Wiley, Kate (Burton)

WILEY, BURTON, JONES

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 6/27/2011 at 13:32:17

The Grinnell Herald (Grinnell, Iowa) Dec. 13, 1932

OLDER CITIZENS KNEW MRS. WILEY

The recorded death of Mrs. Kate (Burton) Wiley brings affectionate memories to many of our older people. When the U.S. Government decided to establish a postal delivery in Grinnell, there was a written examination of the many applicants for the two new places in the postal service. This was conducted according to the then new method in the civil service. The two new positions thus offered were given two young men of Grinnell, one a recent graduate of the Grinnell high school, and the other a recent graduate of Grinnell college. One has remained in the postal service, and has been our popular postmaster for eleven years. The other went back to his books and became a clergyman.

It was quite fitting that each one of these young men should marry the other's sister. Thus Miss Kate Burton became Mrs. Horace S. Wiley, marrying the brother of Dr. E.B. Wiley, our physician and sometime our mayor.

Mrs. Wiley was born on a farm east of Grinnell, in a family that afterwards made a home in the city of Grinnell, and we all knew her. She graduated from the Grinnell high school, and studied awhile in Grinnell college, specializing in music. In her daily life she was gentle, quiet, kind, faithful and helpful. She was a notably valuable teacher in the primary classes of the Congregational Sunday school. She was willing to aid others outside of home where she was housekeeper after the death of her mother.

As a "minister's wife" she met the difficulties and worries that go with the title, and did her work with courage and patience. With her husband she did good work in Minnesota, and later moved to Portland, Ore. There they were living when she passed away.

Besides her husband she leaves her sister, Grace M. Burton, her brother, Arthur M. Burton, with his son and daughter. She has other relatives who are widely known and honored. Senator Burton of Ohio was her uncle. The *mother of the scholarly "Jones Boys" who reared them on the farm known in Grinnell as Jones' Grove, was Mrs. Wiley's aunt, and "the boys" her cousins.

She passed away from her home in Portland, Ore., Nov. 26, 1932. Those of us who recall "Old Grinnell" remember her as a lady, true and faithful, among the sorrows and joys of a needy world.

Transcriber Note: *Lavina Burton Jones 1828-1891