Ralph Windle McElwain (1955)

MCELWAIN, READ, ILGENFRITZ, SANGSTER, ADAMS, MATHEWS

Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 7/19/2007 at 16:27:17

Winterset Madisonian-Winterset, Iowa
January 19, 1955; p. 2

MCELWAIN RITES HELD ON SUNDAY

Local Resident Succumbs Following Long Illness

Funeral services for Ralph McElwain well-known Winterset resident, were held Sunday afternoon, Jan. 16, from the local Methodist church.

Mr. McElwain died Thursday morning Jan. 13, at Madison County Memorial hospital following an extended illness. He was 60 years of age.

The son of Charles Theron and Ellen Katherine Read McElwain, Ralph Windle McElwain was born March 4, 1894 at Evanston, Ill. He moved with his parents to Kenosha, Wisc. at the age of 14 where he graduated from high school in 1913. Following high school, he attended the University of Wisconsin, where he participated in football.

In 1916 he accepted employment with the Adams Express Co. in Colorado Springs, Colo. and Chicago Ill. and in the spring of 1918 was called into military service. He served five months overseas with Co. D. 105th machine gun battalion and was in France at the time of the armistice.

After his service discharge, he was employed at the Nash Motors Co. in Kenosha. On Aug. 5, 1925, he was married at Monroe, Ia. to Ruth Ilgenfritz, daughter of Rev. E. E. Ilgenfritz, Methodist pastor at Monroe.

Mr. and Mrs. McElwain lived in Winterset from 1928 to the present time where Mr. McElwain was engaged in the poultry business.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Janet Sangster of Denver, Colo; his mother, Mrs. Charles McElwain of Kenosha, Wisconsin; two brothers, Charles of Oak Park, Ill., and Dr. J. Robert McElwain of Kenosha; two sisters, Mrs. Grace Adams of South Bend, Ind., and Mrs. Helen Mathews of Kenosha.

Mr. McElwain was a member of Green Rogers post 184 of the American Legion in Winterset and of the Methodist church.

Officiating at the service Sunday afternoon was the Rev. W. W. Steinmetz, pastor of the Winterset Methodist church. Burial was in the Winterset cemetery.