Bertha Eudora Weaver

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Husband

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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Wife Bertha Eudora Weaver

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           Born: 23 Nov 1873
     Christened: 
           Died: 2 Jun 1966
         Buried:  - Belpre, Washington Co, OH

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         Father: John A. Weaver (1848-1930)
         Mother: Mary Elizabeth Gardner (1850-1881) 1

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Children

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General Notes: Wife - Bertha Eudora Weaver

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For those with long memories, the person who most nearly epitomizes the most memorable person within the history of Nickleville, it would certainly be BERTHA EUDORA WEAVER. This building, which now bears her name, is the visual remem­brance of this remarkable woman who contributed so much of her life to this com­munity and this church.
Born November 23, 1873, crippled from birth, losing a mother at the early age of twelve, a grandmother one year later, being separated from her brother and sister, and later tragically losing that sister, would have made the ordinary person feel defeated. But being no ordinary person, all of these adversities only seemed to make Bertha become the servant of all for the remainder of her life of 92 years.
Bertha's early years were spent assisting her step-grandmother in the Gardner Hotel, adjacent to the church. About 1906 she assumed the operation of the Nickleville Telephone system, a service which she performed almost continuously, 24 hours a day, for a period of almost 50 years. For this devoted service she would accept only a meager salary, rejecting proposed increases and with no pension provision for the time when she would be unable to support herself and could no longer perform this service.
During this same period of time, Bertha was also the rural correspondent for several newspapers. Although she had obtained little schooling, her detailed and intelligent writings contained much local history. To this day these writings are the source of research for the past history of the area.
Bertha retired from the telephone exchange at age 77. For a time she and her brother, Will and sister-in-law, Edythe Armstrong continued to reside in the home next to the church. After Will's death, she and Edythe moved to Belpre, Ohio, where she died on June 2, 1966. Her body is buried there, but her spirit remains here in the community and church that she loved and served so devotedly.
If she could speak to us today we believe that we would hear her praising us for the work that we have done to build this building and repay the debt upon it. But her next admonition would no doubt be:
"You have just begun. Continue to advance the Kingdom of God in this place." (This tribute to BERTHA EUDORA WEAVER written by Ruth Rumberger Heasley.)

1 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 1112.