Obit: Wachsmuth, Walter (1885 - 1910)

Contact: Stan

Surnames: WACHSMUTH

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 09/29/1910

Wachsmuth, Walter (JAN 1885 - 22 SEP 1910)

Last Thursday forenoon news reached the city that Walter Wachsmuth of the town of Hoard, Clark Co., Wis., had been killed by the explosion of dynamite that morning between the hours of six and seven. Just what caused the explosion is not known and probably never will be, as Walter was alone at the time. He and a neighbor had fifty pounds of the stuff, which they had purchased two or three days previous, stored in Walter’s ice house in the rear of his shanty, and the supposition is that when he went in the ice house to get his milk pails, he stepped on the sack containing the dynamite, cause the explosion. Whether the accident happened that way or some other way, it is evident that Walter was directly over the stuff when it went off, as his body was blown into atoms, the largest piece being found only weighing two pounds. The icehouse was reduced to kindling and the shanty badly wrecked.

Walter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Herman Wachsmuth, in the town of Green Grove, Clark Co., in January 1885. A short time ago he and his twin brother Emil purchased an 80 acres in the town of Hoard, about two miles from the home of their parents, where they put up a shanty and resided, but as stated above, Walter was residing there alone at the time of the accident. He was a healthy, hardworking young man, highly respected by all who knew him. The parents, seven brothers and two sisters, who are left to mourn his awful death, have the deepest sympathy of the citizens in the entire community.

The funeral was held from the Green Grove Church, Saturday, and the remains interred in the Green Grove Cemetery.