----Source: COLBY PHONOGRAPH (Colby, Wis.) 10/02/1919

Patitz, Oscar (1881 - 22 Sep 1919)

Oscar Patitz, a Soo Line engineer well known to many Colby people, died suddenly at his home in Stevens Point, Wis. on Saturday evening, Sept. 22, 1919, of apoplexy. Death came at 9:45 shortly after he had retired.

Mr. Patitz was born in Clark County, Wis. in the year 1881 and grew to manhood on his father's farm near Curtiss. His parents passed to the Great Beyond quite a number of years ago.

He began railroading some fifteen years ago when the division was at Abbotsford as fireman, and in time passed the examinations for engineer and for the past eight or nine years has been one of the company's most reliable locomotive drivers.

In 1917 he was united in marriage to Miss Madaline Anderson of Eau Claire, who with their daughter, Winifred, survives him. Besides his wife and daughter he leaves to mourn him a brother, George Patitz of Abbotsford; five sisters, Mrs. Harvey Culbertson and Mrs. J. Siefert of Appleton, Mrs. J. Bartel of Cleveland, Wis., Mrs. F. Archambeau of Abbotsford, and Mrs. Fred Pudlas of Curtiss, his stepmother, three stepsisters and four stepbrothers.

The funeral was held from his home in Stevens Point Tuesday morning at 10:30 o'clock, in charge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. After the service at the home the remains were brought to Colby on a special train, which arrived at 1:45 p.m. Two coaches were well filled with members of the railroad brotherhoods and their wives and surviving members of the family of the deceased.

The body was taken to the M. E. Church, where services were held by the Colby Masonic Lodge, under the directions of James Watson of Chippewa Falls, a retired engineer. The burial took place at the Colby Cemetery in the family lot. The floral offering were many and very beautiful.