Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Gass, Michael 1901
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net August 26, 2010, 3:16 pm

The Portland Observer, Wednesday, April 24, 1901


Word was received here on Sunday last by members of his family that Michael 
Gass, son of Mr. and Mrs. Adam Gass of Portland, had been killed in the 
electric light plant at Owosso, where he had been employed for the past 28 
months.  No particulars were given.

Monday morning The Observer called up Charles Yates, formerly of Portland, but 
now head engineer of the Owosso plant, by phone and asked for particulars.  He 
said there was very little to say, for the death was a mystery, but it must 
have been instantaneous.  It is known that he was alive at 10:20 Saturday 
night and at 10:30 he was found lying dead in front of a dynamo by a fellow 
workman named Chamberlain.  Gass was holding the position of third assistant 
engineer.  Yates says he does not know what completed the circuit through the 
body, but he must have come in contact with a live wire and that 3,000 volts 
of electricity passed through his body.

The supposition is, however, that he was oiling the dynamo, and that in some 
manner the oil can which he carried in his hand came in contact with some part 
of the machine and the current was produced.

A post mortem examination showed that there was no heart trouble and there was 
no spot upon the body to show where the electric fluid entered or came out of 
the body.  A coroner’s inquest was held, but there was very little testimony 
that could be introduced for Mike was alone when he was killed.  The verdict 
was accidental death.

He was highly thought of by his employers and fellow workmen and by all who 
knew him, he being a young man of good habits and industrious.  He leaves a 
wife (who was Miss Tillie Meyers of Westphalia township) and two small 
children.  He was 27 years of age.

Frank Gass went to Owosso Sunday and accompanied the remains to Portland 
Monday.  The dead man was a member of Grand River council, Royal Arcanum of 
Portland and carried a certificate for $1,500 in the order.  

Funeral services will take place at the Catholic church Wednesday morning at 
10 o’clock.


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