Sarah C. (KELLER) TALLEY

TALLEY, KELLER, BEAL

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 3/10/2009 at 02:16:03

The Mount Ayr Record-News, 1929

PIONEER MOTHER CALLED IN DEATH

Funeral Services for Mrs. Sarah C. TALLEY
Held Tuesday Afternoon at M. E. Church.

Funeral services for Mrs. Sarah C. TALLEY, who died Sunday, January 13, at the home in West Union, Iowa, were held Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 at the Mount Ayr M. E. church. Mrs. TALLEY was among the earliest settlers of Ringgold county, and her home was in the Diagonal vicinity and Mount Ayr for more than fifty years. The body, accompanied by the son, G. H. TALLEY of Victor, and the daughter, Miss Nora TALLEY of West Union, was brought Tuesday morning to Diagonal and from that city to Mount Ayr, where at the church of which she was a member during the many years of her residence in this city, relatives and friends met to pay their final tribute of love and respect.

Sarah Catherine KELLER was born March 2, 1841, in the state of Ohio, With her parents she emigrated to Ringold (sic) county in 1856, arriving here in October. There were twenty in the party that made the long trip by covered wagon and a settlement was established at old Goshen, one and one-half miles west of Diagonal.

On December 25, 1860, she was married to Benjamin F. TALLEY and to this union was born ten children, of whom three now survive, viz., Lloyd of Bushnell, Fla.; Gilbert H. of Victor, and Nora M. of West Union, Iowa.

After a number of years spent on the farm the family removed to Mount Ayr where Mrs. TALLEY resided until after the death of her husband on September 23, 1907. She then removed to West Union to make her home with her daughter, Mrs. W. H. BEALL, and for the past 19 years her home had been in that city. About six months ago the infirmities of old age began to tell upon her and she became bedfast. Ten days ago she began to fail rapidly and the end came peacefully on Sunday, January 13, 1929. Her passing was like that of a person falling into sleep to waken inside the portals of heaven. Her age was 87 years, 10 months and 11 days.

Mrs. TALLEY was one of the charter members of the old Bethel M. E. church in Grant township, one of the earliest churches established in the county. Of the other surviving charter members only two, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac TALLEY, now remain, and they are now past ninety years of age. [They both died later in the month.] She was a pioneer mother in the truest sense of the term, a faithful member of the church and a consistent christian from her earliest girlhood to her death, a period covering more than seventy years.

The body was brought to Mount Ayr Tuesday and interred beside her husband in the beautiful Rose Hill cemetery. Her nephew, Rev. Roy TALLEY, of Bedford, delivered a touching and appropriate address in which he referred to the beautiful christian life and its far-reaching influence for good.

NOTE: Benjamin F. TALLEY, husband of Sarah Catherine (KELLER), was born in 1841, and died on September 23, 1907.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, 2008