OBIT: Mary (CONNELLY) ENDSLEY, 1942, Somerfield, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
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MARY CONNELLY ENDSLEY

  Mrs. Mary Connelly Endsley, 84, wife of former state senator, the Honorable 
James W. Endsley of Somerfield, died in the Community Hospital Friday morning at 
1:25, the result of a chronic heart condition, aggravated by a fall August 17, 
at which time she suffered a fractured lower jaw.
  After the accident she was admitted to the Somerset Community Hospital, where 
her condition became steadily worse until death resulted.
  Surviving are her husband, Hon. James W. Endsley, and one son, Gilbert 
Endsley, well known citizen of Somerset, and seven grandchildren, Mrs. Thomas 
Byrne, Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. John Meese, Sanford, Florida; Endsley White, 
Cleveland, Ohio; Mary Anna Springer and Altha Springer, Jr., of Somerfield; Mrs. 
Lawrence F. Brown, Naples, Florida, and Taft Endsley of Erie.
  Funeral services were conducted Sunday afternoon at her late residence in 
Somerfield by Mrs. L. G. Ritchey, pastor of the Somerfield and Addison Methodist 
churches.  Interment in the Addison Cemetery.
  Mary Connelly Endsley was the daughter of Dr. Charles H. and Mary Higgins 
Connelly.  She was born in Redwing, Minnesota, and at the age of three moved 
with her parents to Brandonville, W.Va., and from there at the age of nine to 
Somerfield where the remainder of her life was spent and where she married James 
W. Endsley, who operated the hub spoke factory at Somerfield and was a prominent 
businessman of that town for many years.  He also represented Somerset County 
very ably in both branches of the State Legislature - a term or two each in 
House and Senate.
  Mrs. Endsley, like her husband, was very patriotic and intensely interested in 
the welfare of the community, county and State in which she lived and in her 
country as a whole.
  She was organizer of the Great Crossings chapter, Daughters of the American 
Revolution and was its Regent for many years, and its Honorary Regent at the 
time of her death.  She also was the organizer of Forbes Road chapter of the 
D.A.R. of Somerset.
  Mrs. Endsley was also one of the best known historians of Somerset County.  
State historians consulted her on many occasions, securing valuable information 
for state archives from her.
  She was also an authority on and collector of antiques, and her home for many 
years was a mecca for those interested in early American glassware, dishes, 
portraits and colonial furniture.
  It was Mrs. Endsley who was instrumental in interesting the state in placing 
markers at the historic stone bridge in Somerfield, and along the old Braddock 
road.
  The Endsley mansion in Somerfield adjacent to the three-arch stone bridge, was 
built soon after the completion of the bridge in 1818 and is the oldest 
residence in Somerfield.
  When Mrs. Endsley learned that her lovely old home would have to go, to make 
way for the great flood control dam, she was grief-stricken.  At the time of her 
accident, when she slipped and fell in her home, she and Mr. Endsley were 
preparing to move to an apartment in Somerset within the next few weeks.

Meyersdale Republican, August 27, 1942