Died, near Melborne, Marshall County, Iowa, March 3, 1885, Robert L. Petteys, aged 77 years, 9 months and 12 days. The deceased had been in feeble health during the past winter. Rheumatic pains together with the weight of years, baffled the best efforts of medical skill.
Robert L. Petteys was married on the 4th day March, 1835, to Emily Ladd, daughter of Jeremiah Ladd, of Camden, who survives him. This union proved an exceedingly happy one in few wedded lives have the silvery threads of love and trust been more richly woven than in theirs, and few along life's pathway have strewn the golden beads of kindness with more generous hand than they. Of 11 children born to them, six are living, and it was his happy privilege to have them all present during his last days. On Wednesday their children with other relatives some from distant parts, assembled to celebrate with them their golden wedding. The father was confined to his bed, yet he bestowed kind wishes and cheerful words upon all. At his bedside, with hearts filled with love and minds with anxiety, loved ones gathered and presented the aged and honored couple with tokens of love and regard; yet ere the sun had risen they were again gathered at his bedside watching in sorrow as his spirit took flight to the spirit land.
The subject of these lines will be remembered by the old residents of your town as one of four brothers, Richard, Hiram, Robert L. and Valentine Petteys, who more than fifty years ago settled some three miles north east of Camden village. In 1838 Archibald Wing, better known as "Deacon" Wing, who had married a sister, settled on the Taberg road 1 1/2 miles east of Camden. George Petteys came to Camden a few years later and located near his brothers. Robert L. afterwards moved to near the "Seventh" northwest of the village. Mrs. Wing died on Camden in 1845, and later Mr. Wing moved to Schenectady county, N.Y., where he died in 1860. In the years intervening between 1850 and 1860 the three brothers all moved West, and finally settled in Henry county, Illinois. Valentine died in Camden, at the residence of Charles Cain, in the winter of 1860, while on business in the East. The three other brothers died in Henry county, Ill., Richard in 1863, Hiram in 1864, and George in 1877. The descendants of these families are all in the West, scattered through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Nebraska.
Respectfully Yours,
George P. Wing