APPEL, Frank 1864-1936

APPEL, SHAFSTAHL

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/9/2016 at 20:08:54

Frank Appel Dies Suddenly at Marshalltown Hospital

Frank Appel died suddenly Wednesday afternoon at the Deaconess hospital in Marshalltown from embolism of the heart.

Two weeks ago Mr. Appel was taken to the hospital to have a bone removed which had lodged in his throat. Inflammation set in after the bone was removed and this was followed by pneumonia. His condition was regarded as quite critical for several days but the past two days he was recovering from pneumonia and it was believed that he would soon be able to come home. The heart attack came on without warning. Mr. Appel was 73 years old.

Mr. Appel was widely known throughout Iowa and adjoining states. He had treated thousands of cases of skin diseases for patients over a very wide area and he was very successful in his work. Most of his life was spent on a farm in Grundy county.

Surviving are a son, Henry, and two daughters, Mrs. Jans and Mrs. Dick Drake.

Funeral arrangements have not been made up to the time this paper is printed. A more complete account of Mr. Appel's life will be published in the next issue of The Register.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 3 December 1936, pg 1

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Many Attend Last Rites For Frank Appel

Had Treated People From Nearly Every State In The Union During Past Thirty Years

Last rites for Frank Appel were here at the Baptist church in Grundy Center Saturday afternoon and they were largely attended.

Among those in attendance were many who had received permanent relief from afflictions for which they were unable to find a cure elsewhere. If all of those who received help from this man's treatment had come to his funeral, it would have taken a hundred of the largest churches in Iowa to have held them all. If they had all been here there would have been the largest representation of people from all parts of the country that ever assembled here at one time. During his thirty years of practice there were people at the Appel farm from practically every state in the Union and from all reports by far the largest number of them were permanently cured. No one but himself understood the method of his cure. Outsiders didn't know and do not know now how it was done, but they saw that the results were accomplished and it was the results only in which the patients were concerned. No one knows from whom this man obtained his power to affect his marvelous cures and no one knows whether the power was passed on to another before he died.

Grundy county has lost many valued citizens during its time. Not one among the large number of these could come anywhere near to reaching the magnitude of service to relieve human suffering as did Frank Appel. With this man his healing powers were distributed without the expectations of receiving financial reward and in thousands of cases he received none whatever. He made no charge but accepted what he was given. Had he made charges commensurate with his services, he would have been Grundy county's wealthiest citizen. He left only a very modest estate and this was acquired through his farming operations.

Treated 100,000
There is no record to show how many people were treated by this man during the past thirty years. There were days when the number reached a hundred. There were few days during that thirty years that one or more did not come to the Appel farm for relief from a physical ailment. Those who were closest to him are sure that he averaged better than 10 patients daily during a thirty-year period, which would bring the total up to 100,000.

Was Born in Germany
Mr. Appel was born in Germany March 2, 1864. He came to this country with his parents when he was a small child. They located on a farm near Forreston, Ill., where he was married to Addie Shafstahl. He came to Grundy county 45 years ago and resided on a farm here during all of that time.

Surviving are one son, Henry, and two daughters, Mrs. J. W. Drake and Mrs. J. W. Jans, all of this county. There are three surviving brothers, Will, Fred and George of Forreston, Ill., and one sister, Mrs. Mary Aykens from Milwaukee.

Relatives from a distance who attended the funeral services were two brothers, Fred and William, from Forreston; Leonard Appel, a nephew, from Forreston; Mr. and Mrs. Cory Ayken from Milwaukee; Henry Ayken, Batavia, Ill.; Mrs. George Likn, a niece, from Freeport; two nieces and their husbands from Haldane, Ill.; A. F. Ristle and son from Adel, Iowa; Helmer Hoeppner, Marshalltown.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 10 December 1936, pg 1