Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-09-05
Nearly a Centenarian.


at o'clock, Mrs Josephine Wiggen.
horn, relict of William Wiggenhorn
passed away at her home in the Sec
ond ward, aged 96 years, months and
"a days. Thus is recorded the death
of one of Watertown's celebrated resi-
dents and perhaps the oldest inhabi-
tant of these parts.
AS year by year rolled by, bringing
the subject nearer and nearer the CEN
tenary mark, we have been wont to
make mention of each successive birth
day anniversary of this aged lady, until
at length we are called upon to chroni-
Gle her passing hence. She has been a
wonderfully we'll preserved specimen
of her race, possessing all her faculties
up to the time of death to surprising
degree for one at that extreme age,
and, although she has been for about
two years confined to her bed, it has
only been from feebleness and not from
any known disease.
Mrs. Wiggenhorn was born at West
phalia, Prussia, March TO- 1898. She
was married in 1921 and emigrated to
the United States In 1848, settling
in this city. Her husband died in
1875. A strange coincidence which
might be related is that her death
occurred just twenty-one years, to
a day, after the celebration of her
golden wedding anniversary on Sep
tember 4, 1871.
1t had been the strong hope of Mrs.
Wiggenhorn' relatives and friends
that she might live to see her Tooth
birthday and she seemed to be in fair
way to realize this until recently, W hen
her constitution began to weaken per-
ceptibly and she gradually failed away.
One of the proudest realizations of this
historical lady's life, among all the
noted happenings within her time,
must be the knowledge that she has
reared.tO noble manhood and woman
hood large family of children who
are useful, respected and influential
factors in their respective communi-
ties.
The following are the surviving mem
bers of her family: Mrs. William
Meyer, of Ripon; Mrs. r. Diesel, of
Woodstock, ILL.,. ConstanzWiggenhorn,
of this city; E. A. Wiggenhorn, of Ash,
land, Neb.; Mrs. August Frohne, of
Berlin; Eugene Wiggenhorn, of La
Crosse, and August Wiggenhorn, of
this city. The relationship includes a
host of grandchildren and greatgrand-
children
The funeral of Mrs. Wiggenhorn will
be held Thursday morning from St.
Henri's Catholic church, of which the
departed was a devoted member. 1t
is expected that all the surviving chill
dren will be present
In an article referring to birthday
celebration of Mrs. Wiggenhorn's in
1890, THE REPUBLICAN at that time thus
spoke Of her eventful life: "It is
rather bewildering to look back
over the period Mrs. Wiggenhorn has
lived. John Adams had Just entered
the second year of his administration
when she first saw the light, and Wash
ington was yet living. 1t was only two
years before her birth that the great
Napoleon Bonaparte first came into
notice by his conquests in Italy and at
the time of his disastrous retreat from
Moscow she was a miss of IA years !;
while three years later, when he was
vanquished at Waterloo, Mrs. Wiggen-
horn was on the verge of young woman
hood. She has been contemporary
with Goethe, Schiller, the two Hum
boldts, Karl Wilhelm and other great
men, and Bismarck was not born for
fifteen years after Mrs. Wiggenhorn' IS
birth. We shall not attempt to enum-
crate the changes she has witnessed
both in her native land and in her
adopted country during her time. This
would be far too reaching and subject
too exhaustive''