OBIT: Minnie Edith (Wiley) KENDALL, 1932, Greenville Township, Somerset County, 
PA

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

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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MINNIE EDITH WILEY KENDALL

Sudden Passing of Beloved Wife of Congressman Kendall

Cerebral Hemorrhage Caused Her to Expire Almost Instantly at Their Country Home 
Monday Afternoon - Was Engaged in Loving Service Almost to Her Last Moment - 
Husband Absent When End Came - Relatives and Friends Shocked by Sad News.

  Suddenly and unexpectedly as a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky death came 
to Mrs. Minnie Edith Wiley Kendall, wife of Congressman Samuel A. Kendall, at 
2:45 o'clock, Monday afternoon, August 22, at Kendalwood, the summer home of Mr. 
and Mrs. Kendall in Greenville Township.  The cause of her death was a cerebral 
hemorrhage.
  Only her daughter, Mrs. Grace Angus, and her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Samuel A. 
Kendall, Jr., and their children were present with her at the time of her 
passing.  Mr. Kendall and son, Samuel, had motored to Crellin, Md., Monday 
morning and were just starting homeward when they were notified by telephone 
that Mrs. Kendall had a serious collapse and they should hurry home.  They made 
all possible haste to return, and did not learn until they reached Meyersdale 
that the Grim Reaper had claimed Mrs. Kendall for his own.
  Mrs. Kendall had been ailing more or less for several years, but her health 
was better than usual this summer, and since returning to the country after the 
adjournment of Congress in June, she busied herself with household duties and 
was very happy amid the environments of her country home which she loved so 
dearly.
  
How the End Came

  On Monday she was helping her daughter, Mrs. Angus, with the preparations for 
a party and corn-roast to be given at Kendalwood late in the afternoon by her 
granddaughter, Miss Betty Angus, to a number of her young friends from 
Meyersdale and vicinity.
  The arrangements for the party being about completed by 2:30 p.m., Mrs. 
Kendall retired to her bedroom to rest and change clothes.  Mrs. Angus and Mrs. 
Samuel A. Kendall, Jr., who were in an adjoining room, presently heard Mother 
Kendall give a cry of distress and call for spirits of ammonia.  The daughter 
and daughter-in-law went quickly to her assistance and found her slumped on the 
floor unconscious.  Spirits of ammonia failed to revive her, and a stimulant was 
poured down her throat, but without effect.  Dr. C. C. Glass was called by 
phone, but long before he arrived the relatives present realized that death came 
almost instantaneously as the result of the stroke which caused her anguished 
cry for help.  The physician who came with all haste after being called, found 
that the bursting of a blood vessel in the brain was the cause of her sudden 
death.

Shocking News

  Mrs. J. L. Kendall and members of her household, living in an adjacent cottage 
at Kendalwood, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Baker, living in the old Kendall 
homestead near by, and other relatives soon joined the grief-stricken group in 
the house of death, and the sad news was telephoned in a short while to friends 
in Meyersdale.  Before the bereaved husband arrived here from Crellin on his 
hurried trip back to Kendalwood, practically everyone in Meyersdale had heard of 
Mrs. Kendall's death.  Mr. Kendall and son, Samuel, did not learn the worst 
until they paused here on an errand they were to perform on the way home.  It 
was a stunning blow to the husband and son to learn upon their arrival here that 
the illness of the loved one they had been apprised of just as they were leaving 
Crellin, had proved fatal almost before they got started on their homeward way.
  Not only was the news of Mrs. Kendall's sudden death a shock to the members of 
her family, but to the entire community and numerous friends and acquaintances 
throughout the country, for Mrs. Kendall by her kind and friendly disposition, 
her pleasing personality and many virtues and good works, had endeared herself 
to every one who knew her.  As a wife and mother, friend and neighbor, none 
excelled her in charm and loving service.  A most gracious hostess, her home was 
ever a social center where there was joy and happiness and every one was made to 
feel welcome.

