Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Webber, Maxwell Harry 1937 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net July 2, 2013, 5:34 pm The Ionia Daily Sentinel-Standard, Wednesday, October 31, 1937 Maxwell Harris Webber, 41 prominent Ionia highway construction head, was instantly killed in a motor car accident several miles east of Grand Rapids shortly after 10 o’clock Tuesday night when the automobile he was driving toward his Ionia home went out of control and rolled up an embankment. According to Sheriff Hugh Blacklock of Kent county, the Webber coupe apparently skidded on the M-21 pavement when it rounded a curve east of an overhead railroad bridge throwing Webber to the pavement. The left hand door of the car was said to have come open when the car tipped over. The door had previously been jammed and could not be completely shut. His body was found lying on the pavement by a passing motorist and officers were immediately called. He body was removed to the Boynton funeral home in Ionia. The body of Webber was identified as it was lying on the pavement by A. G. Eddy, an employee of the Stevenson department store of Ionia, who told sheriff’s officers of Kent county that he drove by the accident a short time after it had occurred. Webber was riding in the car alone. Maxwell Webber was at the time of his death head of the Michigan Colprovia companies of Grand Rapids and Detroit. He was returning to Ionia from Grand Rapids when the accident occurred. He had also been in Detroit earlier in the day. Until two years ago he operated the Jamestown New York Asphalt company with the Jamestown Cement Products company which he sold in 1935. The company which he managed has been manufacturing a highway blacktop material and last year he supervised the placing of the material on Jackson and Hackett streets in Ionia. He had been identified with road construction work for the past 18 years. He was born in Ionia city, January 14, 1896, the son of Ella Webber and George W. Webber. When he was four years of age his father died. In 1916 Webber was graduated from the Ionia high school and while attending high school he was a member of the football team for three years. After his graduation from the Ionia high school he entered Olivet college which he attended one year. He then left school to enlist in the United Sates army in the world war soon after war was declared by this country. He served 23 months in the United States army, both as a member of the American expeditionary forces in France and the United States army of occupation at Coblenz, Germany following the signing of the armistice. He served with the 35th division and was a sergeant when he was mustered out of service in 1919. His early military training was at Camp Custer. Records in the office of the Ionia county clerk show that Webber was a sergeant of ordinance detachment 17th field artillery. They also show that he enlisted at Camp Custer at Battle Creek December 12, 1917 and was honorably discharged at Camp Sherman, Ohio, August 14, 1919. He left the United States July 27, 1918 and returned to the United States August 4, 1919. He had been a member of the John F. Girard post of the American legion of Ionia since it was established following the war. At the time of his death he was a life member of the Ionia Elks lodge and a director of the Ionia State Savings bank. In Jamestown, New York, he still retained his membership in the Sportsman’s club, a social organization. He was also a member of the First Presbyterian church of Ionia. In 1921 he was married to Miss Margaret Heath of Ionia. Following his marriage he was a resident of Jamestown for more than 10 years before returning to Ionia. Besides the widow the survivors are his mother, Mrs. Ella Webber of Ionia, and a half brother, George W. Webber of New York City. Funeral services will be held from the Webber home at 111 East main street at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon. Rev. Adam Westmaas, of the First Presbyterian church, will be in charge of services. Interment will be at the family lot at Highland Park cemetery. Ionia friends Wednesday who speculated as to the cause of the accident believed that Webber might have dozed briefly because of fatigue. He was an indefatigable worker and rarely slept many hours at a time. For several weeks he has been arranging for important work he had at Mt. Pleasant and has been ceaseless in his efforts to perfect preparations, going night and day. The multiplicity of his interests made it necessary for him to be on the road early and late and he never spared himself, frequently reaching home late at night only to start out again long before daylight. Tuesday he left Ionia early in the morning and drove to Detroit, evidently returning from there to his Grand Rapids plant before starting for home last night. His friends here believed that weariness, or perhaps a heart ailment brought on by exhaustion, of which he had complained recently, caused the lapse which resulted in his death. There were no witnesses to the accident. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/w/webber21249nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb