Rebecca Isabelle Dennis Wylie

Rebecca Isabelle Dennis Wylie

9 August 1812

11 June 1913

Rebecca Isabelle Dennis Wylie was born to Elizabeth Brewer and Aaron Dennis in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on 9 August 1812. She married Theophilus Adam Wylie on 5 November 1838, and they lived in various rental houses in Indiana from 1838 to 1859, when they purchased the Wylie House from Theophilus’ cousin Andrew. The couple had eight children: Louisa (b. 1839), Richard (b. 1841), Margaret (b. 1843), Susan (b. 1846), Samuel Brown II (b. 1848), Theophilus II (b. 1852), Samuel Brown III (b. 1854), and Theodorus (b. 1858). Unfortunately, five of their children died before reaching old age: Susan at 22 months, Samuel Brown II at 2 and a half years, Richard at age 20, Theophilus at 26, and Samuel Brown III at 36. Rebecca worked hard to take care of her family and their home. She loved to garden and had two sunken cold frames, or “pits,” as the family called them, dug in the front yard to over-winter her delicate roses and other flowers. In 1912, many of Rebecca’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and other relatives gathered at the Wylie House to celebrate her 100th birthday. Rebecca died on 11 June 1913 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Indiana.