*** No headstone and not on cemetery records. Burial here confirmed by obituary.
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 3 1931 “Hess Funeral Is Set for Monday”
Funeral services for John Hess, 50-year old Iron River carpenter who died Wednesday morning, will be held at Stuht’s Undertaking parlors Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Burial will be in Iron River cemetery.
Mr. Hess, who weighed 300 pounds, was apparently overcome by the heat sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning in his room at the Boyington hotel. He retired to his room late Tuesday evening and failed to appear Wednesday morning. Atley Couney discovered the body when he went to the room to investigate.
Mr. Hess had been working on a house at Tamarack, in Iron River Township. He has resided here since coming here from Escanaba about 20 years ago.
He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Mary Burk of Escanaba and a Mrs. McIntyre of Eagle River; and by one nephew, Frank Hess of Fond du Lac, Wis. The location of other relatives has not yet been discovered.
MICHIGAN DEATH CERTIFICATES 1921-1952 at familysearch.org shows Jno Hess born abt 1869 America; died June 30 1931 Iron River age 62 single father Jno Hess.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 10 1931 "Coroner Insists Duty Was Motive In Investigation: Action Commenced Only After Complaints Reached Office" page one
While Coroner W. J. Johns was insisting today that only official duty motivated his investigation into the alleged improper burial Monday of John Hess, pioneer Iron River citizen, A.E. Stuht, undertaker in charge, issued a denial of one set of facts given out in findings of the investigators.
Johns answered the charge that business rivalry induced him to order the investigation by saying he acted only after several complaints reached his coroner’s office, and because of the widely known credulity of the complainants, he felt impelled to act.
Stuht cleared up the statement that Hess’ body was found face downward in a roughbox by saying it was due to handling the heavy body either in transit to the cemetery or while placing it in the grave. He affirmed that the body was properly placed in the box when it left the undertaking rooms.
What course the investigation will take now that it has been called to the attention of the state department of health and the prosecuting attorney was not certain today except that Coroner Johns indicated he will press a demand for a thorough sift of the facts. Whether the state’s legal code governing the burial of the dead had been violated was not ascertainable.
BODY EXHUMED Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday afternoon by Coroner Johns and Carl Sholander, investigator for the poor commission under a permit issued by Dr. L. E. Irvine, health officer. Others present were M. L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker, who was called in as a professional witness, Michael Michelin, sexton, Arthur Hoar, assistant sexton, and several city employees engaged at the cemetery.
The investigators declared no casket was provided and the body unclothed except for a sheet. According to a contract entered into by undertakers with the county, these must be provided for a stipulated sum of $50.
These facts were later explained by Stuht who said the body, after lying 18 hours in the Boyington hotel during the intense heat spell before it was discovered and removed, was in a poor state of preservation. Hess was a man of 300 pounds and an extra size casket was necessary. The county authorized an additional expenditure of $25 to provide an extra size case. This required a special order, Stuht asserted, and the one received was too small. Quick burial was necessary, he said, and the body was placed in a rough box.
The body had swelled to twice its normal size, said the undertaker, and no clothes could be found for dressing him.
GIVES STATEMENT “When I was called,” said Stuht, “Hess had been dead 18 hours during the intense heat of last week and was found in a room with the windows and door closed. The body was in such a decomposed state that it was difficult to get someone to help me move it. I finally succeeded in getting help.
“I immediately proceeded to embalm the body, but embalming did not help a great deal. The odor and swelling of more than twice normal size made it not only difficult to dress him properly, but I found it impossible to get clothes on him, so I wrapped him in a sheet and placed him in the extra sized rough box which came with the extra sized casket. This, under the circumstances, was all that could be done. Only those who helped me move the body would understand the situation and know it was impossible to do otherwise.
“My intentions are not to charge the county for a casket as the one received can be returned due to an error in the size shipped. Mr. Johns’ motive for this is, I believe, pure selfishness.”
Hess, long employed in the district as a carpenter, was found in a room in the Boyington hotel on the morning of July 1, and having left no estate, became a county charge. At 10:30 on the previous evening, Hess was not in his room when the hotel manager made a check-up, but the manager reported seeing him at 7:30 sitting on the running board of an automobile parked in front of the hotel. A maid discovered his door locked at 10:30 the next morning and an entrance onto the room was made through the window where he was found dead in bed.
The body remained at the Stuht undertaking parlors from Wednesday noon until Monday awaiting word from relatives, and the arrival of an oversize casket.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 14 1931 "State Unnotified of Hess Burial: No Official Information Forwarded To State Board of Health"
No formal notification of the manner in which John Hess was interred by A. E. Stuht, undertaker, has been made to the state board of health, it was learned last night.
Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, last night stated that the matter did not come within his jurisdiction unless a formal complaint was made to him by a poor commissioner. He also stated that the prosecuting attorney would not be required to notify the state board unless the matter came to his notice for prosecution. “Any citizen can do it, however,” he said.
Although it is possible the state board may have been informed of the matter by some citizen, it is definitely established that no information has been gone forward officially.
In case the state board of health is notified, it is probable that an investigator will be sent here to review the facts of the case.
Coroner W. J. Johns also stated last night he had not notified the board, intimating that he would prefer someone else did so.
Leigh C. Caswell, prosecutor, last week stated that he would bring no criminal action against Stuht. The manner in which the burial was made, it is understood he believes, was justified by the circumstances.
Jurisdiction, he said, lies with the state board of health and the law relative to embalming the dead does not apply particularly to the case.
Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday under the direction of Coroner Johns and Mr. Sholander. The body was found unclothed and face down in the rough box. Conditions indicated it had not been embalmed.
The exhumation was ordered following complaint which came into the office of Coroner Johns, who applied through Mr. Sholander to Dr. L. E. Irvine, Iron River health officer, for a permit to exhume the body.
Hess was a victim of the heat wave two weeks ago and was buried as a county charge.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 17 1931 “Denies Hess Body Placed Face Down”
Contradicting a statement in the Tuesday issue of The Reporter that John Hess had been buried face downward, A. E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker in charge, declared yesterday that the body was properly placed when it left his undertaking rooms. He accounted for the fact it was found face downward, as reported by the investigators, by a shift of position either while in transit or during the burial.
