Gerdes, Hattie, 1878-1940

GERDES, GARRELS

Posted By: Lydia Lucas - Volunteer (email)
Date: 3/12/2022 at 00:00:13

From the Alton Democrat, August 23, 1940:

DOPE ADDICT COUNTY HOME ENDS IT ALL
Hattie Gerdes Takes Own Life On Monday

Hattie Gerdes, 61, inmate at the county home since last May, took her own life in her room at the home some time between five and six o’clock Monday morning.

She was suffering from the dope habit. Application had been made to the state hospital at Iowa City to have her admitted for treatment some time ago but the hospital had advised they could not take her until conditions there became less congested. J. D. Freriks, steward of the county home, had hoped, however, that admission to the hospital could be obtained for her soon.

How she managed to take her own life is somewhat of a mystery. Apparently she threw herself face down on her low cot and by main force thrust her head through the iron bars at the head of the bed. Then she threw her body side ways off of the cot. The patient weighed in the neighborhood of two hundred pounds and her neck was either broken or she died of strangulation. Her head was removed from between the bars with great difficulty after other women inmates had reported the strange posture she had gotten into to the steward. By that time life was extinct, although Mr. Frericks was not certain and obtained a doctor as quickly as possible.

Hattie had been brought to the county home on May 29 from Hawarden. Formerly the family had lived in the Ireton vicinity for many years.

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From the Hawarden Independent, August 22, 1940:

HAWARDEN WOMAN A SUICIDE
Miss Hattie Gerdes Took Her Life at County Home Early Monday

Miss Hattie Gerdes, for more than twenty years a resident of Hawarden, committed suicide between 5 and 7 o’clock Monday morning in her room at the Sioux county home, northwest of Orange City. Her lifeless body was found by the matron of the home when she went to call her for breakfast. According to the matron, Miss Gerdes had apparently placed her head between the bars at the foot of her bed and then had thrown herself forward in an evident attempt to break her neck. Marshal Joe Te Veltrup of Sioux Center was deputized as acting coroner and after an investigation reached the conclusion that her death was self inflicted, stating that she had choked to death.

The body was removed to Ireton where funeral services were held Thursday afternoon at the Satterlee Funeral Home. Burial was in the Gerdes lot in the Lutheran cemetery at Ireton.

Miss Gerdes was about 62 years of age. She grew to young womanhood on a farm in Washington township where she lived for years with her two brothers and two sisters. More than twenty years ago, with her two sisters, Rebecca and Marie, she moved to Hawarden and her brothers, John and George, also discontinued farming about that time and also moved to Hawarden. With her sisters, Miss Gerdes was engaged in dressmaking for a considerable number of years.

Both brothers and both sisters preceded her in death a number of years ago. Thus she was the last remaining member of the family. Her brother George was the only member of the family who ever married and his wife died at about the same time that he passed away some nine or ten years ago. Some years ago she moved back to the farm in Washington township but returned to Hawarden again two or three years ago and continued to reside here until she went to the county home. Her nearest surviving relative is an uncle, R. A. Zimmerman, aged resident of Ireton.

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Also from the Hawarden Independent, August 22, 1940:

Obituary of Hattie Gerdes

Hattie Johanna Gerdes, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Otto Gerdes, was born in Madison county, Illinois, September 18, 1878 and died near Orange City on August 19, 1940 at the age of 61 years, 11 months, and one day. She had been in failing health for many years.

When six years of age she came with her parents, brothers, and sisters to Sioux county, settling on a farm in Washington township, southwest of Ireton. Later she with others of her family moved to a farm four miles west of Ireton. In 1913 she, with her sisters Rebecca and Marie, moved to Hawarden, where they resided until 1931 when they again moved back to the farm. She remained on the farm until the death of her two sisters and then returned to Hawarden to live.

She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers, John, who passed away in 1930, and George, who died in 1931, and two sisters, Marie, who died in January 1934, and Rebecca, who passed on in November of the same year. Mrs. George Gerdes survived her husband by only a few days. It fell to Hattie to tenderly care for loved ones during the time they were all ill and she did it gladly and well. The only near relatives remaining are an uncle, R. A. Zimmerman of Ireton, and an aunt, Mrs. Anna Garrels of Deshler, Nebraska.

[A card of thanks to those who helped at the funeral service is signed by R. A. Zimmerman and family, Herman Hagge and family, and John Zimmerman and family.]

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From the Sioux County Capital, August 22, 1940:

COUNTY HOME INMATE KILLS SELF
Hattie Gerdes Chokes Self. Found Dead Monday Morning

Hattie Gerdes, 61 years of age, was found dead in her room at the county home Monday morning with death due to strangulation, self-inflicted. Miss Gerdes had placed her head between the rods at the foot of her iron cot and thrown her body over the end, apparently in an effort to break her neck. She was a heavy woman and the feat looks impossible but she did manage to choke herself to death in the effort. Coroner Vander Ploeg was called but being away, Joe Te Veltrup of Sioux Center was named acting coroner and investigated the suicide.

The body was taken to the Satterlee Funeral Parlor in Ireton and interment was made in the Lutheran Cemetery at Ireton Tuesday afternoon.

The Gerdes family is widely known in the southwestern corner of Sioux county. Hattie is the last of three sisters and a brother, once members of a fairly well-off farm family. Upon the death of the parents, the Gerdes children met reverses and Hattie and one sister started dressmaking in Hawarden. This was about twenty years ago. Since that time the remaining sister and brother have died and Hattie was left without kith or kin.

In February, Miss Gerdes was moved from Hawarden to Ireton but after several months in that vicinity she was moved back to Hawarden. She became troublesome and was moved to the county home. At her death she had $12.83 in a small purse in her pocket—where she got this money nobody knows.

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Her death certificate (informant L. Satterlee) has Hattie Gerdes, single, usual residence Ireton, resident of the Sioux County Home near Orange City for 3 months; born April 18, 1878 in Illinois; parents Otto Gerdes and Rebecca Garels, both born in Germany; usual occupation, household work; died at 5:30 a.m. August 19, 1940; immediate cause of death, suicide; other conditions, drug addict; buried in the Lutheran cemetery, Ireton.

She does not appear in the Sioux County Cemetery Index, or in FindaGrave.com.