Native of Iowa

  Mrs. Kendall was a daughter of Jonas T. and Ruth (Van Nest) Wiley and was born 
in Beaman, Iowa, April 4th, 1866.  In her infancy her family moved to Liscomb, 
Iowa, where she spent her childhood and received her schooling in the public 
schools of that place.  It was while she was attending high school in Liscomb 
that she became acquainted with Mr. Kendall, who was at that time assistant 
principal of the Liscomb public schools.  Two years later while Mr. Kendall was 
principal of the Albion, Iowa, schools, he and Miss Wiley were married, on Sept. 
22, 1883, at her home in Liscomb.  Mrs. Kendall became a student of the Iowa 
State Normal School at Cedar Falls, Iowa, the same school that Mrs. Herbert 
Hoover later attended, and where they made many friends whom they have in 
common.  Mrs. Kendall and Mrs. Hoover were very good friends, as are their 
husbands.  Only last spring, President and Mrs. Hoover entertained Mr. and Mrs. 
Kendall at a private dinner in the White House, and had them spend the evening 
with them as their guests.
  After leaving Albion, Mr. and Mrs. Kendall moved to Mapleton, Iowa, where Mrs. 
Kendall was prevailed upon to teach school for one year, due to there being a 
shortage in teachers.   While in Mapleton, Mr. Kendall was principal of schools, 
and one year later was elected principal of schools at Jefferson, Iowa, where 
they lived five years.  It was in Jefferson, Iowa, that their first child, Grace 
Maeona, was born.

Located in Pennsylvania

  When their daughter was still just a baby, Mr. Kendall retired from the 
teaching profession and, with his wife and child, returned to his native county 
(Somerset) in Pennsylvania to engage in the lumber business in which he made his 
start at Rockwood, locating later in Meyersdale, where their three sons, Samuel 
Austin, Jr., John Wiley and  Grant Van Nest, were born, and where the family 
have since made their home.  The third son, Grant Van Ness, died August 13th, 
1913, at the age of five years, the loss of whom Mrs. Kendall never ceased to 
mourn.
  During the early years that the Kendall's resided in Meyersdale Mr. Kendall 
first took an active part in politics, having served in the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania from Somerset County, from 1899 to 1903.  He was elected to the 
Sixty-Sixth U.S. Congress in 1918, and re-elected to the Sixty-Seventh, Sixty-
eighth, Sixty-ninth, Seventieth, Seventy-first and Seventy-second Congress.  Mr. 
Kendall took his seat for the first time in Congress, March 4, 1919, and has 
served eight years longer than any other member of Congress from this county 
ever served. 
  Mr. and Mrs. Kendall took their family to California for the winter of 1908-9, 
and first moved to Washington, D.C., in September 1909, for the purpose of 
putting the children in school there.  They spent all of their winters there 
since that time.

Charming Hostess

  In 1919 when Mr. Kendall was first seated in Congress, Mrs. Kendall took up 
the duties as a congressional hostess.  Her activities in the congressional 
circles of the capitol, as well as when living in Meyersdale were always noted 
for their charm and simplicity.  Her executive ability and tireless energy, 
during her more active days, won for her the respect, admiration and love of all 
with whom she came in contact.
  Her youth was spent in the folds of the Christian Church, but after coming to 
Meyersdale she united with Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in which she was 
tireless in her efforts to help build the present church home, and in the work 
and life of the church.
  Her heart was always in Somerset County, especially in Greenville Township, 
where she passed away.  Her life was devoted first of all to her family and to 
her friends, of whom there are many hundreds, and to the community.  She was 
never too busy to listen patiently to the troubles of others, and hers was 
always the hand that soothed and smoothed the trouble and rugged paths of her 
family and friends.  A more noble character or sympathetic and helpful friend of 
humanity never lived, and her passing will be mourned by legions.
  Mrs. Kendall is survived by her distinguished husband, Samuel Austin Kendall, 
M.C.; her daughter, Grace Maeona, widow of the late Rev. H. B. Angus, of 
Washington, D.C.; two sons, Samuel Austin, Jr., of Philadelphia, and John Wiley, 
of Pittsburgh; five grandchildren, Betty and Kendall Angus, of Washington, D.C., 
Samuel III, John and Joan Kendall, of Phildelphia; one sister, Mrs. Robin 
Thurber, widow of F. A. Thurber, of Liscomb, Iowa, and one brother, Henry Wiley, 
living near Aberdeen, S.D.  Her father died in 1907 and her mother in January 
1919.
  
