WELLSVILLE - Ethel Wilhelmina Bellamy Schrader, age 96, passed away peacefully at The Manor Care Center in Wellsville on Saturday, April 5, 2008. She was born in Wellsville in 1911, the daughter of Charles and Edith Siedentop Bellamy. Her family lived on Niles Hill, and Ethel attended Petrolia Union School, graduating from Wellsville High School in 1929.
Ethel worked at Elmhurst Dairy from 1930 to 1940. On June 20, 1936 , she married her beloved husband of 63 years, Ervin J. Schrader, and they resided on Riverside Drive, in the house Ervin built, from 1938 to nearly the present time. She was a lifetime member of Trinity Lutheran Church, and a past member of the Trinity Senior Citizens and Ladies Aid groups. She was a wonderful homemaker, known for her love of birds and kitties, her enjoyment of word puzzles and pinochle, and her wit and wisdom. As the family baker, she delighted all with her pies, cookies, and special rolls.
Ethel Schrader was related to many of the first settlers in Allegany County. Her great, great grandfather, Silas Bellamy, was an early settler of Scio, where he bought nearly 100 acres of land, much of the present village of Scio. Silas married Betsy, the daughter of Joseph Knight, Scio’s first settler.
Ethel’s great grandfather, William Bellamy, cut a sledge road up Niles Hill, where he bought 200 acres and became a successful farmer. The original house still exists near the Bellamy Cemetery on Bellamy Road.
Her grandfather, Irwin Bellamy, served as clerk to the Doorkeeper in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington D.C. While exploring for oil in the Little Genesee area, Irwin met his wife, Clara A. Burdick, whom he married in 1885. Ethel’s Great Uncle William Handy Bellamy was the very popular Sheriff of Allegany County elected in 1903.
Ethel’s great grandparents in Little Genesee were Jabez B. Burdick and Mary Ann Jaques. Jabez arrived in Little Genesee in 1827, traveling from Rhode Island with his wife and five children in a wagon with all their possessions. The first year he had to work for other settlers to provide food for his family. Perhaps Ethel inherited her longevity and strength of character from her Great Grandmother Mary Ann, who lived to be 100 years old, and smoked a pipe and hived a swarm of bees on her hundredth birthday.
Ethel is predeceased by her husband Ervin and her sister Dorothy Bellamy Woodworth. Surviving are her two daughters, Carol (Daniel) English of Wellsville and Nancy (Dennis) Miller of Livonia, and three well-loved grandchildren, Richard (Lisa) English of Mount Pleasant, SC, David English of Buffalo, and Thomas Miller of Rochester. Also surviving are five nephews, Robert, Richard, David, Donald, and Alan Woodworth.
The family would like to extend much appreciation to the staff at the Wellsville Manor for their wonderful support and care of Ethel for the last three years.
A special service of remembrance and celebration of her 96 years was held at Trinity Lutheran Church Tuesday morning April 8. There will be an hour of visitation from 10 am to 11 am with a service at 11:00 a.m. with internment following at Woodlawn Cemetery in Wellsville. Memorials may be made to the David A. Howe Library or the Allegany County Historical Society.
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