“It is very probable,” said Mr. Stuht, “that the body shifted its position while being placed in the grave. Any statement, however, that it was placed that way originally is untrue”.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 24 1931 “State Indicates No Action Likely In Burial Case: Charges Do Not Come Under Supervision Of Health Board”
That no action will be taken against A.E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker, in connection with the charges made by Coroner W.J. Johns concerning the manner in which John Hess of this city was buried, was indicated Wednesday afternoon by Dr. Robert B. Harkness of Hancock, president of the state board of health, who presided at a hearing on the matter in the Legion rooms at the city hall. Frank J. Pienta, director of the bureau of licensing embalmers, assisted in investigating the case and questioning witnesses. Dr. Harkness was formerly department commander of the State Legion.
President Harkness, while refusing to make any direct statement, seemed to believe the charges made by Johns that Hess was buried face downward, unclothed, and only in a rough box, did not come within the jurisdiction of the state board of health. Mr. Pienta, although expressing his belief that the burial was undoubtedly unethical and an offense against good taste, said there was no embalming law in the state which could cover it.
The facts of the case as revealed in the testimony will be studied by the state board and a decision will be arrived at within the near future. It is very likely, however, that the case will be allowed to drop.
Arriving here Wednesday morning, the two state men sounded out sentiment in the city and in the afternoon attended an exhumation of the body at Resthaven [Iron River] cemetery.
PERSONAL FACTORS The fact that Stuht and Johns, rival undertakers, have been particularly bitter toward one another is also believed to have influenced the state board representatives in indicating the case would be pushed no further.
“The state board of health is not a vehicle for carrying out personal enemities,” Dr. Harkness stated at the hearing in the afternoon.
Johns denied that a bitter relationship had existed between he and Stuht, but Stuht, on taking the stand, said that such a relationship had existed, but charged that Johns had been the instigator of all the unpleasantness which existed between them.
Stuht attacked both Coroner Johns and Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery, in the course of his testimony.
“I do not see why a sexton and a coroner are allowed to dig up such a mess and cause so much notoriety,” he said. He further charged that Johns “has always tried to get something on me.”
“I think it is unjust to call in the state board in a case of this sort,” he continued. “No embalmer could have done better. All this trouble has been caused by petty grievance and competition.”
Stuht said he covered the body with a sheet and it was not face down at the time it was buried.
Stuht also bitterly commented upon the stories appearing in “the papers” which he claimed had been unfair.
JOHNS TESTIFIES Coroner Johns testified that he had received the first information concerning the manner of burial from Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery.
He said that Michelin came to him a few hours after Hess had been buried to inquire whether or not the county furnished caskets for burials. Told that it did, Michelin informed Johns that Hess had been buried that afternoon without a casket.
Johns then stated that he called Oscar Renberg, chairman of the poor commission. Renberg immediately notified Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, who obtained a permit from Dr. L.E. Levine, Iron River health officer, to exhume the body.
Exhumed in the presence of witnesses, Johns said, the body was found lying face down in a rough box, with only a sheet partially covering it.
STUHT TESTIFIES Stuht testified that he had been called to take the body in charge at about 2 o’clock the afternoon of June 30. He claimed that it was then in a bad condition. The temperature, he said, was at 102 degrees and the man had apparently been dead a matter of 18 hours. So far as he could learn, he testified, Hess was last seen alive at 7 o’clock the evening of June 29.
The door was locked and a ladder was used to gain entrance by a window.
Mr. Stuht stated that he wired a nephew in Fond du Lac, but received no word from him. Last night he said he telephoned him later and was told to bury the body as a county charge. The nephew also referred him to a sister of Hess’ in Escanaba, whom Stuht wired. The sister replied immediately, saying she could not come nor could she afford to pay burial expenses. The case was then referred to the county.
Due to the condition of the body, he said, it was impossible to properly embalm or clothe it. An oversize casket was also necessary and he obtained permission from the county to purchase one. The extra cost, he said, was between $15 and $20.
When the casket arrived, however, it was too small, and, anxious to dispose of the body because of the odor, he wrapped it in a sheet, placed it in a rough box and buried it.
M.L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker and one of the witnesses at the first exhumation, and Carl Sholander, in testifying, corroborated the statements made by Johns. Fansher stated that he had been called only as a disinterested professional embalmer by Mr. Sholander to witness the conditions of Hess’ body at the time of disinterment.
AN UN-CHRISTIAN BURIAL P. O’Brien, publisher of The Reporter, a spectator, asked permission to say a few words.
“I have been informed this man was buried in an un-Christian manner,” he said. “For the benefit of the community the facts should be sifted out. It makes no difference if he was a pauper or not, he should have been given a decent burial.”
Mr. O’Brien said that he could not understand why some action in the matter could not be taken by the prosecutor of the county.
“This business is over your head and over the prosecuting attorney’s head,” Stuht informed him.
Paying no attention to the interruption, Mr. O’Brien thanked the state representatives for their interest in the matter.
“I believe your visit has done a lot of good,” he said. “It will be a warning to the undertakers, to both of them. They will know they are being watched and will conduct themselves accordingly.”
“The state board doesn’t want to listen to you,” growled Stuht.
Dr. Harkness reprimanded the undertaker and both he and Director Pienta thanked Mr. O’Brien for his words.
1930 US CENSUS for Iron River shows John Hess (residing in household of Edward Currie with 14 other roomers) roomer age 66 born abt 1864 Wisconsin single.
1900 US CENSUS for Ward 4 Escanaba in Delta County MI shows John Hess head age 37 born Aug 1863 Wisconsin married 13 years since abt 1887 carpenter. Austria [looks like Ewertria] wife age 40 born Dec 1859 Massachusetts married 13 years since abt 1887 1 child 1 living [note: no child shown].
MICHIGAN MARRIAGES 1868-1925 at familysearch.org shows John Hess age 23 born 1865 Wisconsin married to Austria Carr age 29 born 1859 Massachusetts on June 30 1888 in Escanaba. Parents Adam Hess & Maggie Creamer; Frank Hedge & Nettie Perkins.
[WISCONSIN COUNTY MARRIAGES 1836-1911 at familysearch.org for sister Catharine Hess to Joseph Dotrindt on April 28 1878 in Fond du Lac WI lists her parents as Adam Hess & Margaretha Kraemer]
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 3 1931 “Hess Funeral Is Set for Monday”
Funeral services for John Hess, 50-year old Iron River carpenter who died Wednesday morning, will be held at Stuht’s Undertaking parlors Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Burial will be in Iron River cemetery.
