BETHKE, Ernest 1854-1949

BETHKE, BROWN

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 1/29/2010 at 15:52:36

OSAGE, IOWA - Funeral was Wednesday for Ernest Bethke, 94, who died Sunday evening at the Park Hospital, Mason City, of pneumonia and complications of age.

He was born in Germany, December 14, 1854. He came to America as a young man, working for some time in Chicago. He went to Wisconsin, where he married Ernestine Brown, who preceded him in death in 1946. They came to near Grafton in 1892, purchasing a farm on the outskirts of the village. In 1920 sold the land retaining a site for a home, where he lived until his death.

He leaves four sons: Edward, Mt. Pleasant; Gustav, Osage; William, Grafton, and Otto, Minneapolis; and two daughters, Mrs. E. G. Sawyer, Northwood; Mrs. Leo Hartwig, St. Ansgar; 16 grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren.

[ Waterloo Daily Courier - Wednesday, June 29, 1949 ]