John Henry HANES was born in Davie County, January 21, 1838, and died Feb. 18, 1915, at the age of 77 years and 28 days. He was a son of Joseph and Mary HANES, there being four sons and three daughters, and he was the last of these to pass away.
He was married to Louiza CLOUSE in November, 1865, and to this union were born three sons, Joseph, George and Lewis, and one daughter, Lula. Joseph died in infancy; all the rest survive their father and also their mother who died in September, 1902.
Brother HANES made a profession of religion in early life and joined the M.E. Church, South, at Fulton, where his membership remained till his death. He never moved from the house in which he was born, but in the old home in which he lived and died, in a few hundred yards of the old church, a beautiful little brick church, which begins to show age, and which stands as a monument to the faith and loyalty of the subject of this sketch, as well as to the other members of the the Hanes family who resided here or who were interested in here.
Brother HANES has been an office bearer in his church nearly all his life, serving as Sunday school superintendent, steward, and trustee. Some member of the Hanes family has been superintendent of this Sunday school for about 75 years, and Brother J.H. has been most of this time.
He was a man who could be dependend on in battle of right against wrong. He took his stand, and was always found on the right side of every moral question. He would vote for prohibition if his were the only vote. His faith in God was simple, childlike and firm, and his devotion to the causes of the Master was constant and true.
Brother HANES was so kind to every one whom he came in contact that he can appropriately be called the friend of all men. It would be hard to over estimate the value of such a life as his has been.
In the death of J.H. HANES Fulton church sustains a very great loss, all the other HANES’ had left Fulton community and all the older Hanes’ are dead except P.H. HANES, of Winston-Salem, who is a nephew of his.
Davie county has lost one of her truest and most patriotic sons, and the community has lost one of its best citizens and most valuable men.
On Saturday, February 20, at 11.a.m., a large number of mourning relatives while his body waited at the altar and accompanied his remains to the church where a large company were waiting. The house was well filled, conducted the funeral service, and he where he had conducted the Sunday school so often, the writer, his pastor, assisted by Rev. W.S. HALL, the pastor of Fork and Advance Baptist churches, conducted the funeral service, and he was laid to rest near the church.
There was a beautiful floral offering which has a language all its own.
We feel sure we know where to find him, and trust all the relatives and friends will prepare to meet him in the house of many mansions in the home that shall never be broken up, and where they never say goodby.
“How blest the rightous when he dies!
When sinks a weary soul to rest,
How mildly beams the closing eyes,
How gently heaves th’ expiring breast!
So fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o’er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore.”
His pastor, E. MYERS, Advance, NC.
Source: NC Christian Advocate, 11 March 1915. Available online at the Internet Archive.