Edward Ellis HALE

Edward
1840 - March 24, 1923

*Obituary
Rogers Democrat
Thursday, April 5, 1923

HALE, Edward Ellis – (from The Springdale News) Springdale people were called upon Sunday afternoon to perform the last rites for two of the oldest and best known citizens of the community - John L. McQuaid and Edward E. Hale. The former died Saturday morning at two o'clock at his home in the west part of town while Saturday afternoon, a few hours later, Uncle Ed passed away at his home a short distance east of town. The death of these two old citizens the same day has served to recall the friendship that has existed between the two for the past thirty-five years. When Mr. McQuaid and his family came to Springdale in 1887 they first made their home near that of Mr. Hale and family. One was a soldier of the North, while the other was a soldier of the South, and they frequently visited in each other's home, talking, among other things, of the days of the '60's and there grew a spirit of friendship which continued with them through the remainder of their lives. Both were splendid characters and it was not difficult for them to be friends, although having fought in opposing armies, for each recognized and appreciated the good qualities of the other. Mr. McQuaid was 80 years old last September and Mr. Hale was 83.

*Obituary
Fayetteville Daily Democrat
Monday, March 26, 1923

HALE, Edward E. – E.E. Hale was born in North Carolina in 1840 and later moved to a farm near Springdale, Arkansas. He and his wife Annie, also born in North Carolina, were the parents of five children by the 1880 census. They had three sons, John F.R., Edward A.M. and Walter Hale. Their two daughters were Emma M. and an infant in 1880. (1880 U.S. Census- LDS Web site)

Rev. Edward Ellis Hale – This venerable minister of the gospel died in his home at Springdale last Saturday afternoon. The end came peacefully after a long continued and painful illness. Mr. Hale came of a well known and influential family in North Carolina where he was born four score and two years ago. He had a good education and taught school in his early life. At the beginning of the Civil War he cast his fortune with the “ill-starred and gallant Confederacy.” He saw service on many a hard fought field. Following the close of hostilities he moved his little family to Arkansas and located at Winslow. Later he became a minister of the gospel in the Christian Church. His labors were confined mainly to the rural population. He preached in humble homes, school houses, out of doors and in lowly places where only God and the angels could see and understand. This service was rendered year in and year out till brought to an end by physical disability. The funeral services took place from the home on Sunday afternoon. A great company of friends from various places came to pay a silent but grateful tribute to one they could no longer see but will ever love. The choir sang two songs and Rev. N.M. Ragland read the Holy Scriptures, offered a prayer and made a brief address. The burial was in Friendship Cemetery.

*Obituary
The Springdale News
Friday, March 30, 1923

Just at four o’clock on the afternoon of March 24, 1923, as the bright sunshine flooded the old homestead, and the robins twittered in the grand old elms, the Reaper came – passed silently on – and the immortal spirit of “Uncle Ed” Hale wounded its way to God.

“We saw not the Angel who met him there,
The gates of the City we could not see;
But we know he is safe on the further shore,
Where all the Ransomed and Angels be.”

Edward E. Hale was born near Thomasville, North Carolina in 1840. So when the Civil War came on he, then in the hay day of youth, volunteered for Dixie and was placed in Stonewall Jackson’s division of the army of Robert E. Lee. These, and other immortals, he followed, through the hills of Virginia, the Carolinas, where ever duty called. He was in many battles and as he has told me, in some pretty “close places,” but the Yankees never hit him. The nearest they ever came to it, so far as he knew, was on the skirmish line at Manassas when a sharpshooter put a Minnie ball through his water canteen. And when all was over he, like those other heroes of the ‘60’s ---------------that time there never was one more ready or more lusty with the Rebel yell than Ed Hale of North Carolina. He was married in 1866 to Annie Glenn, who survives him, together with two sons, Edward A. of Springdale and Walter S. of Pittsburg, Kansas, two daughters, Mrs. W.A. Prater of DeQueen, Arkansas and Hattie, of Springdale. Another son, John F., died many years ago while employed in the U.S. Indian Service in Nevada. In 1868 the little family moved to Washington County, Arkansas and lived for eleven years near Winslow, moving in 1879 to Springdale, where they have resided ever since. Uncle Ed, as he was familiarly known, has lived a humble Christian life since 1869 and spent many years in his later life in preaching the gospel, mostly in the rural districts and in small towns, as he often said in the “high ways and by ways” without money and without price. In his best days he was a splendid singer, and by the strength and melody of his voice he won his hearers. He sang the old time songs and some of the new ones, and sang them with a fervor and warmth that made him a welcome visitor where ever he went. He was a member of the Christian Church. He had been in failing health for three or four years, but was able to go about on his farm until November 30 of last year, when he fell from his porch, perhaps rupturing some blood vessel in the brain. He was never able to sit up after that fall, but kept his bed quietly and patiently through the long winter. A day or two before the end he sank into a state of coma, from which he never roused and passed without a murmur to the repose of death. The tired hands are folded forever, and the weary feet will walk no more the paths of earth. Peace to his ashes and honor to his memory. He was laid to rest in the beautiful cemetery at Old Friendship Church on Sunday, March 25. Rev. N.M. Ragland of the Christian Church in Fayetteville, a friend of many years, spoke the eulogy. The immense crowd who attended the funeral attest to the love and respect in which this good old man was held by his neighbors and friends from far and near. “He crossed on his bosom the wrinkled hands and fearless entered the phantom bark. We watched it glide from the silver sands, and all our sunshine grew strangely dark, for none return from those quiet shores, who cross with the boatman, cold and pale. We hear the dip of the golden oars and catch a glimpse of the snowy sail; and lo, they have passed from our yearning hearts. They cross the stream and are gone for age. And we may not sunder the veil apart, that hides from our vision the gates of day.

Anna
1840 - 1932

Contributed on 3/23/11 by tslundberg
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Record #: 496561

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