Sunday’s Obituary – Mrs. Ellen E. Kite

Mrs. Ellen E. Kite, one of the oldest ladies of this section of the State, died last Saturday at the home of her son, Mr. J. W. Hurst.  Mrs. Kite was a daughter of Mr. William Massey, and was reared in what is now the Mt. Croghan section of this county. Mrs. Kite was twice married. First to William I. Hurst, who was killed in the war between the States. A few months after the war she was married to Mr. Roland Kite. Mr. Kite died in 1897. Three brothers, Messrs. Reuben and Marshall Massey, who live in Arkansas, and Mr. James Massey of Texas, one sister, Mrs. P. P. Rivers; two sons, Messrs. P. T. and J. W. Hurst, and one daughter, Mrs. Miles Watson, and several grandchildren and great grandchildren survive her. Mrs. Kite was a lifelong member of the Shiloh Methodist Church. The funeral services were conducted by her pastor, Rev. J. L. Tyler.[1]

Ellen was a daughter of William Lawrence Massey and his wife Huldah Meadows. Her first husband was William Isaac Hurst. This marriage resulted in two sons, Phillip T. and John W. Hurst. Her husband William Isaac Hurst was killed in the Civil War. [2] Pvt. Isaac Hurst was a member of Company B, 9th SCVI Bn. He died on 25 June 1862 at Battle of Secessionville, James Island, Charleston County; SC DOW, died of wounds.

Sometime about 1865 she married Roland Kite. Through this union one daughter was born, Mary Rebecca Kite. Mary Rebecca married John Miles Watson about 1884 or 1885.

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[1] James C. Pigg, Obituaries from the Chesterfield Advertiser 1892-1926; Chesterfield County Genealogical Services, 2001, page 5. Tombstone of Mrs. Ellen E. Kite; 20 January 1839–21 January 1916, Kite Cemetery, Chesterfield County, South Carolina.

[2] Randolph W. Kirkland Jr., Broken Fortunes: South Carolina Soldiers, Sailors and Citizens Who Died in the Service of Their Country and State in the War for Southern Independence, 1861-1865 (Columbia, South Carolina: Univ of South Carolina, 1997), page 173.