New Page 2

2nd Article

January 20, 1888 Idaho County Free Press

SUDDEN DEATH

The community of Camas prairie in general and Grangeville in particular were startled and distressed to hear, on the morning of Friday last, of the sudden death of Joseph W. Eastman, on the previous evening. Mr. Eastman had gone to the wood shed to split some fire wood, when he fell over in a state of insensibility, and soon breathed his last- the cause of death being attributed to heart disease, a complaint which on previous occasions had visited upon him similar attacks. He was a robust and physically active, man, and his awfully sudden removal from our midst is another illustration of the Biblical warning that death comes when least expected. Joseph W. Eastman was born in Corinth, Orange County, Vermont, Sept 3, 1831, and was therefore 56 years of age. In 1852 he came to California, and experienced the vicissitudes of pioneer life in the golden state until 1861, when he removed to Corvallis, Oregon and in 1863 left for Idaho and settled on Craig's mountain, at the old Durken place, better known as the Me?? Ranch, where he kept a hotel and stage station until 1868, when he finally removed to the ranch which bears his name in the foothills south of town. On Nov. 18, 1861 he married Mary J. Fountain. Mr. Eastman was universally liked and respected by his friends and neighbors, to many of whom he has extended assistance, comfort and counsel in the hour of need. Thus one by one the venerable patriarchs of the valley close their eyes in the eternal sleep beneath the sod of the prairie they loved so well. The Grocks said grandly in their tragic phrase: "Let no one be called happy until he dies," and if happiness is the sequence of a life spent in the contented performance of duty, then the friends of Joseph E. Eastman need not mourn his departure into the gates Elysian, which we call death.