Barbara Katarina Moeling

MRS. BARBARA KATHERINE MOELING

Beautiful Tribute Paid to her Memory by a Friend of the Deceased.

        The death of Mrs. Barbara Katherine Moeling, which occurred at the residence of Capt. George Lock on the fourth inst., has awakened a feeling of profound regret among the hosts of friends of this much loved and most estimable lady, and prompts this tribute from a friend of over a quarter of a century's standing.
        'Tis said that as one's hold on life is weakened by the passage of many years, that one's friends become reconciled to his departure as he "draws the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams", but this does not always hold true; there are those around whom are interwoven tendrils which can not be so easily unwound, and of these dear old Aunty Brown was a living example.
        Born at Neustadt on Hardt in Rhenish Bavaria, May 14, 1822, she lived the first eighteen years of her long and useful life in Germany. She came with her parents to the United States, settling in New Orleans in 1840, in which city she was united in marriage with the man of her choice, John Henry Brown, long since deceased. After her husband's death in 1878, she came to live with her sister, Mrs. Daniel Goos, in Lake Charles, and there made her home until the death of Mrs. Goos, since when she was cared for and most tenderly by her nieces, Mrs. J. A. Bel and Mrs. George Lock. After a long illness she died at the home of the latter at 5 o'clock last Thursday morning and was interred in the family cemetery.
        Mrs. Brown's predominant trait, one would say in analyzing her character, was charity, the first cry of distress aroused her quick sympathy. During the Civil War this adopted daughter of the South found abundant outlet for this lovable trait among the needy and distressed. Her life was spent in good deeds and now among those she loved she awaits her reward at the great last day.
        In the words of one of her sorrowing nieces;

"We covered her from head to foot with flowers,
And thus went Auntie from this world of ours."