This post was contributed to the Crawford County Chapter of OGS by Kristina Stearley as part of the Florence Siefert Scrapbook in 2010.
The scrapbook is compiled from undated, unidentified newspaper clippings involving events in the lives of Crawford County citizens living in or having connections to New Washington, Tiro, Shelby, Sulphur Springs, Chatfield, Bucyrus, Ashland, Mansfield, and other areas. Only minimal spelling or punctuation corrections were made. Unreadable areas are shown by underlines, dots &/or question marks. This collection has been scanned, “optical character recognized” (OCR’d), proofed, then coded for HTML by volunteers of the Crawford County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Since the copies are not of the best quality errors may have been made. Please contact us if you find corrections needing to be made or can verify any missing dates which could be added.
Asphyxiated By Gas.Joseph Wechter, A Prominent Farmer, of near this place, Found Dead in Bed at Toledo.
Joseph Wechter, who resided about 1 1/2 miles southwest of this place, went to Toledo last Tuesday to make a settlement with a business man of that city, to whom he shipped butter and eggs regularly. Not being able to finish his business the same day he engaged lodging for the night. The following taken from the Toledo News of Dec. 1st, gives the particulars of his death:
Joseph Wechter of New Washington, Crawford county met death last night by gas asphyxiation in a lodging house, at 807 Summit street. Mr. Wechter retired at a usual hour last night. He closed and locked the door of his room and before retiring it is supposed that the unfortunate man turned out the gas and unconsciously turned it on again. Early this morning the proprietor detected the deadly fumes and suspecting something was wrong, began to investigate. He soon discovered that the fumes were coming from Wechter’s room. Calling assistance he broke in the door, entered and threw up the windows. He then discovered that Wechter was perfectly lifeless, having been dead for some hours.
Edward Kappus and undertaker J. M. Geiger went to Toledo on Wednesday afternoon and brought the remains of the deceased home on the 11:18 p.m. train. Messrs. Geiger and Kappus say, that as near as they could learn, Mr. Wechter met death as stated above.
The deceased was 48 years old, and leaves a wife, 12 children and many relatives to mourn his departure. The family has the sympathy of the entire community in this their sad bereavement. Funeral services will be conducted at St. Bernard’s church tomorrow forenoon, followed by interment in the Catholic cemetery.
