I like reading obituaries for their information and often for their wording. How many ways can you say someone has died? This was not meant to be an obituary, it was just in the local news column, but the wording is not what we would use today.
“The aged wife of Mr. Thomas Duncan who has been with her son, Dr. Duncan at LaMoille, had a stroke of apoplexy recently, but the Gazette reports her as improving. Dr. F. Duncan, formerly of this city, is one of her sons.
Since writing the above we learn that the old lady died.”
Mrs. Duncan is Eliza Cation Duncan. She died 9 Dec 1890. LaMoille is in Illinois and was the home of Dr. James C. Duncan.
This I Leave 