Mr. Hess, who weighed 300 pounds, was apparently overcome by the heat sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning in his room at the Boyington hotel. He retired to his room late Tuesday evening and failed to appear Wednesday morning. Atley Couney discovered the body when he went to the room to investigate.
Mr. Hess had been working on a house at Tamarack, in Iron River Township. He has resided here since coming here from Escanaba about 20 years ago.
He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Mary Burk of Escanaba and a Mrs. McIntyre of Eagle River; and by one nephew, Frank Hess of Fond du Lac, Wis. The location of other relatives has not yet been discovered.
MICHIGAN DEATH CERTIFICATES 1921-1952 at familysearch.org shows Jno Hess born abt 1869 America; died June 30 1931 Iron River age 62 single father Jno Hess.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 10 1931 "Coroner Insists Duty Was Motive In Investigation: Action Commenced Only After Complaints Reached Office" page one
While Coroner W. J. Johns was insisting today that only official duty motivated his investigation into the alleged improper burial Monday of John Hess, pioneer Iron River citizen, A.E. Stuht, undertaker in charge, issued a denial of one set of facts given out in findings of the investigators.
Johns answered the charge that business rivalry induced him to order the investigation by saying he acted only after several complaints reached his coroner’s office, and because of the widely known credulity of the complainants, he felt impelled to act.
Stuht cleared up the statement that Hess’ body was found face downward in a roughbox by saying it was due to handling the heavy body either in transit to the cemetery or while placing it in the grave. He affirmed that the body was properly placed in the box when it left the undertaking rooms.
What course the investigation will take now that it has been called to the attention of the state department of health and the prosecuting attorney was not certain today except that Coroner Johns indicated he will press a demand for a thorough sift of the facts. Whether the state’s legal code governing the burial of the dead had been violated was not ascertainable.
BODY EXHUMED Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday afternoon by Coroner Johns and Carl Sholander, investigator for the poor commission under a permit issued by Dr. L. E. Irvine, health officer. Others present were M. L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker, who was called in as a professional witness, Michael Michelin, sexton, Arthur Hoar, assistant sexton, and several city employees engaged at the cemetery.
The investigators declared no casket was provided and the body unclothed except for a sheet. According to a contract entered into by undertakers with the county, these must be provided for a stipulated sum of $50.
These facts were later explained by Stuht who said the body, after lying 18 hours in the Boyington hotel during the intense heat spell before it was discovered and removed, was in a poor state of preservation. Hess was a man of 300 pounds and an extra size casket was necessary. The county authorized an additional expenditure of $25 to provide an extra size case. This required a special order, Stuht asserted, and the one received was too small. Quick burial was necessary, he said, and the body was placed in a rough box.
The body had swelled to twice its normal size, said the undertaker, and no clothes could be found for dressing him.
GIVES STATEMENT “When I was called,” said Stuht, “Hess had been dead 18 hours during the intense heat of last week and was found in a room with the windows and door closed. The body was in such a decomposed state that it was difficult to get someone to help me move it. I finally succeeded in getting help.
“I immediately proceeded to embalm the body, but embalming did not help a great deal. The odor and swelling of more than twice normal size made it not only difficult to dress him properly, but I found it impossible to get clothes on him, so I wrapped him in a sheet and placed him in the extra sized rough box which came with the extra sized casket. This, under the circumstances, was all that could be done. Only those who helped me move the body would understand the situation and know it was impossible to do otherwise.
“My intentions are not to charge the county for a casket as the one received can be returned due to an error in the size shipped. Mr. Johns’ motive for this is, I believe, pure selfishness.”
Hess, long employed in the district as a carpenter, was found in a room in the Boyington hotel on the morning of July 1, and having left no estate, became a county charge. At 10:30 on the previous evening, Hess was not in his room when the hotel manager made a check-up, but the manager reported seeing him at 7:30 sitting on the running board of an automobile parked in front of the hotel. A maid discovered his door locked at 10:30 the next morning and an entrance onto the room was made through the window where he was found dead in bed.
The body remained at the Stuht undertaking parlors from Wednesday noon until Monday awaiting word from relatives, and the arrival of an oversize casket.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 14 1931 "State Unnotified of Hess Burial: No Official Information Forwarded To State Board of Health"
No formal notification of the manner in which John Hess was interred by A. E. Stuht, undertaker, has been made to the state board of health, it was learned last night.
Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, last night stated that the matter did not come within his jurisdiction unless a formal complaint was made to him by a poor commissioner. He also stated that the prosecuting attorney would not be required to notify the state board unless the matter came to his notice for prosecution. “Any citizen can do it, however,” he said.
Although it is possible the state board may have been informed of the matter by some citizen, it is definitely established that no information has been gone forward officially.
In case the state board of health is notified, it is probable that an investigator will be sent here to review the facts of the case.
Coroner W. J. Johns also stated last night he had not notified the board, intimating that he would prefer someone else did so.
Leigh C. Caswell, prosecutor, last week stated that he would bring no criminal action against Stuht. The manner in which the burial was made, it is understood he believes, was justified by the circumstances.
Jurisdiction, he said, lies with the state board of health and the law relative to embalming the dead does not apply particularly to the case.
Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday under the direction of Coroner Johns and Mr. Sholander. The body was found unclothed and face down in the rough box. Conditions indicated it had not been embalmed.
The exhumation was ordered following complaint which came into the office of Coroner Johns, who applied through Mr. Sholander to Dr. L. E. Irvine, Iron River health officer, for a permit to exhume the body.
Hess was a victim of the heat wave two weeks ago and was buried as a county charge.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 17 1931 “Denies Hess Body Placed Face Down”
Contradicting a statement in the Tuesday issue of The Reporter that John Hess had been buried face downward, A. E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker in charge, declared yesterday that the body was properly placed when it left his undertaking rooms. He accounted for the fact it was found face downward, as reported by the investigators, by a shift of position either while in transit or during the burial.
