Dr Annie Colley, Dentist

 

an ad from the Salisbury Advertiser 1899

If you were to read a Salisbury newspaper about 1900 you would see an ad or maybe several ads in it for Dr Annie Colley, Dentist.  She advertised extensively.  At a time when dental work was frequently done at home by the wife of the family perhaps she needed to advertise. 

above 1907 ad

She worked in Salisbury from about 1899 to 1911.  She came to Salisbury with her husband, Dr Robert “Kyle” Colley.  Dr Kyle Colley (1858-1900) had married Annie in 1883.  They were both from Caroline County Maryland.  He attended the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College and graduated in 1885.  He had a practice in Queen Anne County before moving to Salisbury in 1899. 

Both of their practices were in the Jay William Law Building opposite the courthouse.

In just a little over a year Dr Kyle Colley would be dead from Brights disease (a kidney disease).

above from the Salisbury Advertiser Feb 17 1900

He left Dr. Annie to carry on with her two daughters. 

Anna “Annie” Frances Whiteley was born to Wm Henry Whiteley and Mary Pierce Whiteley in 1862.  She would marry Dr R. Kyle Colley in 1883 and have her first daughter, Mary, in 1886.  Her second daughter, Ethel, would arrive in 1888.  They lived in Queen Anne County Maryland at the time.  When she was about 34 she begins to attend the Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery, graduating in 1897.

The Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery started in 1856 and was a competitor of the Philadelphia Dental College.  It graduated it's first woman dentist in 1869 and after that each graduating class would have one or more women graduating as Dentist.  It is interesting that John Henry “Doc” Holliday noted gambler, dentist, and gunfighter of the old west was a 1872 graduate of the college.

After the death of her husband she stayed on in Salisbury.  Both of her daughters graduated from Salisbury High School and became teachers.  In 1911 she moved from Salisbury to New Jersey where she was the dentist for the New Jersey Hospital for the Insane at Greystone Park. 

The building is often feature on abandoned building websites

Dr Annie Colley would end up living with both of her daughters in New Jersey.  She would die in 1935 and be buried at the Sudlersville cemetery alongside her husband. 

Mary K Colley would graduate Salisbury High School in 1904.  She would become a teacher and end up at Westfield  high school where she would teach business courses until retiring in 1948.  She would come back to Salisbury in 1954 to attend the 1904 class reunion.  She would die about 1971.

1935 yearbook photo of Mary Colley from Westfield High School

Ethel Roberts Colley would graduate Salisbury High School in 1904.  She would teach in Salisbury and in 1913 move to Pennsylvania to teach.  She too would end up in New Jersey as a teacher.  She would die in 1973. 

1906 yearbook clipping

1913 article

Both daughters would remain single and with their deaths would end this family tree branch for the Colley and Whiteley family.  It is unknown where Mary and Ethel are buried.