Obituary: Rock County, Wisconsin: Ellen Stearns HAWLEY ************************************************************************ Submitted by Ruth Ann Montgomery, June 2005 © All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************************************ IN MEMORIAM ELLEN MARIAH STEARNS HAWLEY Every city or community has, or has had at some time, some person, man or woman who has had an outstanding influence on the morals, social advantages and educational affairs of that community where they lived their lives from year to year. Evansville has been blessed in times past, with citizens, who in passing have left an influence that has been felt by many of those who knew them best, which has aided them to become better citizens with higher ideals for their families and communities which has resulted in good for the people with whom they associated and the city in which they lived. Such an influence Evansville has felt for many years in the personality of Mrs. Ellen Mariah Stearns Hawley, who departed this life, Nov. 27, 1924, after a residence here of forty-nine years and seven months, coming to Evansville at the time of her marriage to Mr. Hawley in May 1875. Born June 17, 1838, at Keene, New Hampshire, Ellen Mariah Stearns received a thorough education in the schools of her native state and eastern colleges; an education which helped her to secure and enjoy the better mental things of life, in the sciences, arts and drama. Living these things all her long and busy life, she made it a point to keep in touch with the best and latest of all these lines qualifying herself through this education to be a connoisseur and critic of such matters, which won the respect of all who knew her. Mrs. Hawley was a woman who loved humanity, who loved to keep in touch with the joys and sorrows of all she knew, that she might rejoice with them in times of happiness and weep with them in times of sorrow when the word of condolence and the sympathizing hand clasp meant so much, and many are there in Evansville, who still appreciate, even after the passing of many years, the loving words and deeds of kindness extended them in past years by a woman who loved humanity as few mortals have loved it, and feared not to let her sympathy be felt by those upon whom the hand of misfortune had fallen. Well versed along educational lines it was but natural that Mrs. Hawley should early identify herself with the work of the womens clubs and with all lines of social work and for many years hers was an outstanding personality in the work of these organizations here. Her love for the new and beautiful of Nature caused her to seek out by travel the best America had to offer in this line, and as travel always does, it broadened her vision and made her to better understand the works of art of which she was so fond, by comparing them with the greater masterpieces God himself created. In the early days of her married life, her love for sociability caused her to unite with the Eastern Star fraternity and to entertain her friends and acquaintances lavishly at her home on West Main Street, which she lived for nearly fifty years and where she would have died, had she not on account of the burden of her years and failing health, decided to spend the winter with her granddaughter, Mrs. H. E. Scott, of Argyle at whose home she passed away, November 27, 1924. One of a large family born in the New Hampshire home, Mrs. Hawley is the last in passing with the excpetion of a younger sister, Mrs. Martha Hyland, of Astoria, Oregon. In her fifty years of residence in Evansville, Ellen Hawley, with her strong personality, excersied only an influence for the best and sweetest in life--an influence which has been felt by many and through their mothers will be felt by future generations. For many years she was connected with St. John's Episcopal church, of this city, later identifying herself with the Congregational congregation. January 8, 1925, Evansville Review, Evansville, Wisconsin