“It is very probable,” said Mr. Stuht, “that the body shifted its position while being placed in the grave. Any statement, however, that it was placed that way originally is untrue”.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 24 1931 “State Indicates No Action Likely In Burial Case: Charges Do Not Come Under Supervision Of Health Board”
That no action will be taken against A.E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker, in connection with the charges made by Coroner W.J. Johns concerning the manner in which John Hess of this city was buried, was indicated Wednesday afternoon by Dr. Robert B. Harkness of Hancock, president of the state board of health, who presided at a hearing on the matter in the Legion rooms at the city hall. Frank J. Pienta, director of the bureau of licensing embalmers, assisted in investigating the case and questioning witnesses. Dr. Harkness was formerly department commander of the State Legion.
President Harkness, while refusing to make any direct statement, seemed to believe the charges made by Johns that Hess was buried face downward, unclothed, and only in a rough box, did not come within the jurisdiction of the state board of health. Mr. Pienta, although expressing his belief that the burial was undoubtedly unethical and an offense against good taste, said there was no embalming law in the state which could cover it.
The facts of the case as revealed in the testimony will be studied by the state board and a decision will be arrived at within the near future. It is very likely, however, that the case will be allowed to drop.
Arriving here Wednesday morning, the two state men sounded out sentiment in the city and in the afternoon attended an exhumation of the body at Resthaven [Iron River] cemetery.
PERSONAL FACTORS The fact that Stuht and Johns, rival undertakers, have been particularly bitter toward one another is also believed to have influenced the state board representatives in indicating the case would be pushed no further.
“The state board of health is not a vehicle for carrying out personal enemities,” Dr. Harkness stated at the hearing in the afternoon.
Johns denied that a bitter relationship had existed between he and Stuht, but Stuht, on taking the stand, said that such a relationship had existed, but charged that Johns had been the instigator of all the unpleasantness which existed between them.
Stuht attacked both Coroner Johns and Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery, in the course of his testimony.
“I do not see why a sexton and a coroner are allowed to dig up such a mess and cause so much notoriety,” he said. He further charged that Johns “has always tried to get something on me.”
“I think it is unjust to call in the state board in a case of this sort,” he continued. “No embalmer could have done better. All this trouble has been caused by petty grievance and competition.”
Stuht said he covered the body with a sheet and it was not face down at the time it was buried.
Stuht also bitterly commented upon the stories appearing in “the papers” which he claimed had been unfair.
JOHNS TESTIFIES Coroner Johns testified that he had received the first information concerning the manner of burial from Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery.
He said that Michelin came to him a few hours after Hess had been buried to inquire whether or not the county furnished caskets for burials. Told that it did, Michelin informed Johns that Hess had been buried that afternoon without a casket.
Johns then stated that he called Oscar Renberg, chairman of the poor commission. Renberg immediately notified Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, who obtained a permit from Dr. L.E. Levine, Iron River health officer, to exhume the body.
Exhumed in the presence of witnesses, Johns said, the body was found lying face down in a rough box, with only a sheet partially covering it.
STUHT TESTIFIES Stuht testified that he had been called to take the body in charge at about 2 o’clock the afternoon of June 30. He claimed that it was then in a bad condition. The temperature, he said, was at 102 degrees and the man had apparently been dead a matter of 18 hours. So far as he could learn, he testified, Hess was last seen alive at 7 o’clock the evening of June 29.
The door was locked and a ladder was used to gain entrance by a window.
Mr. Stuht stated that he wired a nephew in Fond du Lac, but received no word from him. Last night he said he telephoned him later and was told to bury the body as a county charge. The nephew also referred him to a sister of Hess’ in Escanaba, whom Stuht wired. The sister replied immediately, saying she could not come nor could she afford to pay burial expenses. The case was then referred to the county.
Due to the condition of the body, he said, it was impossible to properly embalm or clothe it. An oversize casket was also necessary and he obtained permission from the county to purchase one. The extra cost, he said, was between $15 and $20.
When the casket arrived, however, it was too small, and, anxious to dispose of the body because of the odor, he wrapped it in a sheet, placed it in a rough box and buried it.
M.L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker and one of the witnesses at the first exhumation, and Carl Sholander, in testifying, corroborated the statements made by Johns. Fansher stated that he had been called only as a disinterested professional embalmer by Mr. Sholander to witness the conditions of Hess’ body at the time of disinterment.
AN UN-CHRISTIAN BURIAL P. O’Brien, publisher of The Reporter, a spectator, asked permission to say a few words.
“I have been informed this man was buried in an un-Christian manner,” he said. “For the benefit of the community the facts should be sifted out. It makes no difference if he was a pauper or not, he should have been given a decent burial.”
Mr. O’Brien said that he could not understand why some action in the matter could not be taken by the prosecutor of the county.
“This business is over your head and over the prosecuting attorney’s head,” Stuht informed him.
Paying no attention to the interruption, Mr. O’Brien thanked the state representatives for their interest in the matter.
“I believe your visit has done a lot of good,” he said. “It will be a warning to the undertakers, to both of them. They will know they are being watched and will conduct themselves accordingly.”
“The state board doesn’t want to listen to you,” growled Stuht.
Dr. Harkness reprimanded the undertaker and both he and Director Pienta thanked Mr. O’Brien for his words.
1930 US CENSUS for Iron River shows John Hess (residing in household of Edward Currie with 14 other roomers) roomer age 66 born abt 1864 Wisconsin single.
1900 US CENSUS for Ward 4 Escanaba in Delta County MI shows John Hess head age 37 born Aug 1863 Wisconsin married 13 years since abt 1887 carpenter. Austria [looks like Ewertria] wife age 40 born Dec 1859 Massachusetts married 13 years since abt 1887 1 child 1 living [note: no child shown].
MICHIGAN MARRIAGES 1868-1925 at familysearch.org shows John Hess age 23 born 1865 Wisconsin married to Austria Carr age 29 born 1859 Massachusetts on June 30 1888 in Escanaba. Parents Adam Hess & Maggie Creamer; Frank Hedge & Nettie Perkins.
[WISCONSIN COUNTY MARRIAGES 1836-1911 at familysearch.org for sister Catharine Hess to Joseph Dotrindt on April 28 1878 in Fond du Lac WI lists her parents as Adam Hess & Margaretha Kraemer]
*** No headstone and not on cemetery records. Burial here confirmed by obituary.
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 3 1931 “Hess Funeral Is Set for Monday”
Funeral services for John Hess, 50-year old Iron River carpenter who died Wednesday morning, will be held at Stuht’s Undertaking parlors Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Burial will be in Iron River cemetery.
