Mr. K. Verdaine Hooper wrote:
Another obit from one of the Fairfield papers from my grandmother's collection.

Samuel David Berst. born September 9th, l874 near Fairfield. Ill., died May 5, 1929 at the parsonage, Bone Gap, Illinois, aged fifty four years, seven, months and twenty-six days.

He was one of eight children of John David Berst and Mary Ellenberger, two preceding Rev. Berst in death, Jennie and Sarah Ellen. Surviving him is one brother, John E. Berst of Lockport, and four sisters, namely Clara A Stoltz, Fairfield, Illinois; Mary E. Day of Piqua, Ohio; Emma M. Wilson, Fairfield, Illinois, Fannie Y. Ice, Hazelton, Indiana

He was united in marriage with Belle Powless, August 25, 1900. To this union were born five children, all of whom survive, namely, Chauncey P. of Columbus, Ohio; J. Dellos of Bone Gap; Donald H. of Rockport, Missouri; Mary Rea Brandon of Chicago; and Samuel David Junior, Bone Gap, all of whom mourn the loss of their beloved father.   He leaves also two grandchildren, Donaid H. Jr., and Betty Jane Berst of Rockport, Missouri.

At the time of his death Rev. Berst was in his 23rd year as a member of the Sou:hern Illinois Conference.   He held pastorates in Illinois as follows. Pinkstaff, one year; West Salem, two years; Norris City, one year; Maunie four years; Enfleld, one yearl Johnson City, four years: Grayvilie, one year; Newton, two years; Oblong, three years followed by a year’s leave of absence; Coulterville, one year; Carbondale, one year;  Bone Gap, at the time of his death

Rev. Berst was a member of the Southern Illinois Conference Quartet for seventeen years. The original members of the quartet were Rev. L. S. McKown pastor of St. Paul's church of East St. Louis; Rev. Robert Morris, Murphysboro, Illinois;  Rev.  C. B. Whteside,  present District Supenntendent of the Centralia District.  In recent years Rev. John D. Shadrack of Vandalia, Illinois. has taken the place of  Rev. Whiteside as a member of the quartet.

Rev. Berst was a member of Oblong City Lodge, NO. 649, A. F & A. M., Of Oblong. Illinois.

In addition to his relatives Rev. Berst leaves a great host of friends who mourn their great loss. However, they may comfort themselves with the thought that Rev. Berst now resides forever in the land of the living in that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

In his sermons Rev. Berst loved to quote poetry, one of his favorite quotations being the last stanza of “The Chambered Nautilus” by Oliver Wendell Holmes:
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll!
  Leave thy low-vaulted past; Let each new temple nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
  Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!