CHADSEY
One of the very few remaining links with early settlement in Chilliwack Valley was broken Thursday, August 27, when Mrs Mary Jame Chadsey passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs W.D. Kipp, at 3103 St. George street, Vancouver. She had been ill for several months.
Mrs Chadsey died on the day following her 91st birthday. She was born in Ontario and arrived in the Chilliwack district in March 1867, the journey being made by way of Panama and up the coast in of the old sailing ships of the time. With her husband, the late William Chadsey, she lived on a farm on Sumas for many years.
Her husband was associated with his brother James in extensive farming operations. The brothers in 1868, it is recorded, shipped 2500 pounds of dairy butter in the Cariboo by ox team, and the following year 6000 pounds of Sumas butter was taken into the Cariboo, then in the midst of the gold excitement. In 1873 the two men built the first grist mill in the Chilliwack Valley.
The late Mrs Chadsey played well her part in the responsibilities and hardships of pioneer life, and throughout her long life in Chilliwack, retained a never-failing sense of humor, while in her remarkably good memory was stored a fund of happy occasions and humorous incidents, which always appeared to displace the less pleasant features and circumstances associated with hewing out a home in a virgin land.
Throughout her life Mrs Chadsey was active in the work of the Methodist Church and later was connected with the United Church.
Surviving are two sons, William and Lockhart, residing in this district, and three daughters, Mrs Kipp of Vancouver, Mrs Charles Dolman and Mrs O. Leist, also reside her. Another daughter, Mrs Andrew Clark, of Chilliwack, died a few years ago.
The funeral was held here Saturday afternoon, services being conducted in the United Church by Rev. J.H. White, D.D., and Rev. E. Manuel. Burial took place in the family plot in the I.O.O.F. cemetery.
The Chilliwack Progress -- September 2, 1936