LUITJENS, L. H. 1863-1949

LUITJENS, MEYER, RIEKENA

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 2/19/2014 at 20:25:17

L. H. Luitjens Dies At The Hospital

L. H. Luitjens, who came to Grundy county with his parents 74 years ago, died at St. Francis hospital in Waterloo Sunday evening. He had suffered a heart attack in his room at the Columbia Hotel in Grundy Center a few days before. He was taken to the hospital on Thursday morning. He was 86 years old.

L. H. Luitjens was born at Freeport, Ill., Aug. 10, 1863. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Luitjens. The family came to Grundy county in 1875 and located on a Grundy county farm were he grew up. In 1881 he and Gepkka Meyer were married. They began housekeeping on a Grundy county farm and continued to live there until after the wife's death in August 1906.

Mr. Luitjens was married a second time in 1913 to Maggie Riekena and for a time they lived on a farm in Melrose township and later they moved to Ireton where they lived 10 years, after which he returned to Grundy county and remained here continually.

He is survived by two sons, Henry of Grundy Center, and Willis of Shell Rock; four daughters in Long Beach, Calif., Mrs. Ray Sheller, Mrs. Don Sheller, Mrs. D. P. Sheller and Mrs. Al Smith; two daughters in Grundy Center, Mrs. Susie Gohner and Mrs. Dan Klunder; 18 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren; one sister, Mrs. Charles Vantiger of Grundy Center. He was preceded in death by his wife and one son, John, of Wellsburg.

Funeral services were held Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at the Engelkes funeral home in Grundy Center and burial was in the cemetery of the First Christian Reformed Church, 2 1/2 miles west of Wellsburg.

--newspaper clipping, source unknown