Funeral Services

  After Mrs. Kendall's body was prepared for burial by Funeral Director R. Reich 
& Son, it was removed to the Kendall home on North Street on Tuesday afternoon, 
where it lay in state for 24 hours, during which time many sorrowing friends 
from far and near called to condole with the bereaved family and to view the 
remains which looked very life-like.
  Funeral services were held on Wednesday afternoon.  At 3 o'clock a prayer 
service was conducted in the home by Rev. H. K. Hilner, pastor of Zion 
Evangelical Lutheran Church, after which the body was taken to the church where 
a short service was held at 3:30 o'clock.  Rev. Hilner gave a short talk on the 
splendid life of the departed, after which Karl Leith sang "Going Home," with 
Mrs. Ralph Rosenberger at the organ.  Interment was made in the Hochstetler 
Cemetery in Greenville Township, in the Kendall burial plot.
  The pall-bearers were six nephews of Congressman Kendall - J. L. Kendall, Jr., 
of Pittsburgh; Leroy and Joseph Rembold of Nemacolin, Pa.; Ulysses Rembold of 
Carmichaels, Pa.; Eugene Rembold, of Greenville Township and Theodore Rembold, 
of Pittsburgh - Talmadge Howsare of Greenville Township and Samuel C. Engle of 
Berlin.
  The floral tributes were very numerous and beautiful, coming from far and 
near, almost filling the room in which the body lay in state, and being banked 
in beauty and profusion around the casket in the chancel of the church.

Many at Funeral

  The funeral was largely attended not only by relatives and friends of this 
locality, but by many relatives and friends of Mrs. Kendall and her husband from 
great distances.  Among those who came from out of town were her sister, Mrs. F. 
A. Thurber and daughter, Mabel, of Liscomb, Iowa; Dr. and Mrs. W. E. H. 
Krechting, Miss Freda Van Nest, Mrs. Bess Van Nest, Miss Caroline Angel, Mr. 
Kendall's congressional secretary, Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Smith, Mrs. Clarence 
Dufour, Miss Arleen Dufour, and Mrs. Lucy Clarke, of Washington, D.C.; Hon. R. 
S. Regar, formerly Third Assistant Postmaster General of the United States and 
now Executive Assistant to the Postmaster General, who was sent here to 
represent Postmaster General Walter Brown; Miss Evelyn Black, Mrs. Garman and 
daughter, Grace, and son, Frank, and son-in-law, Frank Mathias and Mrs. A. J. 
Rost, and Francis Franklin, of Pittsburgh; Capt. and Mrs. Ralph Smith of New 
York City; J. G. Carroll, former County Superintendent of Schools of Fayette 
County, and wife; Hon. Curtis H. Gregg, former Congressman, of Greensburg; Hon. 
H. M. Kephart, of Philadelphia, former State Treasurer; Miss Bertha Davis, 
Somerset; Miss Mary Bowman, Homestead; Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Fernsner, Washington, 
D.C.; J. F. Callagher, Pittsburgh, President Joint Association of Postal 
Employees; Postmaster and Mrs. W. B. Edmiston, Brownsville, Judge David A. 
Henderson, Uniontown; G. A. Ghrist, Postmaster of Uniontown; Hon. Thomas H. 
Hudson, President Judge of Fayette County; Alex Calier, Postmaster, Point 
Marion; T. Lee Titus, Point Marion; Harry M. McDonald, general manager of the 
Washington Coal and Coke Company, Uniontown; D. G. Orr, general manager, 
Monongahela Railroad of Brownsville; Senator Harry J. Bell and wife, Dawson; 
Harry B. Simpson, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and wife, Pittsburgh; Mrs. C. A. 
Omens, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bell and son, Homestead; Prof. C. A. Glessner, 
Berlin; Prof. W. H. Kretchman, County Superintendent of Schools, Somerset; A. J. 
Killmeyer, chairman of the Finance Board, representing T. F. Dolan, National 
President, United National Association of Post Office Clerks, Washington, D.C.; 
T. P. McAvoy, President Branch 14, United Association of Post Office Clerks, G. 
W. Egan and F. F. Griffith, United National Association of Post Office Clerks, 
Pittsburgh; J. F. Cook, Chairman United National Association of Post Office 
Clerks, Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Joseph Canby, Philadelphia; Mrs. Flora Black, 
Somerset; W. S. Behanna, Postmaster of Connellsville and wife; Mrs. Hyatt, 
Superintendent of Mails, Connellsville; Miss Harriett Inks and other postoffice 
employees, Uniontown; Hon. Chas. i. and Mrs. Shaffer, Ralphton; Dr. and Mrs. C. 
B. Korns, 
Sipesville; Former Postmaster C. S. Ickes, Boswell; Hon. Harry Horton, wife and 
daughter, Connellsville; the postmasters of Belle Vernon, Fayette City and 
Smithfield, Pa.; Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Barchus and H. H. Maust, Salisbury.

Meyersdale Republican, August 25, 1932