Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-05-17

IN MEMORIAM.
Mrs. Maria L. Blaine.

The death of Mrs. Maria l.. Blaine, at the
residence of her son-in law. Major Robert c.
Walker, I. 5. A, in Saint Paul, Minnesota,
has already been announced. She went to
st. Paul last year for a temporary sojourn
with her daughter, and quite Unexpectedly to
her relatives and friends, she passed from
earth on the 9Th instant, at the ripe age OF
seventy.
Mrs. Blaine was born, and passed nearly
| her entire life, within few miles of Pitts
burgh. She was the daughter of Neal Giles
pie, Jr., of Indian Hill, Washington county,
and was born at the old family stone mansion
erected by Neal Gillespie, ST., on the family
estate, as far back as l77S. The house is still
standing on the banks of the Monongahela
opposite brownsville, and is said to be the
first stone house ever erected on the western
| side OF that river. 1t is ample ana capacious
and in its day was elegant, besides being
famed far and near as the seat of hospitality
as refined as it was generous. The descend
ants of the elder Neal Gillespie are very nu-
merous, and in the middle and western States
well known. One Of the granddaughter was
the wife of the venerable Thomas Ewing, Of
Ohio; another was married to Mr.. Henry
Stanberry, late Attorney General of the
United States; another was the wife of Mr..
Van Trump, still in Congress from Ohio;
another was the mother of the late John X.
Miller, of Ohio, and still another was the
mother of Henry Miller and his several broth
ers, so well known as men of wealth and
character in business circles in Columbus
Ohio.
Solomon G. Krepps, of Fayette county, so
well known as a leading Democrat in his Sec
ton in the last generation, was grandson,
and the Walpoles, of indianapolis, Ind, CON
| splcuous and marked as men of talent, were
also grandsons.
OF all these grandchildren Mrs. Miller of
Mount Vernon, Ohio, is the sole survivor,
Mrs. Blaine being next to the last. But the
fourth generation and now the fifth are quite
numerous.
Maria l.. Gillespie, [such was the maiden
name of her whose death we are chroniclng),
was married about fifty years ago to Ephram
Lyon Blaine, then OF Carlisle, Cumberland
county. He was the grandson and heir of
Colonel Epbraim Blaine, Commissary Gener-
al of the Revolutionary Army. He was a
young man of fine culture, of elegant bear
ing, of large wealth and of the highest social
standing, and his marriage with Miss Giles
pie was the union of two of the oldest and
most prominent of the old Colonial families
of Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Blaine survived her husband more
than twenty years, he having died in 1850
| The character of Mrs. Blaine was one of pc
culiar sweetness, harmony and beauty,
| Christian the most fervent, pious and devoted,
never wearying in good works, and gov
erned and guided at all times by spirit OF
Astounding charity. Her social graces were
of the highest order, and in her younger
| days her personal beauty was no less attrac-
tive than her personal character Her men,
ory is blessed in the affections of large
| circle of friends, one of when begs to lay
fri 70 of anIr
bier. Her remains, temporarily entombed at
st. Paul, will speedily be brought to Browns
vile to repose beside those of her husband
| . Mrs. Blaine leaves five children, one of
whom is the wife of Major Walker, before
referred to, and another is the present Speak.
er of the United States House of Represen-
tatives.