Martha Jane BLAKENEY ¹⁰⁴

  General Notes:

Martha Jane's last name is listed as "Blakely" in the Rose Hill Cemetery Records found at the Shenandoah Public Library.

  Noted events in her life were:

• Residence, 1850, Putnam County, Virginia. ⁴²⁵

• Residence, 1862, Canton, Fulton County, Illinois, USA. ⁴²⁶ http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilfulton/1871FultonAtlas/Pg11Subscribers2.htm

• Residence: Canton Township, 1870, Fulton County, Illinois. ¹⁰⁴

• Residence, 1880, Fisher Center, Fremont County, Iowa, USA. ⁴²⁸ where she was keeping house.

• Religion, 1888, Page County, Iowa. ⁴²³ where she was instrumental in establishing the Summit Church. Services were held in the Summit school until the first church was built in 1888. She was the first superintendent of the Sunday School, and the first funeral service held in the church was for her. The original Summit church was destroyed by fire August 25, 1940. The congregation started to raise funds for a new church immediately.

• Obituary, 19 May 1892, Shenandoah, Page County, Iowa 51601. ⁴³² in the Shenandoah Democratic World. Obituary courtesy of Gareld Whitehill.

Mrs. Mathew Whitehill, living about six miles south of this city, died suddenly Sunday from heart disease. She was about 70 years old. The funeral was held Tuesday by Rev. Harned of Farragut at the Summit Church and the remains were brought to this city for interment in Rose Hill cemetery.

• Cemetery, May 1892, Rose Hill Cemetery: Shenandoah, Page County, Iowa, USA. Locate the grave on the road leading north from the chapel and flag pole. The grave is on the west side of the road, about 1/2 way between the flagpole and the next intersection. There are other Whitehills buried nearby that may assist in locating the grave.

• Honors. by having this item published in an unknown book:

MATTHEW AND MARTHA JANE WHITEHILL
The actual birthplace of Matthew Whitehill is not known, but since the Whitehill name is of English origin, it is presumed that he came from England. It is known that he was born in 1811 and came to America as a bound boy at the age of 7 years. He was an orphan, bound out to a restaurant owner in the hill country of West Virginia. he met and married a young girl of 16 years, when he was 30. They lived upon a tract of land that was owned by his father-in-law and himself in the mountainous country of Wheeling, West Virginia. Here 8 of their children were born: Joseph - 1843; James - 1846; Mary - 1848; Zachariah - 1850; Boyd - 1853; Samuel - 1855; Matthew - 1859; George 1861; and John in 1866. Grandmother Whitehill was active in the community. She helped organize the first Sunday School at Summit (Page County, Iowa), which was held in the schoolhouse and of which she was elected superintendent. Martha Jane passed away in 1892. Matthew two years later in 1894. Both are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.

The following was written by Edna Lois Whitehill: Mathew Whitehill was my grandfather. He was born in 1811 and died in 1894 and is buried in Rose Hill cemetary [sic] in Shenandoah, Iowa. He came to America from England in 1818, settled in Wheeling, W. Virginia, and was married to Martha Jane Blakely in 1843. They migrated to Illinois during the Civil War days. They came to Iowa to the Summit neighborhood south of Shenandoah in the fall of 1872 when their son John (my father) was six years old.

Martha married Mathew WHITEHILL 17 Oct 1841 in Virginia.¹⁰⁰ (Mathew WHITEHILL was born in 1811 in England/Virginia,^422,423 died 26 Mar 1894 in Shenandoah, Page County, Iowa 51601 ¹⁰⁰ and was buried 28 Mar 1894 in Rose Hill Cemetery: Shenandoah, Page County, Iowa, USA ²¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

The Putnam County Virginia 1850 Census indicates Mathew and Martha were "married within the year", which would date the marriage in 1849-1850.