Obit: Patitz, Henry (1877 - 1916)

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Surnames: PATITZ KRAKOW CULBERTSON SEIFERT BARTEL

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 01/04/1917

Patitz, Henry (1877 - 30 DEC 1916)

In a head on collision, which occurred Saturday morning, when an extra freight coming from Park Falls crashed into a switch engine at the west end of the Soo railroad bridge over the Wisconsin at Stevens Point, Engineer Henry Patitz was instantly killed. His body was crushed against the boiler head by the tender when the locomotive he was driving plunged down the embankment at the edge of the river. One side of his face was severely bruised and his body crushed and torn, besides being scalded by escaping steam.

The responsibility for the catastrophe has not bee placed as yet. From an account of the wreck in the Stevens Point Journal, it says:

"The curve and land formations just west of the Soo bridge are decidedly dangerous. A grad runs for about seven miles down to the Wisconsin River and the speed of trains along that section of road has often aroused criticism. Just west of the road-crossing the tracks pass around a curve through a cut that conceals the tracks and persons on the streets from a view of each other. It is also stated that this formation tends to deaden the sound of signals given in the cut or supposed to be heard there."

Henry Patitz was 39 years old, having been born in Sheboygan in 1877, he grew to manhood on a farm near Curtiss (Clark Co.); was married to Miss Minnie Krakow in April 1896. He started railroading some twenty years ago at Abbotsford, being engaged as fireman about five years, and was given an engineer’s papers in the fall of 1905. He had lived in Stevens Point a little more that a year.

Mr. Patitz is survived by his wife and two children, Elsie and Walter, who resided at home; a brother, Oscar Patitz, also an engineer on the Soo, who resides at Stevens Point; three sisters, Mrs. Harvey Culbertson and Mrs. J. Seifert of Appleton, and Mrs. John Bartel of Cleveland, Wis. He is also survived by his stepmother, who resides on a farm near Curtiss, Wis.

The funeral was held from the residence in Stevens point Tuesday morning at 11 o’clock in charge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Rev. James Blake officiating. After this service the remains were brought to this city on a special train which arrived at 1:45 p.m., accompanied by the surviving members of the family, other relatives and about fifty friends, mostly railroad men and their wives.

Services conducted by the Colby Masonic Lodge were held immediately at the Methodist Church, under the direction of James Watson, a retired engineer of Chippewa Falls. Interment in the family lot at Colby Cemetery.

The pallbearers were Thos. McPhail, Rob’t C. Braton, C.F. Gilespy, J.C. Davidson, Stevens Point, A.M. Fuller, Abbotsford, W.F. Graham, Chippewa Falls, all engineers except Mr. Braton.

The floral offerings were many and beautiful, and were sent mostly by different Orders of railroad men.