OBIT: Elizabeth J. (STIFFLER) WILT, 1933, Newry, Blair County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Michael S. Caldwell

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PIONEER DAUGHTER EXPIRES IN NEWRY
Mrs. Elizabeth J. Wilt Dies Following Short Illness Contracted During 
Fire a Week Ago

  Mrs. Elizabeth J. Wilt, widow of Henry M. Wilt and daughter of a 
Blair county pioneer couple and granddaughter of one of [the] first 
settlers in the Poplar Run district, died last night at her home in 
Newry, death being attributed to pneumonia.
  Mrs. Wilt contracted a cold during a fire in Newry a week ago, which 
was not far from her home, pneumonia later developing and, due to her 
age and the shock occasioned by the excitement incident to the fire, 
caused her death.
  She was a member of one of Blair county's leading pioneer families 
and always resided in the county. She was a daughter of James and 
Elizabeth Shaw Stiffler and was born at Poplar Run on Nov. 24, 1847. 
Her grandfather, Peter Stiffler, came to Blair county from Lancaster in 
1802, obtained a patent for a tract of land at Poplar Run and carved a 
farm out of the wilderness.
  She was united in marriage with Henry M. Wilt, then a young veteran 
of the Civil war, and they resided in Altoona for a time where her 
husband was employed as a carpenter by the Pennsylvania railroad. They 
later resided in Greenfield township for a time and then purchased the 
farm of her grandfather and there they resided until the death of her 
husband in 1907. Shortly after that Mrs. Wilt secured a comfortable 
home in Newry and had resided there since.
  To this union seven children were born. During a diphtheria epidemic 
four of the children died within a few days. A son lost his life in an 
accident in the western part of the state and two daughters who grew to 
young womanhood are deceased.
  Mrs. Wilt was an inveterate reader and conversationalist and her home 
was the mecca for a large number of friends who enjoyed the hospitality 
of a fine country home and later her hospitable home in Newry.
  She was keenly interested in every movement for good in the 
communities where she lived and was a lifelong member of the Lutheran 
church, most of her life being affiliated with the Newry congregation. 
She was of an intensely patriotic turn of mind. Her father, her husband 
and several brothers served in the Union army during the Civil war. One 
brother died while a prisoner in the notorious Andersonville prison in 
the south. Her husband was a member of the 125th Pennsylvania 
Volunteers, in which a large number of Blair countians served.
  Surviving are two sisters, Mrs. Annie Sellers of Buffalo, N.Y., and 
Mrs. Mary Wilt of Duncansville, and one brother, James Stiffler of 
Phoenix, Ariz.
  Funeral services will be conducted Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock in 
the Newry Lutheran church, in charge of her pastor, Rev. C. E. Berkey. 
Interment will be made in the Newry Lutheran cemetery.

clipping; died November 27, 1933