June  28,  1894

 DEATH OF LYSANDER GEE - An aged and Respected Resident of Tooele Passes to His Reward.

             A telephone message received by the News from Tooele this morning announced the death at that place of Lysander Gee, an old and respected Utonian.  His illness was of long duration and was borne with characteristic fortitude and patience, and was caused by a malignant cancer of the throat.

            Time and again the surgeon’s knife was sought as a means of relief and a hope for permanent cure, but with only indifferent success.   Gradually and painfully the dread disease continued its awful ravages until the patient became so emaciated and reduced in strength that he was compelled to give up his struggle for a continued earthly existence.  When the end came, as it did at his home last evening, June 27, 1894 at 6:30 o’clock, he was surrounded by the members of his family and numerous  friends.

With bowed heads, tear-dimmed eyes and sorrowing hearts, they had kept faithful vigil at his bedside and when his spirit passed into the unseen world their grief was intense.

            The deceased was in many respects an interesting character and was as widely known perhaps as any resident of Tooele county.  He has been closely identified with that part of the Territory for many years and held numerous responsible civil positions.  By profession he was a lawyer and in politics a staunch and unswerving Democrat.   His funeral will take place from the Tooele ward meeting house tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock.

            One who was near and dear to him in life furnishes the following additional particulars:  Lysander Gee was born September 1, 1818 in Austinburg, Astabula County, Ohio.  He became identified with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1832 at the early age of 14, and ever after bore faithful testimony to the truth of the Gospel.  On April 6, 1840, at a General Conference in

Nauvoo he was ordained an Elder by Elders William Smith and John E. Page, two of the Twelve Apostles, and in 1845 at Nauvoo was set apart as one of the Presidents of the Thirty First Quorum of Seventies by President Joseph Young.  On April 2, 1849, was ordained a High Priest.  Elder Gee also did considerable missionary work and was on a mission to Iowa when the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum was assassinated.

            Brother Gee came to Utah in 1849, sharing in the trials and hardships incident to the lives of the Pioneer Saints.  He lived six years in Salt Lake City and afterward removed to Tooele City, where he continued to reside until his death.  He always took an active part in the public affairs and served in many official capacities.  He was a devoted worker in the Sunday School, where for years he acted as one of the superintendents.  Even after his health, which had always been the best, began to fail, his voice was raised in defense of those glorious principles, which he prized dearer than life itself.

            While stricken upon his bed of sickness he bowed humbly and patiently without word of complaint to the will of his Divine Master, and now the voice that has touched many hearers and brought many to the truth, is hushed in silence until the Resurrection morn.

            His wife, the faithful companion of forty-eight years of an eventful career, survives him.  He was the father of 21 children, 17 of whom are living; 70 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.