Obit: Counsell, Bertha (1860 - 1935)

Contact: Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Counsell, Dettman, Gerhardt, Olia, Rowe, White

----Sources: Neillsville Press (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) 7 March 1935

Counsell, Bertha (9 Feb. 1860 - 25 Feb. 1935)

Bertha Dettman, daughter of Charles and Johanna Dettman, was born in Washington County, Wisconsin, Feb. 9, 1860, and died very suddenly at her home in Neillsville, Wis., Monday, Feb. 25, 1935, a few days after celebrating her 75th birthday.

Her girlhood was spent in the place of her birth. At the age of nine, her mother’s death caused her to develop an unusual sense of responsibility for one of that age, and in early womanhood, following her father’s second marriage; she was employed in Milwaukee for several years. In about the year 1883, she came to this community to live with a sister, Mrs. Wm. Gerhardt of the Pleasant Ridge community. Here she did dress-making and house work.

On Dec. 13, 1888, she was married to Joseph Ernest Counsell of the Town of Grant to whom she has been a faithful companion for more than 46 years.

The first year of their married life then rented a farm of Mr. Counsell’s father. The next two years they lived on the Youmans farm, and since then they lived on their own farm across from the Reed school, until they retired to Neillsville in the year 1917.

Five children came to bless their home, Herbert, deceased in the year 1928, Ida, deceased in the year 1908, Clarion on the home farm, Nina, Mrs. Leander Olia, of Osseo, and Irene, Mrs. Milford Rowe, of the Town of York.

Mrs. Counsell was a beautiful personality. She was quiet and rather unassuming so that today friends and neighbors say, "You do not know how lovely she was unless you have shared with her in intimate companionship such as we have known."

She always had the interests of her family at heart. Whatever she could do to make her husband and children happier and more useful, that was her sincere desire and purpose. She was constant through the years, and it could be said of her as of one of old, "Having loved his own he loved them unto the end." Such a mother does not died, she grandly lives on in the lives of her children into whose hearts she has woven the fabric of her own life.

As a member of the Methodist Church, Mrs. Counsell has been just as devoted. Once convinced that a course was right, nothing could break her loyalty to that cause. Learning of any particular need, she would gladly offer to double her time, service or gifts, is necessary, without complaints, sometimes saying, "If we give gladly, we shall never want, and God will bless our lives." She did not feel like a martyr, but accepted sacrifice in the spirit of service.

Those who have come close to her life, have found her genuine and have known that she was a friend as long as they were worthy of friendship.

Mrs. Counsell leaves the memory of a gracious Christian life to her husband, her children, Clarion, Nina, and Irene, to three brothers, August Dettman, of Aurora, Ill., William of Waukesha, Wis., and Henry of Adell, Wis., and seven grandchildren.

A host of friends, while feeling their loss in her passing, will appreciate that life is more worth living because she has lived.

Funeral services were conducted at the Methodist Church Thursday afternoon, Feb. 28, at 2 o’clock, the Rev. P. B. White officiating, and interment was made in the local cemetery.