Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Wilson, Max O. 1930 ************************************************ 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 May 20, 2013, 8:15 pm The Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Monday, July 21, 1930 The death of Max Wilson, for the past 15 years head of the accounting department of the Ypsilanti Reed Furniture company, occurred at his home, 122 East Lincoln avenue, Sunday evening at 6:10 o’clock. He had been in failing health since about the beginning of the year, and his condition since Monday, when he left his work and took to his bed, has steadily grown more critical. Since Thursday his death had been expected. The funeral services will be conducted Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock from the home, with Rev. W. F. Kendrick, pastor of the Methodist church officiating. Interment will be in Highland Park cemetery. When his former vigorous health began to fail early this year Mr. Wilson went to Ann Arbor where he underwent a thorough physical examination as a result of which he began a course of dieting and treatment for his ailment which was then declared to be serious. He did not give up work, however, but continued to perform his daily tasks except the occasional days when he was compelled to rest. His relatives and friends have felt much worried about his condition since diagnosis of a serious kidney ailment was made. Several times they have thought that he showed all the evidences of a step toward recovery, but these have proved but temporary. Max Wilson was born in Sebewa township 44 years ago, last March 7, and since coming to Ionia city with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Riley Wilson, at the age of 5 years has resided here. He attended the Ionia schools and graduated from the Ionia high school, a member of the class of 1904. Twenty-two years ago he entered the employ of the Ypsilanti Reed furniture company in the early days of the company when it was an industry at the Michigan reformatory. Later he went to the Marvel manufacturing company here and to Grand Rapids for a brief time with John Thwaites, when the latter located his business interests there. Fifteen years ago he returned to the Ypsilanti Reed and since has had full charge of the accounting and auditing of the company’s books. He was a life member of Ionia Lodge 548, Elks and a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Wilson was married twenty-two years ago to Miss Grace Lepper, of Ionia, who survives him. Of five children, two of whom died in infancy, three survive their father, Maxine aged 13 years, Jane aged 12 years, and Barbara aged three years. There are also surviving two sisters and two brothers, Mrs. Fred Dalzell, of Ionia, M. Dee Wilson of Ionia, Hugh Wilson, of Detroit, and Miss Lucile Wilson, of Lansing. Among his many friends Max was known for his devotion to his home and to his work. Ever striving to improve himself, he utilized his hours of leisure chiefly in study and reading. Aside from trips to football games in the fall, a game of which he was a devotee, he allowed himself few vacations. Since taking up accounting and auditing he had taken night school courses and had studied otherwise continually. With a natural ability which amounted to genius for mathematics it was to be expected that his life’s work would follow along these lines. But it was in his home that his chief interests were centered and his splendid character achieved its best moments. He was a devoted comrade of his daughters, and there is in Ionia probably no equal of the library of young people’s literature which he had accumulated, in single volumes and sets, for the pleasure and education of his children, with whom he always was happy and perfectly content, and for whom he could never do enough. He was a man of quiet and friendly ways, of even temperament, geniality, courage and tenacity of purpose even during the days that followed a realization of his serious physical condition, when he continued to do his work, ceasing only when compelled to by physical pain and weakness. Many indeed were those who enjoyed his friendship and valued him for his loyalty, his integrity and his ability. Subsequent Publication: Wednesday, July 23, 1930 A sorrowing throng of friends gathered Tuesday afternoon at the late home of Max Wilson, 122 East Lincoln avenue, to pay their final tribute of respect and affection to the memory of their associate, whose death late Sunday evening ended a career of usefulness at its best. The home was filled and many fellow workers who had been associated with Mr. Wilson, some of them for many years, and friends of his boyhood and manhood days, assembled on the lawn surrounding the home for the funeral rites. A simple and impressive service was conducted by Rev. W. F. Kendrick, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, which Mr. Wilson had served for a number of years as a trustee. Rev. Kendrick paid a high tribute to the life of the young Ionian and to the service he had rendered his community in his lofty ideals of his daily life in his home, his church, and his work. The burial service was conducted by Rev. Kendrick at Highland Park cemetery. Beautiful in variety and coloring was the mass of floral offerings that banked about the casket, through which the high regard and esteem generally held for Mr. Wilson found expression. The many flowers were in charge of Mrs. James A. Elliott, Mrs. Leonard Swanson, and Mrs. Arthur Brown. Bearers were Howard C. Lawrence, Leonard Swanson, Patrick Beahan, Mark Johnson, Lee Yates and William Y. Templeton. Gov. and Mrs. Fred W. Green, who were guests at the Getz farm near Holland, drove to Ionia for the service, returning to Holland Tuesday evening. Among the many from out of the city who were here for the funeral were Hugh Wilson, of Detroit; Mrs. Jennie Mead, of Charlotte; Mr. and Mrs. Gordon McConnell, of Charlotte; Mrs. Peter Beasore, of Eaton Rapids; Mrs. Raymond Smith, of Charlotte; Mrs. Claude Warren, of Charlotte; Mr. and Mrs. W. Wilson of Traverse City; Mr. and Mrs. S. G. Deatsman of Sebewa, Mrs. Oliver Tuckett and daughter Winifred of Detroit; Mrs. Wiggins McGee, of Battle Creek; Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Lepper of Battle Creek; Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lepper of Grand Rapids; Bert Potter, John Hunter, and Ake Hunter, of Saranac, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Rector, of Lansing; Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Spaulding of Grand Rapids; Mr. and Mrs. Martin Iseldyk, of Grand Rapids; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Keeler, of Grand Rapids; Mrs. Alfred Haberstumpf, of Grand Rapids; and Eugene Lepper, Jr., of Battle Creek. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/w/wilson20439nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 7.0 Kb