Helen Eliza Coolidge
1842-1903
LIFE WORK DONE
Life of Activity Ended With Death of Miss Helen Coolidge
Helen Eliza Coolidge, daughter of the Late Judge H. and Sarah A. Coolidge, and sister of Judge O.W. Coolidge, of Niles, and Mrs. Charles A. Chapin, of Chicago, was born in Edwardsburg, Mich., Sept. 22, 1842. At the age of 17 she removed with her family to Niles, which has been her home until over eight years ago, when she went to Chicago to be with her aunt Mrs. Amelia Reading. Early last spring she returned to the home of her brother, herself an invalid, where she has been ministered to with tender care, through months of suffering until the end which came peacefully Saturday evening, January 3, 1903.
The going out of this active life calls for more than the above brief notice. Endowed with a mind of unusual strength, with a keen intellect, sound judgment and practical good sense, Miss Coolidge became a prominent and valuable factor in the social, intellectual and religious life of this community, where as a matter of course, she was accorded a high place.
She was the only woman in Niles who was ever honored with a place as member of the Board of Education, which place she resigned upon leaving for Chicago. She was the only woman in her church who was ever given the position of superintendent of the Sunday school. She was also for some time president of the Woman’s Missionary society, and a helpful aid in all the activities of the church, discharging her duties with intelligent conscientiousness and while never seeking them she never shirked them.
Her education in the public schools was supplemented by a course in Beloit college, and later she followed the bent of an inherited taste by studying law and was admitted to the bar. Thus was she equipped for any career. With all these stronger qualities of mind were combined those tender womanly traits and graces which made her the dutiful daughter, the devoted sister, the loving aunt, the trusted friend and a social favorite.
Upon going to Chicago, although she knew her stay might be temporary, she transferred her church membership to the sixth Presbyterian church of that place and there her unusual abilities were soon recognized and she was made president of the Home Missionary Society where her talents were consecrated anew to the cause which had always been so dear to her. In a letter to her from the pastor of the church expressing his appreciation of her “faithful and efficient service,” he says “The whole church owes you a debt which cannot be paid except as our Lord pays you in the joy of service and reward.” The secretary of the Woman’s Presbyterian society of Home Missions, wrote her that her “earnest co-operation in al the great work of which Chicago Presbyterial forms a part can never be forgotten.” Upon returning to Niles, Miss Coolidge resumed her connection with her old church and her last effort was made when in great physical weakness, she attended the September Missionary meeting and read an able and interesting paper on the work of the Home Missions in Chicago. Faithful to the last, she has gone to her reward leaving both in Niles and Chicago a large circle of relatives and friends to mourn her departure.
Thus passed peacefully away from earth life an earnest and active Christian, whose faith was shown by her works; whose cheerful kindness and courtesy won popularity with all classes—while to the friends of a life time, her devotion was such as is rarely seen in this world of change.
Intellectually gifted, refined in taste, self-sacrificing and helpful—in the home of her parents, and in the other homes which she has brightened in later years—she filled a place which can never be other than “vacant” in the saddest sense of that heartbreaking work. But with her “all is well;” she has gone to the Paradise of “loyal hearts and true,” where, God grant, we may meet her! L.B.L.
Source: Niles Republican, Thursday January 8, 1903, page 1, col. 4, microfilm Niles District Library)