Stark, Anna Catherine Schropfer (1858-1937)

STARK, SCHROPFER, FAGAN, NEWTON, WOODS, BIERNATZKI

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 2/24/2016 at 16:55:38

Daily Freeman Journal, Tuesday, August 17, 1937

MRS. STARK, AGE 78, DIES

Funeral Services to Be Held at St. Joseph's Church, Duncombe.

ILL SINCE SUNDAY

Mrs. Anna Catherine Stark, 78, died this morning at 6 o'clock at the Schropfer home, a mile north of Webster City, death being caused by a heart attack. She had been ill since Sunday when she suffered a similar attack.

Funeral services will be held at St. Joseph's Catholic church at Duncombe Thursday morning at 10 o'clock with the Rev. Father F.J. Frein, of Webster City officiating; burial in the Catholic cemetery at Duncombe; Foster's in charge. Friends may call at the Schropfer farm, just north of here, any time until 9:15 o'clock Thursday morning when the family will leave for Duncombe for the services.

Mrs. Stark is survived by five children; Max, of Woolstock; Winslow, of this city; Mrs. Catherine Fagan, of Royal Oak, Mich.; Mrs. Cora Newton, of Hartford, Conn., and Mrs. Annetta H. Woods, of this city. There is also one sister, Mrs. Charles Biernatzki, of this city. A son, Leo, died in 1903.

Mrs. Stark also leaves the following grandchildren; Morris, Richard and John Stark; Catherine, Marjorie and Frederick Fagan and Mary Helen Woods.

Anna Catherine Schropfer was born Nov. 25, 1858 in Bohemia, now Czechoslovakia, her parents being Mr. and Mrs. Michael Schropfer. At the age of 13 she came to the United States with her parents, who located on the old Eyer farm, south of this city. A few years later the family removed to what is now known as the Schropfer homestead, six miles northwest of Webster City.

In 1879 she was married to Balzar J. Stark, of Wheaton, Ill., in Webster City and for two years they lived on a farm near Wheaton. They then moved back to Iowa and bought the Stark farm, a quarter of a mile from the old Schropfer homestead.

Mr. Stark died in 1918. Mrs. Stark continued to make her home there until a year ago when she moved to the Schropfer farm, a mile north of this city.

Mrs. Stark's death is a shock to her family and friends for she had been in fairly good health for a woman of her years until she suffered a heart attack Sunday. She was a devoted mother and good neighbor and her death will be mourned by a host of friends in both the Duncombe and Webster City communities.