom are living; Helen, aged four years and eight months, and David, aged 15 months.

The deceased was devoted to her husband and children and seemed to be ever trying to add to the happiness of her home. She would patiently bear her own physical suffering and be most solicitous of her family and others. Although her health was long undermined, its seriousness was neither known to her nor suspected by her husband, because it was her habit to bear her sufferings quietly, so as to cause the family as little concern as possible. Now and then she would gather up strength and devote herself to helping others. She took a deep interest in the Home for Aged and Infirm Deaf, and gave all the support possible to the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf. Her work for the interest of the Home was kept up as recently as the bazaar at Philadelphia, last April to which she contributed by her own hands and by soliciting help from others.

As a dutiful wife, a devoted mother, and a noble friend, she gave evidence of her simple Christian living that cannot be mistaken. She was connected with St. Margaret’s (P.E.) Mission for the Deaf, Pittsburgh. If her religious life was a quiet one, it was nevertheless full of strong faith and habitual communion with her Heavenly Father. This faith was manifested almost to the moment the final summons came. Shortly before it, perhaps, conscious of her sinking condition, she requested her husband to offer prayer, to which she gave rapt attention. It gave her such new joy and solace that her soul thirsted for more, and, at her own suggestion, the 23rd Psalm was signed and then the hymn, Nearer, My God, to Thee. Soon after these simple ministrations the end came peacefully.

There fell upon the house a sudden gloom,

A shadow o those features, fair and thin,

And Softly, from that hushed and darkened room,

Two Angels issued, where but one went in.

After a service at the house on the following Tuesday afternoon, the remains were taken to the home of Mr. David Allabough, 1314 DeKalb Street, Norristown, Pa., brother of Mr. Brewster Randall David Allabough,., where the last rites were performed on Wednesday afternoon, May 12, by the Rev. John Fiske, of St. John's P.E. Church, and the Rev. C. O. Dantzer, Pastor of All Souls' Church for the Deaf, Philadelphia. The remains lay in a beautiful gray plush casket, around which were heaped the beautiful floral offerings of St. Margaret’s Mission for the Deaf, the Reformed Presbyterian Christian Endeavor Society of the Deaf, the Twenty Club, the officers and teachers of the Western Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, the pupils, Mr. and Mrs. Teegarden, Mr. Allabough's relatives, and the friends of Philadelphia.

A touching incident is told of little Helen's love for her mother. She had been prepared by her father for the worse, but was not told of the end. The day after (Monday) the child gathered a bunch of Forget-me-nots from a nearby field and hurried home to give some to her father and some to her sick mother, who then lay cold in death. The Forget-me-nots were then placed in her mother’s folded hands, and she was buried with them. But before the casket was closed for the last time, Helen’s father, after repeated requests to see her mother, took her into the room for a last view. She was struck by the beauty and profusion of the flowers and remarked about them. Then, suddenly she asked for her mother. She was pointed out in the casket, but the child again was most charmed by the beautiful flowers and white shroud. Again, she asked for mother, and her father pointed, there but the innocent little child did not seem to recognize her, so the father explained to her that her mother was in heaven and happy and not sick, and that he and she would go to meet her some day. This seemed to satisfy the little one better than any other explanation given.

The interment was in the family lot in Montgomery Cemetery. Besides relatives of Mr. Allabough, the following persons paid their last respects to the dead: Mrs. Hattie Wyle, of Lebanon, and Mrs. Sallie White, of Philadelphia, two half sisters of the deceased; Dr. Wilson Delong and his daughter, Iva, of Reading; Mrs. Delong, of Lafayette College; Dr and Mrs. A.L.E. Crouter; Prof J.D. Kirkhuff; Rev. Mr. and Mrs. C. O. Dantzer; Mr. and Mrs. Zeigler; Mr. and Mrs. Jas. S. Reider; Mr. and Mrs. Geo. T. Sanders; Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Paul; Mr. and Mrs. Harry E. Stevens; Mrs. MR. Syle; Miss Julia A. Foley; Mrs. FACT. Smielau; Miss E.G. Shields; Miss Mae E. Steeple; Miss Gertrude Parker; Mrs. JAM. Smith; Miss Louisa W. Geiger; and Messrs J. A. McIlvaine, Jr., SAG. Davidson and H. J. Height.

Calm on the bosom of thy God,

Fair spirit, rest thee now!

Even while with ours thy footsteps trod,

His seal was on thy brow.

Dust to its narrow house beneath!

Soul to its place o high!

Pittsburgh Gazette, May 10, 1909 Extracted from newspapers

by Reginald L. Boyd

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