Lea Nyemaster 1884-1907

NYEMASTER

Posted By: Beverly Gerdts (email)
Date: 10/26/2024 at 14:48:28

The Wapello Republic, Columbus Junction, IA
Thursday, December 19, 1907
Page 1

The sudden death of Lea Nyemaster was a great shock to the entire community. The circumstances were such as to add to the heart break of the tragic taking off of this young man - one of the brightest fellow about town, and with a lot of warm personal friends who have sympathized with him in his struggle with disease and rejoiced with him in the prospects of his recovery. Only a day before the fateful accident - for accident it surely was - the reporter accosted him on the street. It was the same old friendly greeting, the same brave smile with which he always met his friends. He was getting better, looking better, was cheerful, hopeful. He was not the fellow to throw away his life. He was not a coward. He had suffered much but with a courage and fortitude that marked the stuff of genuine manhood. That he was capable of enduring what he did, that he could smile through his suffering, ought forever to silence the suspicion that he could or did take his own life.

His tragic death was the result of one of those inexplicable misfortunes which we call accidents, that hush our hearts amid the shadows of great darkness, where the strongest become weak and the wisest know not anything. The circumstances are most mysterious. He arose at his usual time last Saturday and after breakfast, in conversation with his younger brother, Oak, remarked that if he would shoot him a rabbit for dinner he would help him fix his shotgun. The shells they had did not seem to fit the gun, and Lea said he had some up stairs that he thought would fit better, so he took the gun and went up stairs. The members of the family were out of the house and failed to hear the report of the gun, and knew nothing of the tragedy until Mrs. Nyemaster started up stairs shortly after to make the beds, when she found her son lying at the head of the stairs with the back of his head completely blown away and the gun lying beside him.

He was the second son of J. L. and F. J. Nyemaster and was born in Wapello, Iowa, April 21, 1884 and died at his home in this city Dec. 14, 1907, age 23 years, 7 months and 23 days. He was a graduate of the Wapello high school and taught in the public schools of this county and Muscatine county for some time. On Jan. 1st of this year, he became a member of the Ruthenberg clothing firm where he had clerked at intervals and where he entered upon what promised to be a successful business career. He was a general favorite in school, popular in business circles and loved by a large circle of personal friends. He leaves his father and mother, three brothers, Ray, Rex and Oak, and a little sister, Ona, to mourn his taking away from the home circle, with a large number of friends who deplore his death and the sad ending of what promised to be a most useful and even brilliant career. The funeral services were held from the home Monday, Dec. 16, 1907, at 2 p. m., conducted by Wapello Lodge No. 5, A. F. and A. M. Interment in the Wapello cemetery.