WHITLEY, Ada Marilla (nee Chase) 1847-1933

WHITLEY, CHASE, CUTLER

Posted By: Marilyn O'Connor (email)
Date: 2/7/2011 at 11:10:13

Mrs Ada Whitley,
Long Time Resident Of Osage,
Is Dead

Mrs. Ada Whitley, widow of one of the county's first doctors, and one of the best-known women of the community, passed away at her home Monday morning, after several weeks of illness. She was 86 years of age.

Ada Marilla, the daughter of Dr. Summer B. and Almira Chase, was born August 7, 1847, in Carboro, Maine. At the age of 8 years, she accompanied her parents to Decorah, Iowa, where they spent the winter months. On Feb. 22, 1856, they moved to Osage where Mrs. Whitley has made her home for nearly seventy-eight years. Her father was one of the outstanding men in the settlement of the Osage community.

She was a student in the first classes of the Cedar Valley seminary at the time when that institution was housed in the Mitchell county courthouse and each student brought his own chair to school.

On March 13, 1889, Ada Marilla Chase and Dr. John Lord Whitley, of New York, were married in Osage. Of this union five children were born, four sons and one daughter, three of whom are living and are: Roy Summer Whitley, of Clinton, Iowa; Dr. Ralph Lee and Clara R. Whitley, of Osage. Fred Chase Whitley died at the age of 8 years and Merle Lord Whitley at the age of 22.

Since the death of her husband in 1898, Mrs. Whitley and her daughter, Clara, have made their home together.

In addition to her children, Mrs. Whitley leaves three grandchildren: Mrs. Caroline Whitley-Childs, of Kingsport, Tennessee, and Robert L., the children of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Whitley; and John, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Whitley; one sister, Mrs. Mame Cutler, of Osage; and one brother, (___________ Chase) of Des Moines. Another brother, Dr. Charles S. Chase, of Iowa City, passed away about three years ago.

Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at the Whitley home, in charge of the First Congregational church, and burial was made in the local cemetery.

[Mitchell County Press-Osage News -- January 19, 1933]