'Gus' Werner, Veteran Guide, Succumbs at 93
Augustus F Werner, "Uncle Gus" Werner, for years a famous Adirondack Mountain guide and one of Lewis County's most colorful figures, died Saturday in the Lewis County General Hospital here.
The funeral was held Monday at the Virkler Funeral home in charge of Rev John Kelly, of First Methodist Church. Interment was in Riverside Cemetery, Beaver Falls.
His only survivors are a brother, John Werner, of Camden, and several nieces and nephews.
Mr Werner had lived alone at Stillwater for the past eight years, except during the winter when he visited in Constableville, Carthage and Utica. Between visits he always stayed at the Windsor Hotel here. His small home at Stillwater was neat and well kept. He planted his garden last spring as usual and raised flowers. Nothing pleased him more than to bake his own bread and pies.
His health had been failing in recent months and he was brought to the hospital for medical treatment several says before death.
Born at New Bremen May 7, 1863, he was the son of John and Lois Stephens Werner. His parents came from Germany in 1848, after a six weeks voyage in a sailboat. They settled on a farm at New Bremen and raised six children.
As a young man, Mr Werner worked on a farm at Watson where he was paid $8 a month. He preferred, however, to hunt and fish.
In 1891 he married Louise Hilmilger. The couple traveled to the Adirondacks on a yoke of oxen he purchased the day before the wedding and lived in a camp Mr Werner built in the woods.
At the time Mr Werner was in the lumber business. His logs were the first to go over Eagle Falls on their way to Castorland. After his sawmill on Burnet Creek burned twice, he sold out and worked as a caretaker for three families at G Lake.
Later he was postmaster at Wilmot Lake and then bought a farm at Williamstown. He sold the farm and went to Oriskany where he operated a butcher shop. He also operated a meat market in Utica for a time.
After the death of his wife, Mr Werner returned to the lake, and became a guide. He was a guide at Number Four during it's hey day. He guided for the Pattersons, Cranes and Lowes wealthy families from Dayton, Ohio.
Author Gertrude Atherton, who spent a few weeks at a camp near where he was a guide in the 1890's patterned one of her characters after him in "The Aristocrat."
John Norton in his book, "The Keg," described how "Uncle Gus" at the age of 18 on all the contests in boat and foot races and shooting matches against a group of "city slickers" at Saranac Lake in 1881. Mr Norton wrote that Gus, the man who no one thought knew anything, turned out to be the best of the lot.
Thursday, October 11, 1956 The Journal and Republican.
Augustus F Werner, "Uncle Gus" Werner, for years a famous Adirondack Mountain guide and one of Lewis County's most colorful figures, died Saturday in the Lewis County General Hospital here.
The funeral was held Monday at the Virkler Funeral home in charge of Rev John Kelly, of First Methodist Church. Interment was in Riverside Cemetery, Beaver Falls.
His only survivors are a brother, John Werner, of Camden, and several nieces and nephews.
Mr Werner had lived alone at Stillwater for the past eight years, except during the winter when he visited in Constableville, Carthage and Utica. Between visits he always stayed at the Windsor Hotel here. His small home at Stillwater was neat and well kept. He planted his garden last spring as usual and raised flowers. Nothing pleased him more than to bake his own bread and pies.
His health had been failing in recent months and he was brought to the hospital for medical treatment several says before death.
Born at New Bremen May 7, 1863, he was the son of John and Lois Stephens Werner. His parents came from Germany in 1848, after a six weeks voyage in a sailboat. They settled on a farm at New Bremen and raised six children.
As a young man, Mr Werner worked on a farm at Watson where he was paid $8 a month. He preferred, however, to hunt and fish.
In 1891 he married Louise Hilmilger. The couple traveled to the Adirondacks on a yoke of oxen he purchased the day before the wedding and lived in a camp Mr Werner built in the woods.
At the time Mr Werner was in the lumber business. His logs were the first to go over Eagle Falls on their way to Castorland. After his sawmill on Burnet Creek burned twice, he sold out and worked as a caretaker for three families at G Lake.
Later he was postmaster at Wilmot Lake and then bought a farm at Williamstown. He sold the farm and went to Oriskany where he operated a butcher shop. He also operated a meat market in Utica for a time.
After the death of his wife, Mr Werner returned to the lake, and became a guide. He was a guide at Number Four during it's hey day. He guided for the Pattersons, Cranes and Lowes wealthy families from Dayton, Ohio.
Author Gertrude Atherton, who spent a few weeks at a camp near where he was a guide in the 1890's patterned one of her characters after him in "The Aristocrat."
John Norton in his book, "The Keg," described how "Uncle Gus" at the age of 18 on all the contests in boat and foot races and shooting matches against a group of "city slickers" at Saranac Lake in 1881. Mr Norton wrote that Gus, the man who no one thought knew anything, turned out to be the best of the lot.
Thursday, October 11, 1956 The Journal and Republican.
