Quaker Roots: Robert Henry Whiteley 1815 - 1894

ROBERT HENRY WHITELEY  

Robert and Jane (Woollen) Whiteley were my maternal third great grandparents. Their daughter Frances Ann Whiteley married my great great grandfather Michael B. Runyan. They had two children, William N. "Willie" and Robert Noah. Willie died childless when he was 25 years old and Robert, my great grandfather, married Mary Elizabeth Darling and they had five children, one daughter dying in infancy. My granddad Lawrence remembers his Quaker grandparents as both the Whiteleys and the Darlings were members of the Society of Friends in Henry Co., Indiana.

Biography of Robert Henry Whiteley:

Robert H. Whiteley, farmer and stock-raiser, was born in Caroline County, Md., Aug. 27, 1815, the eldest son of William and Frances (Newman) Whiteley, also natives of Maryland. When he was nine years old his father died and he lived with his uncle, Daniel Whiteley, five years. When fourteen years of age he began working for farmers by the year, receiving $24 for his first year's work. In 1839 he came to Indiana and located in Milton, Wayne County, where he worked on the canal a short time. In 1846 he came to Henry County and bought forty acres of land in Spiceland Township, where he has since lived, and by economy and industry has accumulated a valuable property, owning at the present time 147 acres of fine land. He was married Jan. 2, 1837, to Jane, daughter of Jacob and Nancy (Cockran) Woolen. They have had twelve children; all lived to maturity and married; eleven are still living - Frances Ann, Mary Elizabeth, George Calvert, Laura Jane (deceased), William Henry, Jacob W., Alexander C., Ruth Hannah, Sarah Catherine, John A., Alice O. and Martha M. Mr. and Mrs. Whiteley are members of the Society of Friends.

Source: History of Henry County, Indiana: Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens; Also, a Condensed History of Indiana Embodying Accounts of Pre-historic Races, Aborigines, Winnebago and Black Hawk Wars, and a Brief Review of Its Civil and Political History. Knightstown, IN: Eastern Indiana Pub., 1966. Print. [pg. 833]

A biography of Robert's wife Jane Woollen Whiteley can be read here: Funeral Card Friday: Quaker Roots.

Obituary of Robert H. Whiteley:

Source: New Castle Courier Friday 1-26-1894 page 8, column 5:

Robt. H. Whitely, whose sickness we have frequently noted, passed away Tuesday morning, aged 78 years. He was born and raised in Maryland, but settled in this vicinity in 1846 and has since lived here. He leaves a widow and eleven children, all of whom are good citizens. He was a member of the Friends Church. He was a good neighbor and citizen, and an upright man. The funeral took place yesterday. His brother, William, who died less than two months ago, predicted that both would die before the close of winter.

Robert and Jane are both buried in the Circle Grove Cemetery, Spiceland Township, Henry Co., Indiana.

Also see:

Heiss, Willard C. Abstracts of the Records of the Society of Friends in Indiana, Part Four. Indianapolis, IN: Historical Society, 1972. Print. [pg. 275]

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