Lewis Wellington Proper

PROPER, SEDGWICK, WALL, SWICK

Posted By: Dorothy (email)
Date: 8/5/2005 at 23:02:55

Des Moines Capital, Dec. 7, 1907; L. W. Proper, aged 86 years, died at the Methodist hospital this morning. He had been suffering for some time from enlargement of the prostate gland in the bladder and on November 19 was taken to the hospital. He was operated upon and did not recover from the operation. He was the father of Rev. D. D. Proper of 1190 Twelfth street. Lewis Wellington Proper was born in Hector township, Tompkins county, New York, November 8, 1820. He was married to Miss Mary Sedgwick April 26, 1843. He removed to the then territory of Iowa, in October, 1843, and settled in Harrisburg township, in Van Buren county, Iowa. During the summer of 1852 he crossed the plains to California with an ox team. The next year he came back and settled on a farm, where he remained forty-six years without a single change. His wife died in 1898 at the age of 75 years, and since that time he has been living with his two surviving sons, one in Los Angeles, Cal., and the other in Des Moines. He was one of the early pioneer settlers in Van Buren County, and as such endured many of the hardships incident to the first settlers. His grandfather was a Hollander and he inherited some of the characteristics of that people. He was converted and Baptized at hector, N. Y., in 1841. When the Harrisburg Baptist church, north of Bonaparte, was organized in 1865 in the stone school house one mile from his home he united with it and remained a member until his death. For over forty years he was deacon of this church. He left to survive him two sons, M. A. Proper, Los Angeles, Cal.; Rev. D. D. Proper, Des Moines, Iowa, one brother DeWitt Proper, and two sisters, Mrs. Hattie Wall and Mrs. Elizabeth Swick, living in Pennsylvania, besides eleven grandchildren and five great grandchildren. The funeral services were held in the Harrisburg church Jan. 9, Rev. Ericson officiating. After the address of the pastor, Hon. B. R. Vale's beautiful tribute to the memory of the deceased was read by Mrs. Bess Israel, and Andrew Leffler and Capt. W. A. Tade spoke tender, touching words.