Benjamin "Ben" Osborn

OSBORN, SIMPSON, RATCILFF

Posted By: Marlene K. Skalberg (email)
Date: 2/22/2018 at 11:44:08

POPULAR TRAVELING MAN DIES
BEN OSBORN MAKES HIS LAST TRIP
DIES OF FLU AND RHEUMATISM OF HEART
FUNERAL WEDNESDAY
Ben Osborn, a resident of Villisca seventeen years, died Saturday afternoon at 5:30 o’clock at his home on Fifth street, his death resulting from flu and rheumatism of the heart. While at Mattoon, Illinois, he became so weakened on account of his physical condition he fell on the sidewalk and was taken to the hospital there where he remained four days. He returned home from the hospital where he remained a few days and recovered sufficiently to be able to make a business trip to Nebraska City Thursday of last week. Following the trip he apparently took a relapse, his death resulting the eighth day after his arrival home from Mattoon.
He was born near Gravity, Iowa, May 21, 1873 and was 52 yers old at his death. He was married to Mary Simpson in Books, October 20, 1897 and to this union three children were born. They are ned, Mrs. Collis Moore, and Harold, all of Villisca.
Besides his wife and family he also leaves his mother, Mrs. Martha Osborn of Nodaway and one brother and four sisters. They are Fred of Creston, Mrs. Lillie Hawk of Omaha, Mrs. Marcus McKown and the Misses Iva and Blanch Osborn of Nodaway.
when a boy, mr. Osborn went to Nodaway with his parents where he lived until his marriage. He went from there to Creston, residing there five years, returning again to Nodaway. In 1909 he and his family came to Villisca.
For twenty years he was employed as traveling salesman for the O’Brien and the Gordon-Ranalter Candy Company of Omaha, resigning from that position the first of last January to become traveling salesman for the Red Oak Tablet Company, visiting the wholesale trade.
He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and of the Masonic Lodge, and he served nearly four years as the member of the Villisca City Council. His funeral was held Wednesday at 10 o’clock in Presbyterian Church with Dr. A. P. Walton in charge of the service. The singing was by Harold Todd, Harold Nordyke, Fred Gerlach, and Howard Peckham, and the pall bearers were G. W. Kehr, C. C. Baker, D. E. Lomas, and Hal Hausen of Villisca, F. P. Derry of Atlantic, and William Recknor of Creston. Interment was in the Nodaway Cemetery.
Villisca Review, Friday, April 9, 1926, page 1