Surnames: Wigstadt, Baumer, Ruesch, Plochocki

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 05/11/1950

Wigstadt, Ben (3 May 1890 - 3 May 1950)

Stetsonville, Wisconsin - Ben Wigstadt, a town of Mayville, Clark county, Wisconsin resident all of his life, was electrocuted last week Wednesday about 10 o’clock on his sixtieth birthday while engaged in repairing a well at the north limits of this village.

The auger on the well digger he was helping to operate came in contact with a high tension wire on the farm occupied by Mrs. Joseph Plochocki.

Wigstadt, a bachelor, was assisting Herman Baumer, owner of the property, in cleaning and enlarging the well when he was electrocuted. Baumer, who was near-by, was badly burned and is a patient at the Medford hospital.

Four sisters and four brothers survive Wigstadt.

David Ruesch, Taylor county coroner, declared the death was apparently accidental and that there would be no inquest. Death, he added, was instantaneous.

**************************

Obit: Wigstadt, Ben (1890 - 1950)

Contact: Linda Mertens
Email: mertens@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Dessl, Meyer, Miller, Quarme, Rau, Sorenson, Stoiber, Sulik, Wigstadt, Winchell


----Source - Anna Johnson's Scrapbook


Ben Wigstadt (3 May 1890 - 3 May 1950)

Funeral services were held from Salem Evangelical United Brethren church here (Dorchester, Clark Co., WI) at 2 p. m. Saturday, May 6, for Ben Wigstadt, who lost his life in an accident on his 60th birthday last Wednesday. The Rev. V. R. Miller, pastor, officiated at the final rites, and at, a brief service at the Wigstadt home at 1:30 p. m.

Burial was in the family, plot in Dorchester Memorial cemetery where an escort of, members of the local Leach-Paulson post of the American Legion participated in the ritual of a military committal. Fuchsgruber Funeral Services had charge of arrangements, and pallbearers were L. D. Sorenson, M. S. Sorenson, Joe Dessl, Joe Sulik, Ed Meyer, Henry Rau, Del Winchell and Frank Stoiber.

Ben Wigstadt, son of Thomas and Bessie (Quarme) Wigstadt, was born in the Town of Mayville May 3, 1890, and spent his entire life in this community on the home farm which he purchased from his parents' estate about four years ago. Most of his life was spent in farming and at general labor. When there was a tough job of well or ditch digging to be done, Ben was the man who could be counted on to do the work. It perhaps can, be said that there is hardly a resident of the community who hasn't availed himself of Ben's services in one way or another during the years. He also had been caretaker at the Dorchester Memorial cemetery for a number of years, acting in that capacity for the last time on the day before his untimely death.

Ben, who never married, was a veteran of service with the United States army in World War I and was a (text missing at this point)