J. Lindley and Georgia Frame Mendenhall ~ Superintendent and Matron of the Friends Boarding Home

J. Lindley & Georgia Mendenhall were the third team of
Superintendent & Matron to serve the Friends Boarding Home.

Both J. Lindley Mendenhall and Georgia Frame were actively involved in the inception, creation and continuance of the Friends Boarding Home in Waynesville. They are on the original list of members of the Friends Boarding Home dated June 1904. Both were single when they began their service, but like Aaron B. Chandler and Lydia Ann Conard (the first superintendent and matron) they married and then worked as a team at the Home. The Frame and Mendenhall families were both originally from eastern Ohio and settled in the Waynesville area.

According to Clarkson Butterworth in his Catalogue of Members of Miami Monthly Meeting, 7th mo. 1897:

J. Lindley Mendenhall and Georgiana Frame were married at Franklin Packers', George School, Pennsylvania, 10-27-1907 and live on Wm. T. Frames farm just above Corwin, Ohio. (W. T. Frame haveing gone to California to live with his uncle John Yocum and wife). Said J. L. M. is son of Joseph (deceased) and Mary Mendenhall ~ she sister of Gaby and Thomas Thorpe. Our monthly meeting (Miami) held 1 mo. 22nd, 1908 accepted a Certificate for him from . . .

After they married at the George School, Pa., they returned to Dayton and settled at Diamond Hill Farm outside Corwin to run her father’s business while he was in California for a year. Lindley bought the Captain William Rion Hoel farm on Clarksville Road in 1907. He became a very prosperous farmer and fruit grower. Mr. & Mrs. Mendenhall were Superintendent and Matron of Friends Board Home for five years. They served in other capacities, too; he on the Board of Trustees as treasurer and she as secretary. Georgia entered the Home as a boarder on July 15, 1942 after her husband’s death in 1941. She died there on September 23, 1946. They were the last couple to be buried in the old Friends Cemetery in Waynesville across from the White Brick Meetinghouse. They were laid to rest in Row 13, lot numbers 25 and 26.

The following is taken from Memoirs of the Miami Valley, Volume III (Chicago: Robert O. Law Company, 1919), pp. 150-151:

J. Lindley Mendenhall, one of the prosperous general farmers of Warren County, owns and operates a valuable farm of 100 acres about two miles from Waynesville on the Waynesville and Clarksville Pike. He was born in Morgan County, O., in 1869, and has been a resident of Warren County since 1907, as in that year he came to this locality and bought his present farm. It is in a high state of cultivation, and he is further improving it with each year.

In 1907 J. Lindley Mendenhall was married to Georgie Frame, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Frame, natives of Eastern Ohio. Born and bred a member of the Society of Friends, J. Lindley Mendenhall has taken an active part in the work of the Quakers in this locality, and is now a member of the board of control and treasurer of the Friends Boarding Home, which was founded in 1905 in Waynesville, having been elected to these offices in 1913. Mrs. Mendenhall is the efficient secretary of the Home, having been elected to the office in 1904 and which office she is still holding.

This Home is intended for the aged and homeless Quakers, and is a charity maintained by donations from the Society of Friends.

Liberal in his political views, J. Lindley Mendenhall has never bound himself by party ties, but votes as his conscience dictates. A friend of the public schools he has been a director in his district, and some of the education progress in it may be credited to his advanced ideas. A man of sterling honesty, his attitude on any subject inspires respect and his advice is often sought by those who desire to insure a stability in civic matters.

The following are J. Lindley and Georgia Frame Mendenhall's obituaries:

J. L Mendenhall, Farm Bureau Head, Called
Miami Gazette, October 23, 1941

J. Lindley Mendenhall, 72, widely known retired farmer and fruit grower and active member of the local Friends Meeting House, died Monday morning at Mc'Clellan hospital in Xenia. His death came as a shock to this community. He was taken to the hospital Saturday suffering from peritonitis, resulting in his death early Monday morning. Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at 2 PM at the Friends Meeting House here, the body lying in state from the noon hour until the time of the services. Burial was made in the Friends burial ground near the church. Mr. Mendenhall was an active member of the Friends church, he with Mrs. Mendenhall having been in charge of the Friends home here for five years. He was superintendent and treasurer of the home for the past 3 years. Mr. Mendenhall was president of the Warren Co. Farm Bureau co-operative and had been active in the Farm Bureau program in Warren Co. for many years. The Mendenhalls had lived in this community many years, recently selling the farm where they formerly made their home and known as the “Captain Hoel Farm.” Before his retirement from the farm, he was widely known in this section of the state as a fruit grower. He is survived by his wife, Georgia, and one brother.

Resident of Friends Home Passes Away
Miami Gazette, September 26, 1946

Mrs. Georgia Mendenhall, aged 80, passed away at The Friends Home, Tuesday of this week at 12:30 PM after a short illness. She had been a resident of the home for about four and one-half years. Mrs. Mendenhall was the daughter of Thomas & Elizabeth Frame and lived in this community all her life. She is survived by two nieces, Mrs. Evelyn Powers, Fenton, Mich. and Mrs. Arthur Hugg, Detroit, Mich. Also, two nephews, Ernest Martin, Dayton, and Raymond Selby, Chicago, Ill. Mrs. Mendenhall was a member of the Friends Church; the Waynesville Garden Club; Secretary of the Library Trustees; Secretary of the Friends Home Board of Trustees; and Honorary Member of the New Century Club and the Farmer’s Club. Funeral Services were conducted today at 2:00 PM at the Friends Meeting House. The remains were removed to the Cincinnati Crematory under the direction of the Stubbs Funeral Home.

Also see, THE 1905 FRIENDS BOARDING HOME TIMELINE &
FURTHER INFORMATION