Catherine Elizabeth WELLEMEYER

WELLEMEYER, MERTEN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/20/2010 at 19:04:30

9 February 1917
Garner Signal - Garner, Iowa

30 April 1876 -- 9 February 1917

Death at 7:15 this morning claimed Miss Elizabeth Wellemeyer, supervisor of music in the public schools of the city, following a brief illness of three days' duration. Miss Wellemeyer was stricken suddenly and violently ill with uremia early Tuesday morning and suffered two convulsions before she was taken to Deaconess Hospital. During the three days following, Miss Wellemeyer never fully regained consciousness, and her temperature remained well above 100 most of the time. At 4:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon, the patient sustained another convulsion, after which her temperature went up to 108 and her action became much weaker. She passed into a stupor shortly after 6:00 p.m. Dr. W. L. Bierinf, of Des Moines, who was called into consultation on the case Thursday, said he believed meningeal complications had set in, but that nothing more could have been done for the patient. She had been in the hospital for a short time two weeks before with a bad case of grippe, but had returned to work for a week just previous to her last illness. Miss Wellemeyer came to Marshalltown in the fall of 1909 from Lamoni, where she had been teaching music in Graceland College. She took up the position of supervisor of music in both the grades and high school, and under her supervision the music of the schools had been developed into a real factor in the community. She worked on the idea that the whole city could in a measure partake of the appreciation of music through the school children, and with this end in view developed the glee clubs and chorus work and organized classes in musical history, harmony and appreciation of music. She was influential in standardizing the work in high school music so that pupils received credit for their music when entering college. In state musical circles, Miss Wellemeyer was well and favorably known. She was president of the music section of the State Teachers Association, and leader of the music section of the Northeastern Iowa Teachers' Association. In addition she represented the local schools at national meetings of music teachers in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and Lincoln, Nebraska. At the time of her illness Miss Wellemeyer was just completing her plans for community singing, which was to include the schools of several cities in Iowa, and which was to be promoted between February 12 and 22, Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays. For the past six years Miss Wellemeyer had been director of the Methodist choir, and was also a member of that church. She had directed the high school glee clubs and orchestra, and was prominent in the institution of community singing in this city. At the time of her death she was also president of Der Deutsche Unterhaltungs Kreis.

Catherine Elizabeth Wellemeyer was born at Garner, Hancock County on 30 April 1876, the eldest of a family of eight children. Her father, Rev. Frank H. Wellemeyer, was a minister in the German Methodist Church and Miss Wellemeyer's girlhood was spent in different towns in this state. She received her high school education in Decorah, and following this was graduated from the Iowa State Normal School at Cedar Falls. She then taught in the grades at Britt for a few years, before specializing in music. Going to Chicago she studied for three years in the American Conservatory of Music under Adolph Weidig, an authority on harmony, and also took several courses in public school music under W. L. Tomlins. After completing her work there she taught music for two years in Graceland College, Lamoi, coming to Marshalltown from there in 1909. Miss Wellemeyer was the third in her family to pass to the great beyond, her father having died in 1907 and a sister, Estella, in 1907. She is survived by her mother, Mrs. Mary Wellemeyer, of Charles City, four brothers and two sisters. These are: Miss Ruth Wellemeyer, principal of the high school at Charles City; Mrs. R. W. Merten, Guthrie, Oklahoma; Earnest Wellemeyer, mathematics teacher in Colton, California high school; Charles (Carl) Wesley Wellemeyer, teacher and farmer, Colesburg, Iowa; Arthur Wellemeyer, merchant, mortician, Klemme, Iowa; Ernest Edward, of Patterson, California and Fletcher, Principal of the high school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The body was taken to the Methodist Church at 3:00 p.m. today and will be open to friends. The public schools will be dismissed at 3:00 p.m. to give the children an opportunity to go to the church. Burial will be in Concord Cemetery, Garner, Iowa next to her father.