Weekly journal-miner., 1917-12-19
FRANK GOTCH IS DEAD AFTER A
 LONG FIGHT
WORLD CHAMPION WRIST LER PASSES AWAY AT IOWA HOME FOLLOWING ILLNESS OF MORE THAN TWO YEARS DURATION.

neral services will be held on We'd nesday for Frank Gotch, the retired heavyweight wrestling champion. who died hera yesterday.
 Gotch, who was fl years of age. had been in poor health for about two years prior to his death. He is sur vived by widow, -year-old son, Robert Gotch; brother, Fred Gotch; a sister, Mrs. Charles Kurth, and his mother, Mrs. Amelia Gotch, both of Humboldt.
 His wife and son were at his bed side when death came It is said the famous athlete was conscious almost up to the time of his death.
 The first intimation that his health was not good came in the summer of 1916, when he was travelling with circus as a test to see whether he should sign articles for match with Joe Stecher of Dodge, Neb., who had won the title from Charles Cutler of Chicago. Gotch had declared Cutler the American champion upon his re- tirement
 Gotch had been with the circus, wrestling with Bob Managoff, Earl Caddock and others, only a short time when he was compelled to return home because of stomach trouble. He never rcgained his health fully.
 The following winter Gotch went to Hot Springs, Ark. He returned home last spring. but gradually lost strength. Early in October he be- came seriously i'll in a Chicago hotel He was removed to hospital, where he was kept until early in November, when he was taken home. Ten days ago relatives called in special nurse for him.
 Gotch built up a fortune from wrestling and invested his earnings in Iowa farm lands. His estate is vari- ously estimated at between S200,000 and S400,000.
 Gotch won the American champion ship January ?, 1904, from Tom Jen- kins after a rough match at Belling- ham, Wash. Gotch won the first fall and was awarded the second after Jenkins had fouled him repeatedly by applying the strangle hold and by striking him.
 Four years later the Humboldt man won the undisputed championship of the world by defeating George Hack enschmidt, ''the Russian lion," at the Dexter park pavilion, Chicago, in a forfeited match after two hours of gruelling wrestling. There was no fall but the invader quit. exhausted.
 Wrestling enthusiasts called the first Gotch Hsckenschmidt match the greatest mat spectacle of history Gotch lost nine pounds before his op- ponent gave up and his tongue was so badly swollen that it was a week before he could speak plainly. He wrestled with Hackenschmidt in the White Sox ball park in Chicago again in 1911, winning in short order Ali ter the match it was made known that Gotch's opponent had entered the contest with badly sprained knee, and although he had concealed it at first, it prevented his exerting more than feeble resistance to the cham pion. The gate receipts at that match were SS7,OOO.
 It was in this match with Hacken, schmidt that Gotch introduced the toe hold against which no man was ever able to stand.
 The only man who ever publicly threw the champion was Fred Beell of Marshheld, Wis, who won a fall fall from him in 1905 in New Orleans taking the first fall to Gotch's second and third.
 Gotch and James J. Jeffries, former heavyweight boxing champion, were intimate friends and before JefTries lost his title to Jack Johnson, the two champions toured the country to. gether.