SISTER SILENA MOORE HOLMAN (1850–1915)
BROTHER LARIMORE'S TRIBUTE TO MRS. SILENA MOORE HOLMAN.
(GOSPEL ADVOCATE, 14 October 1915, 1027–8)
(Reprint from the Nashville Tennessean.)
Following a beautiful prayer of gratitude that Mrs. Holman had been permitted to live and work in our world, Elder Larimore talked from the text: "She hath wrought a good work....She hath done what she could." He said in part:
"It is difficult for me to understand my own emotions upon this solemn and important occasion. We are here to perform a sad service. Our Savior, in Mark 14: 6–8, said to his disciples of the woman who loved him and showed it by her services to him: 'She hath wrought a good work....She hath done what she could.' That is the sum and substance of all I may with propriety say to-day. When I apply these sentences to our dearly beloved and wonderful sister who has finished her earthly career, I say only what the tens of thousands who have loved her know to be true, as true of her as of the woman of our Savior's example. While I am seven years her senior, I have been practically her lifelong friend; and she was my valued, true, and faithful friend.
"I saw her for the last time in this life August 26—three weeks and three days ago. I was conducting a series of meetings at Lewisburg. She was excessively busy, as she always was, but she came to Lewisburg to see me, and we were the guests of Mrs. Collins. We talked freely of things of mutual interest. Mrs. Collins and I were principally listeners because we loved to hear her talk and because what she said was practical, important, and exceedingly helpful. She was then optimistic, bright, and hopeful, not only because of past triumphs for her cause, but for future prospects. She seemed as if she would take wings and fly away. She alluded modestly to her life and cheerfully to death, even to the sad events culminating to-day. She told Mrs. Collins she desired me to make the talk at her funeral, impressed it upon Mrs. Collins, paused, and said: 'I want Brother Larimore to do it; for I want no man to apologize for my work, and I know he will never do that.' There was no dark shadow, no tinge of doom, but that tide of thought swept over her though she spoke with cheer and even laughter. She then seemed able to continue her wonderful work many years. Why should any one apologize for her work? As well apologize for the fragrance of beauty and songs of the birds, for the light of the moon, for the glittering of the stars, for the shining of the sun, /1028/ for the purity of sweet infancy, and almost for the perfection of heaven itself."
In referring to her early life, Elder Larimore said:
"She was a worker almost from the cradle to the casket. In her eleventh year came the home-wrecking, heart-breaking war that devastated our sunny Southland. She was thus deprived of the protection and companionship of her brave father, who was called away to defend his fireside, his family, and the country he loved. It took him not only for a short time from all that he held dearest, but the same grim war ended his life. Before Mrs. Holman was fifteen the war closed, leaving the South a land of widows and orphans, and little else but sorrow, honor, glory, and graves. She was the oldest of five children, and she managed by diligent exercise of her wonderful intelligence to become qualified to teach and take care of the family. The old family home had slipped away, but she earned and saved two thousand dollars to buy back the home they loved, but had lost. She passed through that terrible period of war as a mere child. We who wore the gray and followed the waning fortunes of the Lost Cause sometimes thought our lot hard, but it was blissful compared with what the women and children at home had to endure; hence they should certainly not be honored less than the veterans of the cause they loved.
"She continued this honorable and industrious life, and at the age of twenty-four became the wife of Dr. T. P. Holman, the husband who is to-day lonely and broken-hearted because of her departure."
In speaking of her great life work, Elder Larimore continued:
"Thirty-five or forty years ago she became interested in temperance, an interest which soon became the mainspring of her life. She took hold of this work with renewed vigor when the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union numbered less than two hundred, a membership which during her fifteen years' presidency increased to four thousand or more. To her belongs more honor for this work than to any one else, living or dead. It was never her desire to meddle with politics. The elimination of evil was the object of her life, and along that line she achieved success that lasted and grew as long as she lived.
"Her work as a child, as a daughter, as a sister, as a teacher, her loyalty and fidelity as wife and mother, all justify my text. Her seven sons and one daughter are proof positive that their father and mother faithfully discharged their parental duty, bringing them up in the 'nurture and admonition of the Lord.' Mrs. Holman became a Christian in early childhood, and her faith never wavered. She was a Christian more than fifty years. When she was told a few days ago that the end was approaching, she was not disturbed or moved from her calm composure, her perfect resignation, and the sweet assurance to her loved ones that all was well with her soul. She loved her work, her sisters in the work, her loved ones at home, the church of Christ, and the brotherhood of man. She met death without dread, saying, just before she lapsed into unconsciousness: 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day."
"In all her work, she was never known to employ harsh means. Not a newspaper in Tennessee, I have been told, ever refused to print any of her manuscripts. In her last conversation with me she spoke of men who had been bitter foes of her work, speaking not unkindly, but in the spirit of charity, and I want to commend that spirit to all who are here. Her last communication to the press was a letter in regard to the present senatorial campaign in Tennessee, in which she urged the candidates to treat each other as gentlemen in kindness of spirit, saying nothing which one would not like to have said of himself. If her advice, based on the Golden Rule principle, should be adopted, it would revolutionize politics.
"In her death, her family, her friends, her coworkers, the church of Christ, and the brotherhood of man have sustained a great loss. 'She hath wrought a good work. She hath done what she could.'"
Back to Silena Holman Page
Back to Women... Page