Mr. Hess, who weighed 300 pounds, was apparently overcome by the heat sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning in his room at the Boyington hotel. He retired to his room late Tuesday evening and failed to appear Wednesday morning. Atley Couney discovered the body when he went to the room to investigate.
Mr. Hess had been working on a house at Tamarack, in Iron River Township. He has resided here since coming here from Escanaba about 20 years ago.
He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Mary Burk of Escanaba and a Mrs. McIntyre of Eagle River; and by one nephew, Frank Hess of Fond du Lac, Wis. The location of other relatives has not yet been discovered.
MICHIGAN DEATH CERTIFICATES 1921-1952 at familysearch.org shows Jno Hess born abt 1869 America; died June 30 1931 Iron River age 62 single father Jno Hess.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 10 1931 "Coroner Insists Duty Was Motive In Investigation: Action Commenced Only After Complaints Reached Office" page one
While Coroner W. J. Johns was insisting today that only official duty motivated his investigation into the alleged improper burial Monday of John Hess, pioneer Iron River citizen, A.E. Stuht, undertaker in charge, issued a denial of one set of facts given out in findings of the investigators.
Johns answered the charge that business rivalry induced him to order the investigation by saying he acted only after several complaints reached his coroner’s office, and because of the widely known credulity of the complainants, he felt impelled to act.
Stuht cleared up the statement that Hess’ body was found face downward in a roughbox by saying it was due to handling the heavy body either in transit to the cemetery or while placing it in the grave. He affirmed that the body was properly placed in the box when it left the undertaking rooms.
What course the investigation will take now that it has been called to the attention of the state department of health and the prosecuting attorney was not certain today except that Coroner Johns indicated he will press a demand for a thorough sift of the facts. Whether the state’s legal code governing the burial of the dead had been violated was not ascertainable.
BODY EXHUMED Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday afternoon by Coroner Johns and Carl Sholander, investigator for the poor commission under a permit issued by Dr. L. E. Irvine, health officer. Others present were M. L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker, who was called in as a professional witness, Michael Michelin, sexton, Arthur Hoar, assistant sexton, and several city employees engaged at the cemetery.
The investigators declared no casket was provided and the body unclothed except for a sheet. According to a contract entered into by undertakers with the county, these must be provided for a stipulated sum of $50.
These facts were later explained by Stuht who said the body, after lying 18 hours in the Boyington hotel during the intense heat spell before it was discovered and removed, was in a poor state of preservation. Hess was a man of 300 pounds and an extra size casket was necessary. The county authorized an additional expenditure of $25 to provide an extra size case. This required a special order, Stuht asserted, and the one received was too small. Quick burial was necessary, he said, and the body was placed in a rough box.
The body had swelled to twice its normal size, said the undertaker, and no clothes could be found for dressing him.
GIVES STATEMENT “When I was called,” said Stuht, “Hess had been dead 18 hours during the intense heat of last week and was found in a room with the windows and door closed. The body was in such a decomposed state that it was difficult to get someone to help me move it. I finally succeeded in getting help.
“I immediately proceeded to embalm the body, but embalming did not help a great deal. The odor and swelling of more than twice normal size made it not only difficult to dress him properly, but I found it impossible to get clothes on him, so I wrapped him in a sheet and placed him in the extra sized rough box which came with the extra sized casket. This, under the circumstances, was all that could be done. Only those who helped me move the body would understand the situation and know it was impossible to do otherwise.
“My intentions are not to charge the county for a casket as the one received can be returned due to an error in the size shipped. Mr. Johns’ motive for this is, I believe, pure selfishness.”
Hess, long employed in the district as a carpenter, was found in a room in the Boyington hotel on the morning of July 1, and having left no estate, became a county charge. At 10:30 on the previous evening, Hess was not in his room when the hotel manager made a check-up, but the manager reported seeing him at 7:30 sitting on the running board of an automobile parked in front of the hotel. A maid discovered his door locked at 10:30 the next morning and an entrance onto the room was made through the window where he was found dead in bed.
The body remained at the Stuht undertaking parlors from Wednesday noon until Monday awaiting word from relatives, and the arrival of an oversize casket.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 14 1931 "State Unnotified of Hess Burial: No Official Information Forwarded To State Board of Health"
No formal notification of the manner in which John Hess was interred by A. E. Stuht, undertaker, has been made to the state board of health, it was learned last night.
Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, last night stated that the matter did not come within his jurisdiction unless a formal complaint was made to him by a poor commissioner. He also stated that the prosecuting attorney would not be required to notify the state board unless the matter came to his notice for prosecution. “Any citizen can do it, however,” he said.
Although it is possible the state board may have been informed of the matter by some citizen, it is definitely established that no information has been gone forward officially.
In case the state board of health is notified, it is probable that an investigator will be sent here to review the facts of the case.
Coroner W. J. Johns also stated last night he had not notified the board, intimating that he would prefer someone else did so.
Leigh C. Caswell, prosecutor, last week stated that he would bring no criminal action against Stuht. The manner in which the burial was made, it is understood he believes, was justified by the circumstances.
Jurisdiction, he said, lies with the state board of health and the law relative to embalming the dead does not apply particularly to the case.
Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday under the direction of Coroner Johns and Mr. Sholander. The body was found unclothed and face down in the rough box. Conditions indicated it had not been embalmed.
The exhumation was ordered following complaint which came into the office of Coroner Johns, who applied through Mr. Sholander to Dr. L. E. Irvine, Iron River health officer, for a permit to exhume the body.
Hess was a victim of the heat wave two weeks ago and was buried as a county charge.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 17 1931 “Denies Hess Body Placed Face Down”
Contradicting a statement in the Tuesday issue of The Reporter that John Hess had been buried face downward, A. E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker in charge, declared yesterday that the body was properly placed when it left his undertaking rooms. He accounted for the fact it was found face downward, as reported by the investigators, by a shift of position either while in transit or during the burial.
