MCCULLA, Harriet Jane White 1853-1932

MCCULLA, WHITE, DAVIS, GRANGE, WENTWORTH

Posted By: Deidre Badker (email)
Date: 6/13/2006 at 08:29:38

MRS. JAMES McCULLA PASSES ON - WAS ACTIVE IN COMMUNITY AND THE METHODIST CHURCH FOR MANY YEARS

Mrs. James McCulla passed away at her home in St. Ansgar, Iowa, Sunday, June 5th, 1932, at 9 p.m. at the age of 78 years, 10 months and 23 days, after an illness of a few months.

On the 12th day of July, 1853, a new spirit came to grace the home of William Francis and Maria Davis White. They called her Harriet Jane and she was the 5th child in a family of 9 children. At the age of 3 years, she went to live with her aunt Mrs. Jane Grange, and at the age of 17, she moved to Stacyville, Iowa.

She married James McCulla on July 9, 1874 and they moved to the farm near Toeterville, IA where they lived for 13 years. In 1887 they moved to St. Ansgar. To this union 3 children were born: Mabel, who died at age 17; Leslie and Alma.

Early in life she gave her heart to Christ and joined the Episcopal church. She remained a member of that church until Easter day, 1924, when her membership was transferred to the St. Ansgar Methodist church.

From the time she moved to St. Ansgar in 1887, she has been closely identified with the Methodist church here. For 13 years she was president of the Ladies' Aid Society, resigning on account of poor health. She was treasurer or recording secretary of the W. F. M. S. for a quarter of a century. She was also active in the Sunday School and all other work of the church.

For several years she has been in poor health and for the last few months she has been confined to her bed. Through all the years of fraility and the months of suffering, she maintained a serenity of spirit that was an inspiration to all who met her. In her declining years, there was that expectancy born of faith. Upon her face there was a radiance which can only come from an inner light and joy. Having completed the structure of character, which she leaves as a rich heritage to her family and friends, she quietly slipped out from the moorings in this temporal port to find a haven in the eternal harbor.

She leaves to mourn her absence her husband, James McCulla; 2 children: Leslie of Coldwater, Kansas; and Mrs. E. N. Wentworth of Chicago, Ill.; 5 brothers: Robert, Ashley and Arthur White of St. Ansgar; Fred White of Oak Grove, Oregon; and John White of Okanagon, Washington.
There are also 5 grandchildren: Edward Wentworth Jr.; James, Leslie Jr., Robert and Marion McCulla and many other relatives and friends.

She has made a home for her grandson Leslie Jr. since his infancy. Her willing hand and generous spirit have been felt in many needy homes and worthy organizations. We stand in awe before the mystery of life and death. We stand in reverence before the power of personality. For like a towering pine on the mountain crest that falls and leaves a vacant place against the sky, so her passing leaves us groping to find one big enough to fill the gap.

(From St. Ansgar, IA Enterprise - August 1932)