Josephine Wilhelmina Koetke

The Hunter Enterprise Hunter, Garfield Co., OK

October 10, 1912 Page 4, column 4

Submitted by: Emily Jordan

© Lois Burdick

OBITUARY

Josie Wilhelmina Koetke was born July 1, 1894, in the state of Iowa, and died in Oklahoma City, September 30, 1912, at 11:30 p.m., aged 18 years, 2 months, and 29 days.

Josie went to Oklahoma City about six weeks ago to work. About two weeks before she died, she had a touch of rheumatism and on Saturday night when a cold north wind and rain came up, she grew much worse and by Sunday night had developed a bad case of inflammatory rheumatism. Her sister Olga, had planned to go to Oklahoma City to attend the fair with Josie. When Olga arrived, she found her sister quite sick, but not thought to be serious. At 11:30 Monday night, Josie looked at her sister in the face, smiled and turned her head away and was dead. The rheumatism had gone to her heart. The doctor's certificate gave as the cause of death, inflammatory rheumatism and acute kidney trouble.

Mr. Wolf, the stepfather of the deceased, went to Oklahoma City and brought the remains to Billings, where they were met by a number of friends who accompanied the hearse to the Wolf home, six miles east of Hunter. On Thursday, September 3[???], funeral services were held in the consolidated school house conducted by Rev. Dederick, of Billings. The casket was almost covered by beautiful flowers. The body was laid to rest in the Independence cemetery, there to await the resurrection morning. Two brothers, Robert and Fred Koetke, of Albert Lee, Minn., and a stepbrother, Ernest Wolf, a mail clerk of Wichita, attended the funeral. - Mrs. F.M.H.

Note: The cemetery stone appears to have the incorrect year of death. The dates of birth & death also differ between what is on the stone and what appears in the newspaper above.