Surnames: SMITH POKEL

----Source: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 05/12/1921

Smith, Walter (1899? - 8 May 1921)

Walter Smith, aged 21 years, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Smith, residing three and a half miles north of the village of Withee, Clark County, Wis., was drowned on Sunday afternoon in Gordon Lake, near Glidden, Wis. The young man in company with his father, Wm. Pokel and M. W. Carlon, both former residents of this vicinity, were about to go on a fishing expeditions when the accident happened.

The young man had just taken a canoe from the bank of the lake and was crossing a small bay to get a larger boat in which all could fish, when his cries for help were heard. He had fallen out of the canoe and was trying to swim, but help on the shore could not reach him in time to save his life, as he was taken with cramps and soon sank.

After two hours of dragging the lake his body was recovered and on Monday was brought to his home at Withee for burial. He was a young man just entering a useful life and was employed with his father in the Pfiffner Lumber Co.'s mill at Glidden.

Funeral services were conducted from the home of his parents, Wednesday forenoon at 9:30 and his body laid to rest in the family lot in Riverside Cemetery.