'Gus' Werner, Veteran Guide, Succumbs at 93
Augustus F Werner, "Uncle Gus" Werner, for years a famous Adirondack Mountain guide and one of Lewis County's most colorful figures, died Saturday in the Lewis County General Hospital here.
The funeral was held Monday at the Virkler Funeral home in charge of Rev John Kelly, of First Methodist Church. Interment was in Riverside Cemetery, Beaver Falls.
His only survivors are a brother, John Werner, of Camden, and several nieces and nephews.
Mr Werner had lived alone at Stillwater for the past eight years, except during the winter when he visited in Constableville, Carthage and Utica. Between visits he always stayed at the Windsor Hotel here. His small home at Stillwater was neat and well kept. He planted his garden last spring as usual and raised flowers. Nothing pleased him more than to bake his own bread and pies.
His health had been failing in recent months and he was brought to the hospital for medical treatment several says before death.
Born at New Bremen May 7, 1863, he was the son of John and Lois Stephens Werner. His parents came from Germany in 1848, after a six weeks voyage in a sailboat. They settled on a farm at New Bremen and raised six children.
As a young man, Mr Werner worked on a farm at Watson where he was paid $8 a month. He preferred, however, to hunt and fish.
In 1891 he married Louise Hilmilger. The couple traveled to the Adirondacks on a yoke of oxen he purchased the day before the wedding and lived in a camp Mr Werner built in the woods.
At the time Mr Werner was in the lumber business. His logs were the first to go over Eagle Falls on their way to Castorland. After his sawmill on Burnet Creek burned twice, he sold out and worked as a caretaker for three families at G Lake.
Later he was postmaster at Wilmot Lake and then bought a farm at Williamstown. He sold the farm and went to Oriskany where he operated a butcher shop. He also operated a meat market in Utica for a time.
After the death of his wife, Mr Werner returned to the lake, and became a guide. He was a guide at Number Four during it's hey day. He guided for the Pattersons, Cranes and Lowes wealthy families from Dayton, Ohio.
Author Gertrude Atherton, who spent a few weeks at a camp near where he was a guide in the 1890's patterned one of her characters after him in "The Aristocrat."
John Norton in his book, "The Keg," described how "Uncle Gus" at the age of 18 on all the contests in boat and foot races and shooting matches against a group of "city slickers" at Saranac Lake in 1881. Mr Norton wrote that Gus, the man who no one thought knew anything, turned out to be the best of the lot.
Thursday, October 11, 1956 The Journal and Republican.
Augustus F Werner, "Uncle Gus" Werner, for years a famous Adirondack Mountain guide and one of Lewis County's most colorful figures, died Saturday in the Lewis County General Hospital here.
The funeral was held Monday at the Virkler Funeral home in charge of Rev John Kelly, of First Methodist Church. Interment was in Riverside Cemetery, Beaver Falls.
His only survivors are a brother, John Werner, of Camden, and several nieces and nephews.
Mr Werner had lived alone at Stillwater for the past eight years, except during the winter when he visited in Constableville, Carthage and Utica. Between visits he always stayed at the Windsor Hotel here. His small home at Stillwater was neat and well kept. He planted his garden last spring as usual and raised flowers. Nothing pleased him more than to bake his own bread and pies.
His health had been failing in recent months and he was brought to the hospital for medical treatment several says before death.
Born at New Bremen May 7, 1863, he was the son of John and Lois Stephens Werner. His parents came from Germany in 1848, after a six weeks voyage in a sailboat. They settled on a farm at New Bremen and raised six children.
As a young man, Mr Werner worked on a farm at Watson where he was paid $8 a month. He preferred, however, to hunt and fish.
In 1891 he married Louise Hilmilger. The couple traveled to the Adirondacks on a yoke of oxen he purchased the day before the wedding and lived in a camp Mr Werner built in the woods.
At the time Mr Werner was in the lumber business. His logs were the first to go over Eagle Falls on their way to Castorland. After his sawmill on Burnet Creek burned twice, he sold out and worked as a caretaker for three families at G Lake.
Later he was postmaster at Wilmot Lake and then bought a farm at Williamstown. He sold the farm and went to Oriskany where he operated a butcher shop. He also operated a meat market in Utica for a time.
After the death of his wife, Mr Werner returned to the lake, and became a guide. He was a guide at Number Four during it's hey day. He guided for the Pattersons, Cranes and Lowes wealthy families from Dayton, Ohio.
Author Gertrude Atherton, who spent a few weeks at a camp near where he was a guide in the 1890's patterned one of her characters after him in "The Aristocrat."
John Norton in his book, "The Keg," described how "Uncle Gus" at the age of 18 on all the contests in boat and foot races and shooting matches against a group of "city slickers" at Saranac Lake in 1881. Mr Norton wrote that Gus, the man who no one thought knew anything, turned out to be the best of the lot.
Thursday, October 11, 1956 The Journal and Republican.
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