Emporia Gazette, Wednesday, January 20, 1943; p.2, c.1

Mrs. Louisa J. Wilhite Dead.

Mrs. Louisa Jane Wilhite, 87, a pioneer resident of Lyon county died at 7 o'clock Tuesday evening at her home, four miles east of Emporia. Mrs. Wilhite came Lyon county before the town of Emporia was founded and when Lyon county was known as Breckinridge county.

Funeral arrangements have not been made.

Louisa Jae Fowler Wilhite was born March 28, 1855, in Morgan county, Indiana. She was the eldest child of Harvey and Tempey Fowler and granddaughter of John and Milly Fowler, who were heads of the Fowler clan who came to Lyon county with ox wagons, arriving here October 7, 1855, when the youngest member of the family - Louisa - was six months old. Kansas was a territory then, and the Fowlers were among the earliest of settlers in this section of the state.

Louisa Fowler grew up in the Fowler neighborhood, southeast of Emporia. She attended the subscription school taught by James Wilhite in one of her grandfather's cabins across the Cottonwood rivers south of the present Fred Fowler home. The rest of her schooling she received in the Fowler schoolhouse, which was first located in the edge of the timber near the river. Later the building was moved to the present location and has been replaced two or three times.

Louisa Fowler was married September 19, 1872, to Cornelius A. Wilhite, son of Albert G. and Marietta Wilhite, pioneers who had come from the same community in Indiana as the Fowlers. OF the six sons and six daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Wilhite, 10 survive. They are: Clifford H. Wilhite, Pocatello, Idaho; Mrs. Cora Riddle, Bloomington, Calif.; Mrs. Olie M. Smith, Benedict, Kan.; Carl Wilhite, Hartford; Edwin Wilhite, Long Beach, Calif.; Frank Wilhite, Emporia; George Wilhite, Emporia; Jonas Wilhite, Emporia; Mrs. Hallie Overlin, Oklahoma City, Okla., and Miss Ethel Wilhite, Emporia. A daughter, Mrs. Addie Collins, died in 1928, and another daughter, Lizzie, died in 1888. Mrs. Wilhite's husband died October 13, 1924.

Besides sons and daughters, Mrs. Wilhite is survived by a brother, John Wesley Fowler, and a sister, Mrs. Sara Hunt, of of Emporia; 27 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson, and by numerous nieces and nephews.

Mrs. Wihite had been a member of Garfield Circle, Ladies of the G.A.R. since 1909, and there was n more interested member. She was brought up in the Methodist Protestant church, and was a member of the old Fowler chapel, built by her grandfather. This organization years ago was disbanded, and in recent years the building was moved away. She grew many flowers and plants, and each autumn for many years took to her friends in the courthouse some of her potted plants. As her children and grandchildren married and established homes, she had ready for them quilts, or pillows, or a featherbed, or sheets and pillowslips and towels.

Contributor:
Anonymous