Mrs. Kate Patton Ake, An honored and useful life came to an end Monday
afternoon, when the spirit of Mrs. M. V. B. Ake was released from its
tenement of clay and returned to the God who gave it. She had been in
failing health for some time, suffering from the dread disease of cancer,
and her death was not unexpected. It was not the less a grief and shock to
the many friends of this noble Christian woman and her family. Mrs. Kate
Patton Ake was born in Williamsburg, Pa., March 13th, 1845 and was the
youngest daughter of John K. Neff. At the age of seventeen she joined the
Presbyterian church, of which she has ever since been a devoted member, and
which sustains a heavy loss in her death. On Oct. 5th, 1863, she was united
in marriage to Mr. M.V.B. Ake, who was then a resident of Washington, D.C.,
and the first seven years of their married life were spent in that city
during which time two children were born to them&mdashEdwin Lincoln and
Clarence Neff, both of whom have preceded her to the better world. In the
spring of 1871 the family moved to the Etna Iron Works, in this county, to
join Mr. Ake who had come south the fall before to engage in the iron
business. Two years later Mr. Ake purchased the plantation known at that
time as the Battle place, and moved his family there in the fall of 1872,
where Mrs. Ake spent the last twenty-eight years of her life. Here she found
no church of her choice, but it was not long (1873) when she with others
organized the little Presbyterian Church to which her after life was
devoted. She served as organist 25 years, and also as Sabbath School
teacher, having had in her class some young boys who have become prominent
in life, among the number being Rev. Joseph H. Lumpkin, now the honored
Secretary of Education of the Southern Presbyterian church. She was
secretary and treasurer of the Ladies Aid society for a number of years. She
loved her church, and always had a kind word for those with whom she was
associated not only those of her own church, for she had many dear friends
in Cedartown and community, and among the last words she said to her husband
were, "You must tell all my friends how much I appreciated their kindness
shown to me in my long sickness." She leaves a devoted husband to morn her
loss, and a sister and brother. The former, Mrs. E. H. VanDevander, of
Williamsburg, Pa., is now here, and the latter, Mr. W. T. Neff, lives at New
Haven, Pa. Funeral services were conducted Tuesday afternoon at the
Presbyterian Church by her pastor, Rev. C. N. Martindale, in the presence of
a large concourse of sympathizing friends. The bereaved ones have the
sympathy of the entire community in their great affliction. (Cedartown
Standard, May 31, 1900)
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