 1784 - 1886 (101 years)
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| Name |
Catherine Hoch |
| Born |
19 Dec 1784 |
East Coventry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Died |
24 May 1886 |
| Buried |
Boyertown Mennonite Cemetery, Boyertown, Berks County, Pennsylvania |
| Person ID |
I134266 |
Strausstown Roots |
| Last Modified |
26 Jan 2014 |
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| Sources |
- [S201] Miscellaneous Newspapers, Montgomery Ledger, 01 Jun 1886.
The funeral of Mrs. Catharine Gabel, aged 101 years 5 mos and 5 days, took place on Saturday morning, 29 May, at 9 o'clock, from her late residence in Gabelsville, Berks county. The attendance was very large, an assemblage of people numbering 2,000 or more, with several hundred carriages, followed the centenarian to the tomb. Among those present were all of the surviving children (there were 11, of whom 7 are living), were present, themselves a most remarkable group of aged people, as follows:
Mrs. Elizabeth Gabel (widow of Henry H. Gabel) who was in her 83rd year; Mrs. Magdalena Ehst, in her 81st year; Henry H. Gabel, of Pottstown, in his 79th year; Mrs. Susan Landis, in 75th year; Mrs. Mary Gabel, in 71st year; Jacob H. Gabel, of Pottstown, in his 66th year; and Barbara Gabel in her 65th year. And there were white-headed grandchildren of the deceased present, the oldest being about age 58 years of age, several of these grandchildren being grandparents themselves. And there were present a large number of great-grandchildren, and several great-great grandchildren, or representatives of the fifth generation, who came as mourners to this most extraordinary funeralo, the likes of which (as to age of the deceased and her descendants and of the number of generations assembled) has scarcely ever been seen in this part of the county. the number of direct descendents of Mrs. Gabel present was probably 80 to 100, and they came from Boyertown, Pottstown, Reading and Philadelphia, and other places widely apart. The venerable woman in the coffin had an almost unwrinkled face, and it was remarked that she had the appearance of a woman of only 65 to 70 years old. And yet she was born (Catharine High [Hoch] on 19 Dec. 1784, more than four years before Washington became President, and she was a girl of 15 years when he died. She was married in 1802 to Jacob Gabel, and her husband died 29 Sep. 1823. Her mother, Magdalena (High), died in her 90th year, and her husband's father, Henry Gabel, died in his 94th year. There were five or six ministers present at the funeral on Saturday. Rev. Jacob Hunsicker, of East Coventry (Mennonite) spoke at the house in English, and Rev. Jacob B. Mensch (also Mennonite) at the house in German. Rev. Jacob Meschter (Schwenkfelder) of Palm, Montgomery county, made a prayer at the church, in German; Rev. Andrew Mock [sic Mack] of Douglass township, Montgomery county, delivered the funeral sermon at the church in German, taking his text from the 14th Chapter and the 13th verse of revelations: "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." After the funeral sermon, a prayer was made in German by Rev. L. Groh (Lutheran) of Boyertown. After the religious exercises, the remains of the aged woman were laid away to rest in the Mennonite burial ground at Boyertown, beside her husband, who had been sleeping there nearly 63 years. The undertaker was Daniel D. Brumbach, of Boyertown, and the pall-bearers John Fegely, Amos Hartman, Isaac Reinert, and Killian F. Wise. After the funeral, over 150 carriages returned to the house of mourning at Gabelsville.
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