“It is very probable,” said Mr. Stuht, “that the body shifted its position while being placed in the grave. Any statement, however, that it was placed that way originally is untrue”.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 24 1931 “State Indicates No Action Likely In Burial Case: Charges Do Not Come Under Supervision Of Health Board”
That no action will be taken against A.E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker, in connection with the charges made by Coroner W.J. Johns concerning the manner in which John Hess of this city was buried, was indicated Wednesday afternoon by Dr. Robert B. Harkness of Hancock, president of the state board of health, who presided at a hearing on the matter in the Legion rooms at the city hall. Frank J. Pienta, director of the bureau of licensing embalmers, assisted in investigating the case and questioning witnesses. Dr. Harkness was formerly department commander of the State Legion.
President Harkness, while refusing to make any direct statement, seemed to believe the charges made by Johns that Hess was buried face downward, unclothed, and only in a rough box, did not come within the jurisdiction of the state board of health. Mr. Pienta, although expressing his belief that the burial was undoubtedly unethical and an offense against good taste, said there was no embalming law in the state which could cover it.
The facts of the case as revealed in the testimony will be studied by the state board and a decision will be arrived at within the near future. It is very likely, however, that the case will be allowed to drop.
Arriving here Wednesday morning, the two state men sounded out sentiment in the city and in the afternoon attended an exhumation of the body at Resthaven [Iron River] cemetery.
PERSONAL FACTORS The fact that Stuht and Johns, rival undertakers, have been particularly bitter toward one another is also believed to have influenced the state board representatives in indicating the case would be pushed no further.
“The state board of health is not a vehicle for carrying out personal enemities,” Dr. Harkness stated at the hearing in the afternoon.
Johns denied that a bitter relationship had existed between he and Stuht, but Stuht, on taking the stand, said that such a relationship had existed, but charged that Johns had been the instigator of all the unpleasantness which existed between them.
Stuht attacked both Coroner Johns and Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery, in the course of his testimony.
“I do not see why a sexton and a coroner are allowed to dig up such a mess and cause so much notoriety,” he said. He further charged that Johns “has always tried to get something on me.”
“I think it is unjust to call in the state board in a case of this sort,” he continued. “No embalmer could have done better. All this trouble has been caused by petty grievance and competition.”
Stuht said he covered the body with a sheet and it was not face down at the time it was buried.
Stuht also bitterly commented upon the stories appearing in “the papers” which he claimed had been unfair.
JOHNS TESTIFIES Coroner Johns testified that he had received the first information concerning the manner of burial from Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery.
He said that Michelin came to him a few hours after Hess had been buried to inquire whether or not the county furnished caskets for burials. Told that it did, Michelin informed Johns that Hess had been buried that afternoon without a casket.
Johns then stated that he called Oscar Renberg, chairman of the poor commission. Renberg immediately notified Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, who obtained a permit from Dr. L.E. Levine, Iron River health officer, to exhume the body.
Exhumed in the presence of witnesses, Johns said, the body was found lying face down in a rough box, with only a sheet partially covering it.
STUHT TESTIFIES Stuht testified that he had been called to take the body in charge at about 2 o’clock the afternoon of June 30. He claimed that it was then in a bad condition. The temperature, he said, was at 102 degrees and the man had apparently been dead a matter of 18 hours. So far as he could learn, he testified, Hess was last seen alive at 7 o’clock the evening of June 29.
The door was locked and a ladder was used to gain entrance by a window.
Mr. Stuht stated that he wired a nephew in Fond du Lac, but received no word from him. Last night he said he telephoned him later and was told to bury the body as a county charge. The nephew also referred him to a sister of Hess’ in Escanaba, whom Stuht wired. The sister replied immediately, saying she could not come nor could she afford to pay burial expenses. The case was then referred to the county.
Due to the condition of the body, he said, it was impossible to properly embalm or clothe it. An oversize casket was also necessary and he obtained permission from the county to purchase one. The extra cost, he said, was between $15 and $20.
When the casket arrived, however, it was too small, and, anxious to dispose of the body because of the odor, he wrapped it in a sheet, placed it in a rough box and buried it.
M.L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker and one of the witnesses at the first exhumation, and Carl Sholander, in testifying, corroborated the statements made by Johns. Fansher stated that he had been called only as a disinterested professional embalmer by Mr. Sholander to witness the conditions of Hess’ body at the time of disinterment.
AN UN-CHRISTIAN BURIAL P. O’Brien, publisher of The Reporter, a spectator, asked permission to say a few words.
“I have been informed this man was buried in an un-Christian manner,” he said. “For the benefit of the community the facts should be sifted out. It makes no difference if he was a pauper or not, he should have been given a decent burial.”
Mr. O’Brien said that he could not understand why some action in the matter could not be taken by the prosecutor of the county.
“This business is over your head and over the prosecuting attorney’s head,” Stuht informed him.
Paying no attention to the interruption, Mr. O’Brien thanked the state representatives for their interest in the matter.
“I believe your visit has done a lot of good,” he said. “It will be a warning to the undertakers, to both of them. They will know they are being watched and will conduct themselves accordingly.”
“The state board doesn’t want to listen to you,” growled Stuht.
Dr. Harkness reprimanded the undertaker and both he and Director Pienta thanked Mr. O’Brien for his words.
1930 US CENSUS for Iron River shows John Hess (residing in household of Edward Currie with 14 other roomers) roomer age 66 born abt 1864 Wisconsin single.
1900 US CENSUS for Ward 4 Escanaba in Delta County MI shows John Hess head age 37 born Aug 1863 Wisconsin married 13 years since abt 1887 carpenter. Austria [looks like Ewertria] wife age 40 born Dec 1859 Massachusetts married 13 years since abt 1887 1 child 1 living [note: no child shown].
MICHIGAN MARRIAGES 1868-1925 at familysearch.org shows John Hess age 23 born 1865 Wisconsin married to Austria Carr age 29 born 1859 Massachusetts on June 30 1888 in Escanaba. Parents Adam Hess & Maggie Creamer; Frank Hedge & Nettie Perkins.
[WISCONSIN COUNTY MARRIAGES 1836-1911 at familysearch.org for sister Catharine Hess to Joseph Dotrindt on April 28 1878 in Fond du Lac WI lists her parents as Adam Hess & Margaretha Kraemer]
OBITUARY Iron River Reporter July 3 1931 “Hess Funeral Is Set for Monday”
Funeral services for John Hess, 50-year old Iron River carpenter who died Wednesday morning, will be held at Stuht’s Undertaking parlors Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Burial will be in Iron River cemetery.
