Eliza I. Selley 1851-1909

SELLEY

Posted By: Bill Smith
Date: 8/10/2013 at 15:09:02

Eliza I. (King) Selley
Villisca Review, 1 March 1909

DEATH OF MRS. M. V. SELLEY

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The death of Mrs. M. V. Selley at her home in Villisca, following a stroke of apoplexy, has caused a deep sense of gloom in the city and many expressions of sympathy have been made on behalf of the relatives who are called upon to mourn a devoted wife and a kind and indulgent mother. Last Friday afternoon about four o'clock Mrs. Selley called to her husband and complained of illness and asked for a drink of water. When it was brought she asked her husband not to leave her, and a few moments later asked for the boys. Those were the last words she ever uttered. For three days she lay still and lifeless and finally on Monday evening of this week at forty minutes past eight o'clock fell peacefully to sleep without ever regaining consciousness or recognizing the love ones gathered around her.

The funeral services were held yesterday afternoon at two o'clock at the home conducted by Rev. Enoch Hill, pastor of the Methodist church. Interment was in the Villisca cemetery. A large number of the people paid their last respects to the remains before they were taken to the cemetery and --------- and ------ interred in Mother Earth.

Eliza I. King was born in Oneida county, New York, April 30, 1851. She came with her parents to Iowa , Iowa county in 1865 and was married to M. V. Selley in January 1870 at Iowa City, the ceremony being preformed by the Rev. E. K. Youngs. They moved to Montgomery county in 1871 to a farm where they resided until a year ago when they moved to Villisca.

Mrs. Selley was the mother of six children: Samuel W., Edward F., Frank O., Arthur E., Maurice A. and Edith E. Selley. The children are all living here except Samuel who resides in Nebraska and were at her bed side and attended the funeral . The mother's death is the first break in the family chain and also leaves to mourn their loss, besides husband and children, two children sisters: Mrs. Harriet Newton of Iowa county and Mrs. E. H. Woodward of this city and one brother, Daniel C. King of Des Moines, who with a niece, Miss Hattie King of Avoca, Iowa were all present during her sickness and death and at her funeral.

Mrs. Selley was an active church member and had belonged to the Holmes Chapel congregation since December 1891.

In an old album which Mrs. Selley had carefully preserved was pasted a clipping bearing one of her favorite poems, and because it is so appropriate at the time of her death this poem, with a few minor changes, is published below:

"TOO SOON"
"Weep not. Have faith and hope and trust"
They are not enough, he said.
We were never but two, and one is dust.
I am alive; she is dead.
Death is the life we all inherit.
Yea, I believe it, he said.
But I am human, and she is spirit,
My beloved companion is dead.
She is happy. You should be glad.
Happy! Without me? he said
She was always sorry when I was sad,
So she who loved me is dead.
Say, her joy should be yours by this.
I know not her joy, he said.
Death will grant you what death denies,
Yea, to behold her, he said.
But she was the light of my human eyes,
And they cannot see the dead.
Prayer from your heart will dry these tears.
My heart has no prayer, he said.
But a crying out for the sweet lost years,
And my darling who is dead.