Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Mestemaker, Henry C. 1951
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net August 5, 2011, 11:40 am

Ionia Daily Sentinel Standard, 22 Jan 1951

Lyons Man Died At Roadside

Lyons – Henry C. Mestemaker, 77, of Lyons, died Sunday forenoon of a heart
attack while enroute to Saginaw to attend a meeting of the 9th district of
Veterans of Foreign Wars.  He left his home about 10:30 Sunday morning and when
he was about two miles east and 3 ½  miles south of Ithaca on M-27, his car
skidded on the icy pavement and went into the ditch and rolled over on its side.

Passing motorists helped him out of the car and helped get the car up on the
road and as Mr. Mestemaker was apparently all right they left him.  About 11:30
the drivers of an ambulance from the Braden funeral home at Ithaca, on a return
trip from St. Johns found Mr. Mestemaker dead on the ground beside his car.  The
hose connection in the car was broken and it is thought that Mr. Mestemaker got
out of the car to locate the trouble and then succumbed to a heart attack.

A coroner’s inquest was held and the body was taken to the Braden funeral home
in Ithaca.  The Gratiot county sheriff’s office notified the Ionia sheriff’s
office and they notified the family.  The Myers ambulance went to Ithaca and
returned the body to the Myers funeral home in Ionia.

Mr. Mestemaker was born March 15, 1873, at New Orleans, La., the son of William
A. and Elizabeth Mestemaker.  The father, William A., was the “Steamboat Bill”
of Mississippi river fame in song and story.  He met his death by drowning in
the Mississippi where for many years he was a pilot of the river boats.

Henry C. Mestemaker attended Tulane University at New Orleans, La., and also
Columbia University in New York.  He was an electrical engineer for 15 years
with the department of the east of the U.S. government.

He served through the Spanish-American war of 1898.  He was married Dec. 13,
1910, to the former Margaret Kierse of Chicago at Chicago where they lived for a
time, later moving to Ionia.  In 1915 they moved to Lyons where Mr. Mestemaker
owned and operated a Chevrolet sales and service business.  They have since
lived in Lyons with the exception of a few years when they lived in Breedsville.

In recent years Mr. Mestemaker has busied himself with bee keeping as a hobby. 
He was a past commander of the 9th district of Veterans of Foreign Wars, a past
state commander of the United Spanish Was Veterans, past commander of Frank D.
Curtis Camp U.S.W.V. of Ionia and a member of the executive committee of the
Associate Veterans Council of Ionia county.

He was a member of the Knights Templar lodge of Ionia, a past high priest and
life member of Lyons lodge of Royal Arch Masons, a member of Lyons lodge F.&A.M.
and a member and past worthy patron of Evergreen chapter O.E.S. of Lyons.  

He is survived by his wife Margaret, four sons Robert H. of Ionia; William A. of
Corunna; David P. of Marshall; Donald P. of Lyons; one daughter, Mrs. N.P.
Hopkins, of Lyons; six grandchildren and several cousins in New Orleans, La.,
and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Solomon of New Orleans.  Two sons, Henry and
Howard, died in infancy.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 o’clock from the Myers
funeral home in Ionia with Rev. Myron E. Hoyt, pastor of the Lyons Methodist
church officiating.  The military rites will be in charge of the United Spanish
War Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars organizations.  Burial will be in the
Lyons cemetery.


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