Obit: Hoffmann, Edgar Otto (1922 - 1933)

Contact:  Stan

Surnames: HOFFMANN PAUTSCH GOETSCH KADEMANN KOPS ZACHOCHE WIERSIG OLSON SABLER FRANZ BURHOP BAUMGART KOBS WANDREY

----Sources: COLBY PHONOGRAPH (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 07/27/1933

Hoffmann, Edgar Otto (21 July 1922 - 23 July 1933)

Edgar Hoffmann, eleven year old son of Rev. and Mrs. O. H. Hoffmann of Colby, was drowned in the Black river at the Greenwood tourist park Sunday afternoon at 4:45 o’clock when he stepped into a deep hole beyond his depth while wading. Members of the party who spent the afternoon at the tourist park were the deceased’s parents, Rev. and Mrs. O. H. Hoffmann, his younger brother, Harold, and the Rev. and Mrs. E. Pautsch of Athens, Ill., relatives who were visiting at the Hoffmann home.

Just how the fatal drowning occurred is hard to say for it all happened when few were about and the party was about to return home. However, it is thought that the victim of the deep pool started for the shore when he stepped into a deep hole. Attempts were made to rescue him as he came up several times but they were unsuccessful. The body was found in a deep hole about fifty feet from the shore ten minutes after the boy submerged.

Artificial respiration was resorted to in an attempt to revive the little boy and a Greenwood physician was summoned but efforts to resuscitate the victim of drowning were without success. A call was also sent to Neillsville for a pulmotor but it was learned that it was condemned and it was not sent. The doctor declared that death was due to heart failure and that the boy died before he was taken out of the water.

The news of the sad occurrence flew rapidly over our town, and, wherever it touched, it left sorrow and the expression of sympathy for the bereaved ones were many and from the heart.

Funeral services were held at the Zion Lutheran church in Colby Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 o’clock, Rev. M. C. Goetsch of Green Grove officiating, and internment was made in the Colby cemetery. Pall bearers were Reubin Kademann, Arthur Pautsch, Delos Kops, Harold Kops, William Zachoche and Raymond Wiersig. The services were beautified by songs by the choir and school children. The choir sang "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" and "Nearer My God to Thee" and the school children sang "Asleep in Jesus". The flower girls were Gladys Olson, Dorothy Sabler, Carol Franz, Velma Burhop, Lenore Baumgart and Eileen Kobs.

Edgar Otto Hoffmann was born July 21, 1922, at Libby, Montana, the second son of Rev. Otto Hoffmann and his wife, Norma, nee Wandrey, and was shortly after laid into the arms of his Savior in holy baptism. Having learned to know and love his Savior through home training and as a pupil of the parochial school, there is every reason confidently to believe that, even though death came to him under such unfortunate circumstances, his loving Shepherd called his lamb to Himself. He attained the age of eleven years and two days. He will be sadly missed by his grief stricken parents, a younger brother, Harold, his paternal grand parents, his maternal grand mother and a host of relatives and friends. An older brother preceded him in death in infancy. May the God of all comfort Himself heal the wound He has inflicted with the balm of His precious and consoling Word and may He grant to the mortal remains a calm and sweet repose in the bosom of the earth until the day of the glorious resurrection of all flesh!