Obit: Dowshjia, Gabriel (1901 - 1960)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Dowshjia, Mazuryk, Kedison, Julien, Handt, Drescher, Yarmolovich

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) September 22, 1960

Dowshjia, Gabriel (26 July 1901 - 15 September 1960)

Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon for Gabriel Dowshjia, 59, of Rt. 1, Neillsville, who was killed instantly last Thursday in a logging accident at the Herman Handt sawmill, three miles south of Granton on County Trunk K.

The Rev. Nicolas Yarmolovich of Minneapolis, Minn., conducted the services from the Greek Orthodox Church in the Town of Lynn.  Burial was made in Chicago.

Dowshjia’s head was crushed when he was struck by a log two feet in diameter, which rolled from a loaded truck.  He was working with Jerry Drescher, also of the Town of Grant, when the accident happened.

They had brought a load of logs to the saw mill and were preparing to unload it when the accident happened. Drescher unfastened the logging chains on one side of the load and warned Dowshjia not to remove the blocking as he moved to the opposite side of the truck.

He told officers he saw Dowshjia’s hand on a block, and the next instant the load toppled onto him.

The body was taken to the Bergemann Funeral Home, which made arrangements for the service.

Mr. Dowshjia was born July 26, 1901, in the Ukraine and attended agricultural school there.  He served in the army and was taken prisoner by the communists during the war.  Later he escaped, to Germany.

On November 25, 1946, he was married to the former Nina Mazuryk in Germany.  They came to the United States in 1951, and located in Chicago for three years before coming onto a farm in the Town of Grant.

Surviving are his wife; a son, Semen of Chicago; a daughter, Helen, at home; and two step-children, Mrs. James (Irene) Kedison of Chicago, and Mrs. Larry (Olga) Julien of River Falls.  Also, surviving are a sister, Larysa, in the Ukraine, and four grandchildren.