Enderes, George Carl 1891 - 1914

ENDERES, CUNNINGHAM, CHETTINGER, GREVE

Posted By: Reid R. Johnson (email)
Date: 8/5/2021 at 20:31:24

Elkader Register & Argus, Thur., 06 Aug. 1914. Littleport column.

It has become our sad duty and one which we reluctantly undertake at this time to write of the painful misfortune which has befallen one of our best known and most highly respected families since we last wrote, that of the death of George Carl Enderes, whose untimely taking away has shocked the entire community and spread a mantle of grief over our otherwise quiet, everyday life.

At 9:15 o'clock last Thursday morning word was quickly spread that the Angel of Death had come and that George had passed away. Perhaps it was the suddenness of it all, together with the high esteem and respect in which he was held and the unpreparedness of his numerous friends for such an announcement, that made it so hard to believe and so hard to realize, yet we know it is true and that George has gone from among us. He will be greatly missed by the large circle of young friends with whom he was accustomed to associate. He will be missed by those nearer and dearer to him, his father and brother and three sisters and mostly by his mother, who gave him life and throughout all these long years has been his constant companion, nursing him back to health when sickness overtook him, advising him in his early childhood and who watched him grow to manhood, she who to the last watched the long midnight hours pass and hoped against hope that the Grim Destroyer might not call her boy. Yet it was not to be. A higher power had ruled otherwise and George had quietly gone to sleep, leaving father, mother, brother, sisters and the whole community staggered by the blow.

George had suffered with a carbuncle on his arm since July 1st and this was scarcely healed when he fell from a ladder, on which he was working and broke his arm at about the same place where the other injury had been. The fracture was a compound one, the bones of the forearm protruding through the flesh.

Dr. Brown was called and at once reduced the fracture and all hoped to see him speedily restored to health and strength, but on Monday following the accident, which occurred Friday, July 24th, George suddenly became restless and ill at ease and it developed that blood poisoning had attacked the arm and the first alarm for his recovery was felt. His sisters, Mrs. J. F. Cunningham and Miss Caroline, of Chicago, and Mrs. George Chettinger, of Guttenberg, were called, as were also a trained nurse and Dr. W. J. Hurley, of Chicago.

Amputation of the inured member had been advised and decided upon and this was carried out Tuesday at noon, in the one hope that it might save his life. Everything that medical science could do was resorted to and all that loving hands and kind hearts could suggest was done to ward off the blow and make it easier but all to no avail. God had willed otherwise and on Thursday, during the bright morning hours, his spirt fled and all that was left was rememberance.

George was born October 23rd, 1891, here in Littleport, in the same house and same room in which he died.

Rev. Franke, of Elkader, assisted by a choir from Elkader, conducted the funeral exercises, the Reverend preaching a beautiful sermon on the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death. At the conclusion of the exercises, which were held at the home, the funeral cortege filed up the winding road to the cemetery, where George was laid to rest, followed hither by one of the largest funeral processions Littleport has ever seen and composed of a concourse of friends and neighbors who had gathered to pay their respects and extend their sympathy to the bereaved family, who will find life so dull and lonely now that he has gone. It seems strange that such a thing should be and we wonder why it is that one so young and so full of life and promise should suddenly be called from our midst, but in the words of the hymn "one day all will be bright and clear, some day we will understand," must suffice to explain the mystery.

We might add that the floral offerings were among the most beautiful and the most profuse we have ever seen., a fitting tribute of the regard and esteem in which George Carl Enderes was held by all who knew him.

( A card of thanks was signed by: Wm. Enderes and Wife; J. W. Enderes; Mrs. J. F. Cunningham; Mrs. George Chettinger; Miss Caroline Enderes; Grandma Greve )