Orpha Jane (Hadley) Mendenhall (1963)

MENDENHALL, HADLEY, BARNETT, STANDING

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 8/22/2008 at 11:32:09

Earlham Echo – March 21, 1963

Obituary

Orpha Jane Hadley, oldest child and only daughter of Anson and Mary Barnett Hadley, was born at the farm home in the Bear Creek community on August 10, 1887. throughout her life her home was within two miles of the Bear Creek Friends church.

She attended country school at Bear Creek and high school at Earlham, graduating there in the class of 1907. Following her graduation from high school, she taught for a number of years in the country schools of Union and Adams townships. She enjoyed teaching and throughout her life counted among her warmest friends many of her former pupils.

During the fall and winter of 1919 and 1920, she spent several months with her cousin, Belva Cook, on a homestead near Sugar City, Colorado, experiencing at firsthand some of the discomforts of pioneer life.

In the fall of 1928 she went to the Tunesassa School for Indian Children in western New York as a teacher. The school was maintained by Philadelphia Friends. Illness made it necessary for her to return home before completing the year’s work.

On December 27, 1929, Orpha was united in marriage to Lloyd H. Mendenhall, and through the following years she devoted herself to making a happy home for him and his two sons, Herschel and Charles, until they established homes of their own.

Orpha was a birthright member of Friends and was reared in a home where Christian ideals were upheld. She made her own personal decision for Christ early in life, and through the years she had served the church in many responsible positions: as pianist, as Sunday School teacher, as Recording Clerk of the Monthly Meeting, as an Elder, as a Trustee. For more than 20 years she was secretary of the Women’s Missionary Society. She was also interested in other community activities. When health permitted, she had taken an active interest in the work of the Township Farm Bureau.

Probably it was in the home and in her relations with her friends and neighbors that her religious attitudes were most clearly demonstrated. She loved and enjoyed people, both old and young. She was always interested in the activities and welfare of others, always happy to be able to render some service. Her religious attitude was not a somber, critical one, but rather one that saw and appreciated all that was good and commendable in the lives of others. Many will remember her for her friendly interest, her cheerful outlook on life, and her wholesome sense of humor that helped spread lightness and cheer in place of darkness and gloom. She will be missed in the church and in the community. Most of all, she will be missed by the members of her own family and by her inner circle of friends, for those who knew her best loved her most.

For a number of years Orpha had not been in the best of health but had been comparatively well for several months until she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the last day of February. She passed away at the Dexter hospital on March 14, 1963, at the age of 75 years, 7 months and 4 days.

She leaves to cherish er memory her husband; two sons, Herschel of Pleasant Plain and Charles of Earlham; and three grandchildren, Russell, Linda and Karen. She is also survived by her two brothers, Oren and Willard, with their families, as well as one brother-in-law, Raymond E. Mendenhall of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and one sister-in-law, Mildred Standing of Earlham. Besides those mentioned she is also survived by a number of first cousins, many other relatives and a wide circle of friends.