Wolfe, Victoria Smith

Passed: 1913-09-14

Age: 71

Source: Mountaineer

Death Notice:

Obituary Date: 1913-09-19

Information: Mrs. Victoria C. Wolfe, wife of Nehemiah S. Wolfe, passed peacefully away at her home near Given at 8 o'clock Sunday evening.  Mrs. Wolfe had been in failing health for several months and her death, due to stomach trouble, though not unexpected, was a great shock to her family.  The funeral services were held from the home at 3 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, Rev. Rymer officiating.  The remains were interred in the family burial ground.  Deceased was 70 years of age and was the daughter of Jacob and Sarah L. Smith.  She is survived by her husband and four sons, A. M., Ed., L. V., and Fred, two daughters, Mrs. L. A. Parsons of Lone Oak and Mrs. Alva Moore of Macon, Georgia.  Two brothers, Andrew Smith of Indiana and Eugene Smith of Foster Chapel, three sisters, Mrs. Godfrey Frey of New Sheffield, Pa., Mrs. James Brotherton of Lone Oak and Mrs. Augusta Barnett, who resides in the West, also survive.       On the evening of September 14, 1913, at the hour when the sable curtain of darkness was being drawn over the earth, there appeared to a family devoted to each other, a messenger clothed in such attire and with hands out stretched that all could recognize it as the hand of death.  He laid that hand upon a devoted mother and wife and N. S. Wolfe and children realized that death had taken the wife of an affectionate husband, and mother and counselor of her children. ""There fell upon that house a sudden gloom, A shadow on those features fair and thin, And softly from that hushed and darkened room, Two angels issued where but one went in.""      This death not only bereaved three sister, Mrs. Rejanna Brotherton, Mrs. Helen Frey, and Mrs. Augusta Barnett, and three brothers, A. L. Smith, E. B. Smith and Bryon Smith, but four sons, Fred D., E. L., L. V. and A. M. Wolfe, and two daughters, Mrs. Helen Parsons and Mrs. Mollie Moore.  Clinton A. Wolfe having gone February 12, 1901, but took from her many friends a kind neighbor and friend.      Mrs. Wolfe was born June 20, 1842, in Ohio.  She became a member of the U. B. Church in 1890, since which time she lived the life of a devoted christian.  All her acquaintances recognize the fact that a dear companion, an affectionate and forgiving mother, an excellent lady, an exemplary christian and devoted worker for the Master's cause is called home and that by living the life she lived, they will meet her on the golden sands of Heaven's bright shore.  She was loved and revered by all who knew her, not only for her greatness but for her goodness.  She was an exemplary wife and mother and her influence will live and be felt in many years to come.  She lived a christian life and died respected and loved by all.  ""She is gone but not forgotten"".      Of her maternal ancestors, she descended fourth generation removed from General Andrew Lewis, of whom General Washington often spoke and said, ""he was a great soldier and brave man and kind to t hose under him"".  She was a descendent of that patriotic woman Lady Lynn Lewis, who after sending her four sons to fight the cause of the colonies, she called her other three sons, whose ages were 17, 15, and 13 years, and with the firmness of a Roman matron, bade them fly to the defense of their native land.  ""Go my children, I spare not my youngest, my fair-haired boy and comfort of my declining years.  I devote you all to my country.  Keep back the foot of the invader from the soil of Augusta or see my face no more"".  She said this in face of the fact that William Lewis, her father, was confined to his room by sickness.  She was a grand daughter of Col. Andrew L. Lewis.      Of her paternal ancestors, she descended from William Smith, who about the year 1830, with his wife and three sons, Joab, George and Robert, came from Botetourt County, Virginia, to West Virginia, and were overtaken by cold weather near Sissonville, where they went into winter quarters on what is now known as the Greenbury Fisher farm at the mouth of Allen's Fork on Poca, at which place both the parents died and are buried on a point overlooking Poca, near their winter's abode.  After which George and Robert found permanent homes on Poca and Eighteen Mile Creek, and Joab Smith, the father of Mrs. Wolfe, came to Ripley and later went to Ohio, having taught school in West Virginia and Ohio until the Civil War broke out, when he left Ohio and came back to West Virginia where he taught several private schools, one for the Hon. George Crow.  About the year 1833, he was united in marriage with Miss Sallie Lewis, daughter of Col. Andrew L. Lewis, the mother of the subject of this sketch.  He left Ripley with General Wise's army and walked to Lewisburg, W. Va. of which trip he kept a complete diary, said to be in existence yet.  He died at White Sulpher Springs. The subject of this sketch was teaching school near Angerona when her father joined the Army.      She was an extensive reader of history, both ancient and modern, and also was a great reader of fiction, which she nearly constantly read, and was well posted on current events, which rendered her an interesting conversationalist, from which the listener could gain a great amount of information.  She read a part of Dickens over every year and was also an extensive reader of European history, Shakespeare, and the modern writers, she was a lover of Harold Belle Wright, Thomas Dixon, Jr. and Tolstoy.  During the last year of her life, while scarcely able to sit up, she had her son, Fred, read Homer's Iliad to her.  She seemed to get a great deal out of nature.  To her, the valleys, hills, brooks, trees and vegetation seemed to reveal many truths of God's love, power and goodness.  (Written by T.I.C. Parsons)   (from the Betty Kessel McIntyre collection)