Harry Blanchard 1870-1901

BLANCHARD, NERBOVIG

Posted By: Beverly Gerdts (email)
Date: 8/16/2021 at 14:10:17

Columbus Gazette, Columbus Junction, Iowa
Thursday, May 30, 1901
Page 8

The news was flashed over the telephone wire from Wapello on Monday, just a little afternoon, that Harry Blanchard had just suddenly died. While it was almost impossible to believe that this were true, yet it was confirmed later. He had gone to his home a little after 12 o'clock for his dinner. He was apparently in his usual health, but when he reached home he told his wife that he was not feeling well and would lie down a little while, and went to the bed. When dinner was ready his wife called him. but he said he would not eat dinner, that he preferred to lie still. The wife and the girl finished their dinner, when she went to see her husband. He seemed to be sleeping, and when she spoke to him he roused up, tried to make an answer, and started to get up, putting his feet over the side of the bed. That was his last action. He dropped to the floor from the side of the bed, and the doctor says he was dead when he fell. It is not known just what caused his death, whether it was the rupture of a blood vessel near the brain, or paralysis of the heart.

The doctor examined him two years ago last February, when Harry took out the $2,000 life insurance he was carrying in the Bankers of Des Moines, and says at that time there was no evidence at all of any heart trouble, but that he was in almost perfect health. Harry Earl Blanchard was born in Columbus City, February 28, 1870, an died May 27, 1901; so he was at the time of his death 31 years, 2 months and 29 days old. He had spent almost his whole life in Wapello, getting his schooling there, and having his business there. When he left school he worked at H.A. Plitt; then he worked at carpentering some, and in the early '90's was in Ogden, Utah, for a year or two. He worked for Keller and Ong until they sold out to A.O. Thompson in 1893. He attended pharmacy school in Chicago, and became a registered pharmacist on April 6, 1897. He worked for Mr. Thompson until he and Mr. Ed Colton started a drug store on the east side of the street under the firm name of H. E. Blanchard & Co. A short time ago he bought Mr. Colton's interest. October 27, 1897, he was married to Miss Carrie Nerbovig, and two daughters were born to them- Helen, who is about three years old, and Harriet Elizabeth, who is a baby less than a year old. The wife and two babies remain to mourn his early taking. He was laid to rest in the Wapello cemetery yesterday afternoon, the funeral being conducted at the house at 2 o'clock, by the Masons, of which lodge he was a young member. He was also a K. P., and between 60 and 70 of these brothers attended the services in a body.