Surnames: Sell, Pipkorn, Quackenbush, Warnecke

The Loyal Tribune 27 February 1941

Sell, Lena (1849? - 17 FEB 1941)

Mrs. Lena Sell, 91, was burned to death Monday evening February 17th at her home in the Town of Beaver. Mrs. Sell had been blind for about nine years. The aged woman lived alone on the farm of her son Herman Sell and family. Her house being a short distance from that occupied by the Sell family.

The body, with clothing still in flames, was found about 6:30 p. m. on the floor of the barren living room by a granddaughter, Selma. The feed door of a wood heating stove was ajar; but the exact manner in which her clothing had been ignited was not clear.

The granddaughter went to the house to look after the fire there after helping her father with the chores. When she entered, the body of Mrs. Sell was on the floor, a few feet from the wood stove. Seared arms and legs were flexed grotesquely in pain. The girl hurriedly summoned her father, who extinguished flames on the dead woman’s clothing.

Flames apparently had touched but very little else in the room. Only a small area of varnish on an old-fashioned couch near the body was scorched.

Mrs. Sell was born in Germany and was one of the early settlers of Clark County. Her husband, Frederick preceded her in death in 1901. She leaves to mourn her loss her son Herman and another son August of Owen and three daughters, Mrs. Louis Pipkorn of Unity, Mrs. Harry Quackenbush of Antigo and Mrs. Louis Warnecke of Green Grove.

Funeral services were held from the Nichols Funeral Home here on Saturday afternoon and interment was made in the Beaver Cemetery.