OBITUARY

GIMRE

LEGRAND PIONEER DIES.

Christian Gimre, aged 89, succumbs to Old Age.

   Christian Gimre, aged 89, one of the oldest men of the LeGrand township, and one of the early pioneers of that part of the county, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Caroline Meltvedt, two and one-half miles south of LeGrand at 6:30 Friday evening.  Death was caused by old age.  Mr. Gimre had been falling for a year and had become very feeble.  An adopted son, S.H. Gimre, and a foster daughter, Mrs. Nelson G. Rinden, who survive him, live in this city.

  Mr. Gimre had had an interesting life, beginning with the time when he settled in the wilderness of what is now Wisconsin in 1857 and in 1860 tramped from that state into Iowa to search for a home in the prairie country.  Returning on foot to Prairie Rose the same year, the next sring he and his wife drove to Iowa behind a team of oxen and settled in the LeGrand neighbor hood, where he had lived for nearly sixty years.

  Mr. Gimre was born Oct. 16, 1808, near Stavanger, Norway, and would have been 90 years of age had he lived until his next birthday.  Soon after coming to America and settling in Wisconsin, he married Miss Gonild Vigen, at Prairie Rose, remaining there until he moved the family to Iowa.  Mrs. Gimre died in 1890, and since then had made his home with his only child, Mrs. Meltvedt.  He was the last member of his family, three brothers and two half sisters, all having died in Norway.

  The funeral will be held Tuesday at 8 o'clock at the Stavanger church, and there will be a short prayer service at the house at 1 o'clock.  Burial will be in the church cemetery. 

---Marshalltown Times-Republican, March 9, 1918.

 

 

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