Witmer, William Joseph 1873-1940

WITMER, LENNARTZ

Posted By: Bob Arens (email)
Date: 7/29/2005 at 09:00:29

WITMER, WILLIAM JOSEPH 1873-1940
Taken from the 1979 Arens family book of John C. Arens (1909-200+) as typed by Mitzy Murphy of Graceville, MN.
William was the son of Joseph Witmer and Mary Lennartz from Bern, Switzerland. Leona and William lived on a farm in Montrose, located south of the school; the same farm had belonged to William's parents. They were the parents of seven children, including two sets of twins.

The parents lived on the Witmer farm, south of the Montrose Public school most of their married life. It had been William Witmer's parents farm and he, a brother, Joseph, who died in infancy, and a sister, Mary(Molly) were born there. William Witmer, farmer and stockman, was president of the Montrose Public school board for more then 30 years. He died Feb 3, 1940 and his wife, Apolonia died April 18, 1962. William Witmer's father, Joseph Witmer was born Dec 25, 1836 in Bern, Switzerland and he married Mary Lennartz. He died Sept 20, 1905 in Montrose. Apolonia Witmer's mother, Justine Koob, was born March 3, 1852 in Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. She married Frank Arens and their children were: Nick, Apolonia, Peter, Matt, Karl, John, Cecelia (and Sebastian); all born in Sioux County, IA. After the death of Frank Arens in Iowa, she married Christopher Hentges and they came to Montrose and bought the farm east of the public school refered to as the Patton place, now owned by Mr and Mrs Blew. Mrs Patton is buried in a private cemetery on the mound south of montrose. Some senior citizens may remember walking though the pasture to ice skate on Grandma Hentges pond. She died in Montrose on March 9, 1939. Source: Centennial of Montrose, Missouri(Henry County) 1871-1971 Clinton, Mo.: The Printery. 1971. Page 466.