Obit: Merwin, Ernest (1889 – 1965)

Contact: Dinah Reinke

Email: dinah@wiclarkcountyhistory.org  

Surnames: Merwin, Spartz, Loucks, Hennlich, Ouimette

------ Source: Tribune-Phonograph (Abbotsford, Clark Co., Wis.) 2/25/1965

------ Merwin, Ernest (6 MAY 1889 - 21 FEB 1965)

Ernest Merwin, 76, died Sunday after a brief illness, at the hospital at Ft. St. John, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Mr. Merwin was born on the homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Merwin Sr., 6 miles east of Abbotsford, May 6, 1889.  In 1910 he went to Canada and homesteaded at Bruno, Saskatchewan.  In February, 1913, he married Angela Spartz, a widow with four children.  They had ten other children.

In 1947 they moved to Fort St. John on the Alcan Highway where Mr. Merwin, a carpenter, was employed by the government as maintenance man at the airport.

Mr. and Mrs. Merwin and their family kept in close touch with their relatives here.  Mr. and Mrs. Merwin were here for the golden wedding anniversary of his brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Merwin, Abbotsford, in 1958, and on three other occasions in recent years.  Their last visit here together was at the Merwin reunion in 1964.

Besides his widow he is survived by 13 children, all living in Vancouver, Port Alberni and Ft. St. John, Canada, except one daughter who lives in St. Leo, Minn.  A son was killed in an auto accident.

He has four brothers and three sisters in this vicinity: Ben and Howard Merwin and Mrs. L. F. (Rosalie) Loucks, Abbotsford, Mrs. A. J. (Ina) Hennlich, Curtiss, Roy and Arthur Merwin, Wausau, and Mrs. Will (Mary) Ouimette, Park Falls.