Dr. Benjamin F. Wamsley (1893)

WAMSLEY, DANFORTH

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 1/24/2008 at 10:23:24

Winterset Madisonian – February 24, 1893
Winterset, Iowa
Page 7

FELL THROUGH A BRIDGE

Dr. B. F. Wamsley Meets Death in That Way at Des Moines

His Inanimate Body Found Under the Rock-Island Railroad bridge on Last Tuesday Morning—Purely Accident.

Last Tuesday’s evening papers from Des Moines brought the news to Winterset of the death by falling through a railroad bridge of Dr. B. F. Wamsley, of this city. When last seen alive, so far as can be learned, it was bout five o’clock Monday evening. On Tuesday morning soon after daylight a girl who lived near the river bank saw the lifeless form of an unknown man lying on the ice below the bridge. The coroner was notified and he started to the scene. On the way he accidentally fell in with J. T. Krueger, recently of Winterset, and asked him to go along. He went and on arriving there identified the body as that of Dr. Wamsley. An inquest was held and the body prepared for burial and his only Winterset relatives were notified. The remains were brought to Winterset Wednesday evening, and on Thursday forenoon, the funeral was held from the residence of his niece, Mrs. C. Danforth, conducted by Rev. F. Harris.

Dr. Wamsley came to Winterset in the early fifties, and for some time carried on a merchant tailor business. He afterwards studied dentistry, and become very prominent in his profession. He was regarded as one of the most exemplary and fashionable young men of the town. He had a good education, was intelligent and upright, and might have been an ornament to any society, but for his one enemy, his appetite for strong drink. Gradually but surely he went the way of all drunkards, and at last met the drunkard’s fate, with few friends except those relatives who performed the last sad rites over his remains; and with no enemies except himself. He had naturally a kind heart, and even to his latest days, when not intoxicated, he was gentlemanly and courteous. For several years he had traveled about from place to place, doing work in his profession, carrying an outfit of tools with him, find it impossible any longer to maintain an office here, but he always seemed to regard Winterset as his home. At the time of his death he was about sixty-five years of age. He was never married.

With a tear for his sad fate, with a word of sympathy for his relatives, let the grave close over his faults, and let them be forgotten forever. Let only his naturally kind heart and his better self, when freed from the demon of his life, be remembered.

Note: Burial was made in the Winterset cemetery.