Obit: Bartholomay, May Frances (1891 - 1972)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Bartholomay, McCarty, Barber, Bruchert, Paulson, Dehne, Koplitz, Christophersen, Abel, Claybaugh

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co, WI) 7/13/1972

Bartholomay, May Frances (17 August 1891 - June 1972)

Private funeral services were conducted for Mrs. May F. Bartholomay, longtime resident of Withee, on Thursday, June 29, at 2 p.m. from the Hoeper and Kraut Funeral Home at Owen. The Rev. Ralph Claybaugh, Nekoosa, officiated.

Mrs. Bartholomay, the former May Frances Barber, was born August 17, 1891, at Boyd to the late Mr. and Mrs. Theodore H. Barber, early pioneer school teachers in Withee and Owen and other sections of north central Wisconsin. Her ancestry dates back to the time of the Revolutionary War on the Barber side, and to the time of the Civil War on her mother’s side, the McCarty’s.

Mrs. Bartholomay was a Withee resident since the age of three, when she moved to the area with her parents. Her mother, Mrs. Flora Barber, was to become the first teacher in Owen in 1894. She graduated from the Withee School system and also had private tutoring and instruction in piano.

Her marriage to Herman Bartholomay took place in Withee in 1912. Both Mrs. Bartholomay and her husband, who was water superintendent, marshal and constable in the village for 34 consecutive years, were very active in civic affairs and in the development of the community. After the death of her father, she took over his insurance agency and continued in that capacity for 13 years.

Since the death of her husband in 1958, she and her daughter, Flora, resided in the family home on Second Street which was built by her parents in 1896. It was there that Mrs. Bartholomay died on June 27.

Her daughter, Flora, of Withee and Wausau, survives.

Pallbearers were Leon Bruchert, Martin Paulson and Arnold Dehne of Withee, Harold Koplitz of Curtiss, Peter Christophersen of Thorp and Fred Abel of Wausau. Miss Sheila Koplitz, Curtiss provided organ Music for the service.