Ann Usher WAYLAND Erwin Chandler (1808 - 1898)
Maryville Times, (Blount Co. TN) Saturday, July 30, 1898:
"In Memoriam---Mrs. Ann Usher Wayland Chandler was born January 1, 1808 near Staunton, Augusta County, Va., and departed this life at the home of her daughter, Mrs. N.B. Ellis in Maryville, Tenn., July 19, 1898. She was therefore aged ninety years, six months and eighteen days. When a child of twelve years, she came with her parents to Tennessee where she ever afterward made her home. In February 1827 she was united in marriage to Armstrong Erwin with whom she lived happily until death separated them in 1853. To them seven children were born, two sons and five daughters, of whom six survive.
She lived the life of a widow, meeting the obligations and responsibilities of life with a firm hand a heroic and cheerful spirit; giving her children the best opportunities available for intellectual and religious development and culture. In 1860 she was married a second time to John Chandler. Since 1875 she had been a widow.
During the latter years of her life she made her home with her daughter who cared for her in tenderness and love.
Mrs. Chandler became a Christian early in life and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which she was an earnest and consistent communicant till death.
Mother Chandler had a keen appreciation of her relation to the church and the duties and responsibilities which that relation imposed. She was a woman of far more than ordinary force of character. Her intellect was strong and vigorous, her judgment sound and reliable and her affections warm and tender. She was strong in faith, joyous in hope, patient in tribulation and submissive to will of God. She loved the Bible and, by reading, prayer and watchfulness, wrought its holy truths and eternal principles into her life and character; and upon the truth, when the final test came, she rested her hope abd by it she conquered
She was given to that hospitality of which the apostle speaks, not forgetting to entertain strangers. She greatly enjoyed the company of good people and made her home welcome to the servants of God. She so lived that her life was a blessing to the church. Her last sickness was of short duration, being ill only about a week. She was partially paralyzed on Sunday night, the 10th, and lingered until Monday night, the 18th, when she passed, in great peace, to her eternal reward.
She leaves a large number of relatives among whom are six children, thirty-nine grandchildren, some seventy great-grandchildren, besides a multitude of friends, to mourn her departure.
Funeral services were conducted by the writer in the Methodist Church at Trundles Crossroads, where the deceased had her membership, in the presence of a large and sympathetic audience, after which the mortal remains were deposited in the grave to the Resurrection of the Just. May the God of Comfort sustain the sorrowing ones."---J.J. Robinette.