Date : 14 May 1890
Location :
At his home in Long Prairie, Minn., Sunday night, May 11th, 1890, of inflammation of the bowels, Benard Richter, aged 42 years.
The funeral services were held in the Baptist church yesterday morning at ten o'clock under the auspices of the Odd Fellows, Rev. C. O. Reohr preaching the funeral discourse. Business was entirely suspended in the village, and though the church was packed to its utmost capacity, a third of the people had to remain outside. The remains were followed to their last resting place in the cemetry by a large procession.
Deceased was born at Wheatland, Kenosha county, Wisconsin, in August, 1848, where he lived until about 1874, when he went to Brillion, Wis., and went into the shoe business. On the third day of October, 1876, he was married at Bassett station, in Kenosha county, to Miss Lottie Bassett, who survives him, and took his bride to Brillion, where they remained till they moved to Long Prairie in 1883 and opened the shoe store, in which business he was engaged at the time of his death. Three children were born to them, Deborah, Maud and Reuben, aged respectively 12, 10 and 13 years, all three of whom survive to mourn with the disconsolate mother.
He joined the Brillion lodge, No. 270, I. O. O. F., on the 8th day of June, 1878, and was an honored and useful member of that lodge until he joined the Long Prairie lodge, No. 94, in 1884. During the several years that he has been a resident of this town he has been known and universally respected as a worthy citizen. In the lodge he was one of the useful working members, and here he will be sadly missed. Forty-five members of the order followed in procession, ten or twelve brothers from Eagle Bend joining in performing the last sad rites. In his death the order loses one of its best members; the community an honest, upright business man, and the saddened home a loving husband and father.
Two brothers, Fred and Alphonse, and Mrs. Bassett; Mrs. Richter's mother, arrived to see him laid away but too late to see him alive. The aged father, who is 77 years old, was too feeble to come, the mother having died more than twenty years ago.
The disease which terminated in his death has been growing upon him for more than a year past and though he might have found relief in a surgical operation it was somewhat doubtful. The trouble appeared to be a stricture in the intestines, which kept growing worse until inflammation and dissolution followed.
It is hard to realize that good-natured and jovial B. Richter is gone. He has just passed on ahead on the same road we are all journeying.
Todd County Argus - May 15, 1890