Mr. Hess, who weighed 300 pounds, was apparently overcome by the heat sometime Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning in his room at the Boyington hotel. He retired to his room late Tuesday evening and failed to appear Wednesday morning. Atley Couney discovered the body when he went to the room to investigate.
Mr. Hess had been working on a house at Tamarack, in Iron River Township. He has resided here since coming here from Escanaba about 20 years ago.
He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Mary Burk of Escanaba and a Mrs. McIntyre of Eagle River; and by one nephew, Frank Hess of Fond du Lac, Wis. The location of other relatives has not yet been discovered.
MICHIGAN DEATH CERTIFICATES 1921-1952 at familysearch.org shows Jno Hess born abt 1869 America; died June 30 1931 Iron River age 62 single father Jno Hess.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 10 1931 "Coroner Insists Duty Was Motive In Investigation: Action Commenced Only After Complaints Reached Office" page one
While Coroner W. J. Johns was insisting today that only official duty motivated his investigation into the alleged improper burial Monday of John Hess, pioneer Iron River citizen, A.E. Stuht, undertaker in charge, issued a denial of one set of facts given out in findings of the investigators.
Johns answered the charge that business rivalry induced him to order the investigation by saying he acted only after several complaints reached his coroner’s office, and because of the widely known credulity of the complainants, he felt impelled to act.
Stuht cleared up the statement that Hess’ body was found face downward in a roughbox by saying it was due to handling the heavy body either in transit to the cemetery or while placing it in the grave. He affirmed that the body was properly placed in the box when it left the undertaking rooms.
What course the investigation will take now that it has been called to the attention of the state department of health and the prosecuting attorney was not certain today except that Coroner Johns indicated he will press a demand for a thorough sift of the facts. Whether the state’s legal code governing the burial of the dead had been violated was not ascertainable.
BODY EXHUMED Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday afternoon by Coroner Johns and Carl Sholander, investigator for the poor commission under a permit issued by Dr. L. E. Irvine, health officer. Others present were M. L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker, who was called in as a professional witness, Michael Michelin, sexton, Arthur Hoar, assistant sexton, and several city employees engaged at the cemetery.
The investigators declared no casket was provided and the body unclothed except for a sheet. According to a contract entered into by undertakers with the county, these must be provided for a stipulated sum of $50.
These facts were later explained by Stuht who said the body, after lying 18 hours in the Boyington hotel during the intense heat spell before it was discovered and removed, was in a poor state of preservation. Hess was a man of 300 pounds and an extra size casket was necessary. The county authorized an additional expenditure of $25 to provide an extra size case. This required a special order, Stuht asserted, and the one received was too small. Quick burial was necessary, he said, and the body was placed in a rough box.
The body had swelled to twice its normal size, said the undertaker, and no clothes could be found for dressing him.
GIVES STATEMENT “When I was called,” said Stuht, “Hess had been dead 18 hours during the intense heat of last week and was found in a room with the windows and door closed. The body was in such a decomposed state that it was difficult to get someone to help me move it. I finally succeeded in getting help.
“I immediately proceeded to embalm the body, but embalming did not help a great deal. The odor and swelling of more than twice normal size made it not only difficult to dress him properly, but I found it impossible to get clothes on him, so I wrapped him in a sheet and placed him in the extra sized rough box which came with the extra sized casket. This, under the circumstances, was all that could be done. Only those who helped me move the body would understand the situation and know it was impossible to do otherwise.
“My intentions are not to charge the county for a casket as the one received can be returned due to an error in the size shipped. Mr. Johns’ motive for this is, I believe, pure selfishness.”
Hess, long employed in the district as a carpenter, was found in a room in the Boyington hotel on the morning of July 1, and having left no estate, became a county charge. At 10:30 on the previous evening, Hess was not in his room when the hotel manager made a check-up, but the manager reported seeing him at 7:30 sitting on the running board of an automobile parked in front of the hotel. A maid discovered his door locked at 10:30 the next morning and an entrance onto the room was made through the window where he was found dead in bed.
The body remained at the Stuht undertaking parlors from Wednesday noon until Monday awaiting word from relatives, and the arrival of an oversize casket.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 14 1931 "State Unnotified of Hess Burial: No Official Information Forwarded To State Board of Health"
No formal notification of the manner in which John Hess was interred by A. E. Stuht, undertaker, has been made to the state board of health, it was learned last night.
Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, last night stated that the matter did not come within his jurisdiction unless a formal complaint was made to him by a poor commissioner. He also stated that the prosecuting attorney would not be required to notify the state board unless the matter came to his notice for prosecution. “Any citizen can do it, however,” he said.
Although it is possible the state board may have been informed of the matter by some citizen, it is definitely established that no information has been gone forward officially.
In case the state board of health is notified, it is probable that an investigator will be sent here to review the facts of the case.
Coroner W. J. Johns also stated last night he had not notified the board, intimating that he would prefer someone else did so.
Leigh C. Caswell, prosecutor, last week stated that he would bring no criminal action against Stuht. The manner in which the burial was made, it is understood he believes, was justified by the circumstances.
Jurisdiction, he said, lies with the state board of health and the law relative to embalming the dead does not apply particularly to the case.
Hess’ body was exhumed Wednesday under the direction of Coroner Johns and Mr. Sholander. The body was found unclothed and face down in the rough box. Conditions indicated it had not been embalmed.
The exhumation was ordered following complaint which came into the office of Coroner Johns, who applied through Mr. Sholander to Dr. L. E. Irvine, Iron River health officer, for a permit to exhume the body.
Hess was a victim of the heat wave two weeks ago and was buried as a county charge.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 17 1931 “Denies Hess Body Placed Face Down”
Contradicting a statement in the Tuesday issue of The Reporter that John Hess had been buried face downward, A. E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker in charge, declared yesterday that the body was properly placed when it left his undertaking rooms. He accounted for the fact it was found face downward, as reported by the investigators, by a shift of position either while in transit or during the burial.
“It is very probable,” said Mr. Stuht, “that the body shifted its position while being placed in the grave. Any statement, however, that it was placed that way originally is untrue”.
