Obit: Hofmann, Emil O.H. #2 (1898 - 1939)

Contact: Stan
Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Hofmann, Paul, Anderson, Pudleiner

----Sources: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 11/16/1939

Hofmann, Emil O.H. #2 (8 SEP 1898 - 11 NOV 1939)

Emil Otto H. Hofmann, 41, town of Hoard, Clark Co., Wis. farmer, died of third degree burns at 10:50 p.m. Saturday in the Medford Hospital a few hours after his clothing was ignited when he was draining some gasoline from under his car.

He was found with his clothing ablaze in a ditch near his car which was in flames on County Trunk A. about a half mile west of Dorchester (Clark Co.).

Just how the fire started is not known. Hofmann, who had been shopping in Dorchester, Wis., was on his way home when his car stalled near the John Ockerlander farm.

The last person to see Hofmann alive was Jack Ockerlander, who saw him working under his car and asked if he could help.

Hofmann told Ockerlander that he expected to have his car ready in a short time as he was draining gasoline from the main tank of the car to fill the vacuum tank which was empty.

A few minutes later two neighbors, Gust Tessmer and Anselm Schmidt, saw the car burning and ran to the scene where they found Hofmann with his clothing ablaze in the ditch.

They tore the burning clothes off his body and a Dorchester doctor was summoned. Hofmann was so severely burned that an ambulance was called to take him to Medford.

The Dorchester fire department was called also to put out the fire, although by the time it arrive, the car was almost destroyed.

Hofmann is believed to have been under the car when the fire started, as the drain plug had not been put back in the tank. The gasoline apparently had dripped onto the ground and saturated part of Hofmann’s clothing.

Whether Hofmann had lighted a match to see in the darkness (it was around six p.m.); whether gasoline was ignited in some other way is not known.

Funeral services were held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Peace Evangelical Church in Dorchester with Rev. Hofmann officiating. Interment was in Dorchester Cemetery.

Pallbearers were Roy Lapp, Harry Lapp, Ernest Neitzel, Gust Fisse, Ed Mildbrandt and Herman Klocke.

Hofmann was born Sept. 8, 1898, in the town of Mayville, Clark Co. He moved to his own farm in the town of Hoard in 1932. He was a single man.

Besides his stepmother, Mrs. Anna Hofmann of Medford, he leaves five brothers, two sisters, two step-brothers and one step-sister, Otto, Henry, Albert and Ernest of Dorchester, Wis., and Hugo of Medford; Augusta (Mrs. Ed Paul) of Lina, Rose (Mrs. W.J. Anderson) of Milwaukee; Emil Pudleiner and Paul and Louise Pudleiner of Milwaukee.

Out of town relatives and friends who attended the funeral were: Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kroening and son, Arthur, of Chippewa Falls; Mrs. Herman Richter, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Richter and Mrs. Lena Ehlers, all of Antigo; and Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Pudleiner and Miss Louise Pudleiner, all of Milwaukee.