[Granville-Hough] 5 Jan 2010 - Last Trip Home

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:45:37 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Last Trip Home - 5 Jan 2010

*Judge John H. Lincoln of Henryetta, OK, made his last trip to his 
boyhood home in Plano, IL, when his mother, Rebecca (Cook) Lincoln, 
passed away.  While "on train 12/14/23" making this trip he composed the 
following and signed it J.H.L. (John Henry Lincoln):

A FLOWER FROM MOTHER'S GRAVE

A trembling hand had placed it there -,
Last token of a heart's emotion.
Amongst the gloom with fragrance rare;
Out-pourings of some soul's devotion.

I saw it there - then longed to keep
That rose from grim death's sad decay
And let it in remembrance sleep.
I stooped and stole that rose away.

And as a child with tender care,
Far, far away  I bore it then-
That simple flow'r, in hopes to share
An inspiration from that gem.

While to life's span I still do cling,
With smiles of joy or tears of gloom,
Each petal shall its mem'ries bring
Of her who sleeps within that tomb.

And sacred now it is to me
And it as such would ever save -
A priceless heritage to be -
That fragrant rose from Mother's grave.

------------------------------------------------------

At some time later, a Lincoln child had recorded where it was found: 
"poem by Papa......Law Office of J. H. Lincoln, Rooms 1, 2, 3, Cline 
Building, Henryetta, Oklahoma."