NEWS ARTICLE Iron River Reporter July 24 1931 “State Indicates No Action Likely In Burial Case: Charges Do Not Come Under Supervision Of Health Board”
That no action will be taken against A.E. Stuht, Iron River undertaker, in connection with the charges made by Coroner W.J. Johns concerning the manner in which John Hess of this city was buried, was indicated Wednesday afternoon by Dr. Robert B. Harkness of Hancock, president of the state board of health, who presided at a hearing on the matter in the Legion rooms at the city hall. Frank J. Pienta, director of the bureau of licensing embalmers, assisted in investigating the case and questioning witnesses. Dr. Harkness was formerly department commander of the State Legion.
President Harkness, while refusing to make any direct statement, seemed to believe the charges made by Johns that Hess was buried face downward, unclothed, and only in a rough box, did not come within the jurisdiction of the state board of health. Mr. Pienta, although expressing his belief that the burial was undoubtedly unethical and an offense against good taste, said there was no embalming law in the state which could cover it.
The facts of the case as revealed in the testimony will be studied by the state board and a decision will be arrived at within the near future. It is very likely, however, that the case will be allowed to drop.
Arriving here Wednesday morning, the two state men sounded out sentiment in the city and in the afternoon attended an exhumation of the body at Resthaven [Iron River] cemetery.
PERSONAL FACTORS The fact that Stuht and Johns, rival undertakers, have been particularly bitter toward one another is also believed to have influenced the state board representatives in indicating the case would be pushed no further.
“The state board of health is not a vehicle for carrying out personal enemities,” Dr. Harkness stated at the hearing in the afternoon.
Johns denied that a bitter relationship had existed between he and Stuht, but Stuht, on taking the stand, said that such a relationship had existed, but charged that Johns had been the instigator of all the unpleasantness which existed between them.
Stuht attacked both Coroner Johns and Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery, in the course of his testimony.
“I do not see why a sexton and a coroner are allowed to dig up such a mess and cause so much notoriety,” he said. He further charged that Johns “has always tried to get something on me.”
“I think it is unjust to call in the state board in a case of this sort,” he continued. “No embalmer could have done better. All this trouble has been caused by petty grievance and competition.”
Stuht said he covered the body with a sheet and it was not face down at the time it was buried.
Stuht also bitterly commented upon the stories appearing in “the papers” which he claimed had been unfair.
JOHNS TESTIFIES Coroner Johns testified that he had received the first information concerning the manner of burial from Mike Michelin, sexton at the cemetery.
He said that Michelin came to him a few hours after Hess had been buried to inquire whether or not the county furnished caskets for burials. Told that it did, Michelin informed Johns that Hess had been buried that afternoon without a casket.
Johns then stated that he called Oscar Renberg, chairman of the poor commission. Renberg immediately notified Carl Sholander, county poor superintendent, who obtained a permit from Dr. L.E. Levine, Iron River health officer, to exhume the body.
Exhumed in the presence of witnesses, Johns said, the body was found lying face down in a rough box, with only a sheet partially covering it.
STUHT TESTIFIES Stuht testified that he had been called to take the body in charge at about 2 o’clock the afternoon of June 30. He claimed that it was then in a bad condition. The temperature, he said, was at 102 degrees and the man had apparently been dead a matter of 18 hours. So far as he could learn, he testified, Hess was last seen alive at 7 o’clock the evening of June 29.
The door was locked and a ladder was used to gain entrance by a window.
Mr. Stuht stated that he wired a nephew in Fond du Lac, but received no word from him. Last night he said he telephoned him later and was told to bury the body as a county charge. The nephew also referred him to a sister of Hess’ in Escanaba, whom Stuht wired. The sister replied immediately, saying she could not come nor could she afford to pay burial expenses. The case was then referred to the county.
Due to the condition of the body, he said, it was impossible to properly embalm or clothe it. An oversize casket was also necessary and he obtained permission from the county to purchase one. The extra cost, he said, was between $15 and $20.
When the casket arrived, however, it was too small, and, anxious to dispose of the body because of the odor, he wrapped it in a sheet, placed it in a rough box and buried it.
M.L. Fansher, Stambaugh undertaker and one of the witnesses at the first exhumation, and Carl Sholander, in testifying, corroborated the statements made by Johns. Fansher stated that he had been called only as a disinterested professional embalmer by Mr. Sholander to witness the conditions of Hess’ body at the time of disinterment.
AN UN-CHRISTIAN BURIAL P. O’Brien, publisher of The Reporter, a spectator, asked permission to say a few words.
“I have been informed this man was buried in an un-Christian manner,” he said. “For the benefit of the community the facts should be sifted out. It makes no difference if he was a pauper or not, he should have been given a decent burial.”
Mr. O’Brien said that he could not understand why some action in the matter could not be taken by the prosecutor of the county.
“This business is over your head and over the prosecuting attorney’s head,” Stuht informed him.
Paying no attention to the interruption, Mr. O’Brien thanked the state representatives for their interest in the matter.
“I believe your visit has done a lot of good,” he said. “It will be a warning to the undertakers, to both of them. They will know they are being watched and will conduct themselves accordingly.”
“The state board doesn’t want to listen to you,” growled Stuht.
Dr. Harkness reprimanded the undertaker and both he and Director Pienta thanked Mr. O’Brien for his words.
1930 US CENSUS for Iron River shows John Hess (residing in household of Edward Currie with 14 other roomers) roomer age 66 born abt 1864 Wisconsin single.
1900 US CENSUS for Ward 4 Escanaba in Delta County MI shows John Hess head age 37 born Aug 1863 Wisconsin married 13 years since abt 1887 carpenter. Austria [looks like Ewertria] wife age 40 born Dec 1859 Massachusetts married 13 years since abt 1887 1 child 1 living [note: no child shown].
MICHIGAN MARRIAGES 1868-1925 at familysearch.org shows John Hess age 23 born 1865 Wisconsin married to Austria Carr age 29 born 1859 Massachusetts on June 30 1888 in Escanaba. Parents Adam Hess & Maggie Creamer; Frank Hedge & Nettie Perkins.
[WISCONSIN COUNTY MARRIAGES 1836-1911 at familysearch.org for sister Catharine Hess to Joseph Dotrindt on April 28 1878 in Fond du Lac WI lists her parents as Adam Hess & Margaretha Kraemer]
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