Capt. Ezekiel Outten, son of James and Mary Lingo Outten, was born April 5, 1835. He began life as a sailor, and became a sea captain. He married his cousin, Anna Elizabeth Boyce, daughter of Capt. James Boyce of Concord. They were the parents of six children.
Elizabeth died in infancy.
Sadie married William H. Foster of Wilmington, and they are the parents of five children: Lena Foster married William A. Joslin of Wilmington, and they have recently moved to California; Louise married and has been divorced; Cook, Albert, and Herman. The Foster family now live at 110 Broadway, Penns Grove, New Jersey.
Nora B., daughter of Ezekiel, was born April 9, 1871. She married John Barker of Wilmington, and has one child, Joe Barker. She died July 7, 1903, and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery at Seaford. On her tomb are the words: "Asleep in Jesus; blessed sleep, From which none ever wakes to weep." During the Conference session at Epworth Church, Wilmington, in 1900. Nora made herself known to the writer, who accepted her invitation to take supper with her parents; after that, she visited our parsonage home at Nassau.
James Outten died aged 16 years, and Harry died aged 14 months.
Anna Outten, the youngest daughter of Ezekiel, married Harry J. Stidham, auctioneer, and proprietor of a large furniture store at 111 East 4th St., Wilmington. They have one child, Florence Stidham, born in 1903.
Ezekiel Outten was a captain for about forty years. He usually sailed to Mexico and the West Indies. In 1889 he was shipwrecked in the ocean off Norfolk, and was conveyed to the shore on a line, by the fife-saving crew. He was permitted to leave the hospital in Norfolk in time to attend his father's funeral. Ezekiel lived in Seaford for several years, then moved his family to Wilmington. He abandoned a seafaring life some four or five years before his death, which occurred in Wilmington December 7, 1905.
Anna E., the wife of Ezekiel, lived with her daughter, Anna until her death, which occurred February 19, 1917. The writer preached the funeral at the home of her son-in-law, Harry J. Stidham, out on the Boulevard. He also accompanied the funeral procession to Seaford, where we laid her to rest by the side of her husband, Ezekiel, and her daughter Nora.