Riley, Edward John 1843 - 1909

RILEY, SAWYER, BONSTELL

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 3/8/2023 at 14:37:47

Source: Decorah Republican Dec. 16, 1909 P5 C4-5

OBITUARY
EDWARD JOHN RILEY
Edward John Riley, another of Decorah’s pioneer citizens, passed out of this life early yesterday morning after an illness from heart disease of but four days. For a year past Mr. Riley has not been in robust health, and at one time his recovery was despaired of, but he was permitted to enjoy a return of moderate health and strength, and the enjoyment of daily association with his many friends and acquaintances, being on the street as late as last Saturday. So sudden was his passing that few even of his closest friends knew he had been ill.
Mr. Riley was born on Sept. 8th, 1843, in London, England, and when a lad of twelve (in 1855) came to America with his parents. They spent about a year at Cascade, Iowa, and come to Decorah in 1856, where the deceased has since lived. His business career began at the age of sixteen, when he entered the employ of R. F. Gibson as a clerk in his lumber yard. Later on he became associated with the Flemming Bros.’ lumber company and was their local agent, as well as with the Frudden company, but he eventually engaged in business on his own account, for many years alone and also as the senior partner of the firm of Riley & Baker. Upon his retirement from the retail trade he was the field agent for the lumbermen’s association for a time, but for some time he has not been actively engaged in business.
Early in life Mr. Riley was converted and became a member of the Congregational church, and he entered immediately into a Christian activity that has been of increasing influence year by year. He took particular interest in the Sunday school, and for a long time was instrumental in maintaining a meeting of the children in the west side school house every Sunday afternoon. His greatest work and one which no one can measure, was associated with the infant class of the Congregational Sunday school, of which he had been teacher for thirty years. Possessed of a great love for children, he also had a remarkable faculty in holding their interest, and inspiring in them a love for the Bible stories which he told in a way that made them understandable even to the smallest ones in the class. An evidence of his hold upon the children was shown in a story told early in the year when he was first taken sick. A little fellow went to Sunday school and not finding his much loved teacher there returned home. His mother questioned him as to why he returned so soon, and the reply came:--“Why, ‘Happy Day’ wasn’t there and I wasn’t going to stay.” And how well “Happy Day” expressed one of Mr. Riley’s chief characteristics. He was indeed a happy man, and his happiness made him all the more content when he could pass some of it on to his friends. He took the infant class when it had but twenty members and it grew to nearly a hundred. Almost all of the present members of the older classes in the Sunday school are his graduates.
Beside his service in the Sunday school he was for many years clerk of the church and at the time of his death was one of the deacons.
In 1870 the deceased was married to Anna M. Sawyer. To the five children were born. William died in infancy and Edna at the age of seventeen, leaving Fred J. of Phillips, Wis., Walter of Faribault, Minn., and Harry of Brookings, S. D., with their mother to mourn a father and husband of the truest and best type. He is also survived by one brother and one sister, Dan Riley of Decorah and Mrs. W. A. Bonstell of Venture, California. In their mourning the family are joined by a host of friends who had learned through long years of business, social and church association to love him as a brother.
The funeral will be held to-morrow (Friday) afternoon at two o’clock at the Congregational church, Rev. Mahlon Willett officiating.

Transcriber's Note: His gravestone in Phelps Cemetery shows his year of death as 1910 which is obviously an error since this paper was printed in 1909.

Phelps Cemetery
 

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