OBIT: Jacob OPEL, 1942, Elk Lick Twp., Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

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JACOB OPEL

  Jacob Opel, born and reared in Elk Lick Township, Somerset Co., Pa., but a 
highly esteemed resident of Garrett County, Maryland for many years, died in the 
Miners' Hospital, Frostburg, Md., Oct. 9, 1942, at the age of 62 years, 8 months 
and 21 days.  His death was the result of an accident in the early morning of 
the day he died.
  He arose from his bed and went to his barn with a lighted lantern, shortly 
before daybreak, as was his custom to do his morning chores there.  Mrs. Opel 
had breakfast ready at the time he usually returned from the barn, but her 
husband did not return to their house at the usual time, and a little later Mrs. 
Opel and son William heard the dog barking at the barn, and they thought they 
also heard a human voice making a peculiar noise there, and upon going to the 
barn to make an investigation they found Mr. Opel lying on the barn floor 
unconscious, not far from a ladder by which he had evidently ascended to the 
haymow, and there sticking in the hay, near the edge of the mow, was a fork 
about 15 feet above the barn floor.  His lighted lantern stood near some corn on 
the barn floor, which he had husked to feed his pigs.
  According to all indications, it seemed probable that something caused Mr. 
Opel to lose his balance and fall to the floor below.  His face was covered with 
large drops of perspiration, and some of his clothing was wet with it.  He was 
also badly bruised about one of his eyes, and it is believed that he was in a 
semi-conscious state for a short time, at least, for he had taken his 
spectacles, which were tightly gripped in one of his hands, so tight that they 
could not be gotten out of his grasp until after he was taken to the hospital, 
where an examination revealed that his skull was badly fractured; but life was 
not extinct.  The accident occurred some time between 6:30 or 7:00 o'clock in 
the morning, and he died during the evening, same day, without regaining 
consciousness. 
  Mr. Opel was united in marriage with Miss Rose Carey of Long Stretch, Garrett 
County, Md., in 1896, and to them were born the following surviving children: 
Lester of Elk Lick Township; Blanche, wife of Austin Finnelli, Portland, Oregon; 
Earl in the U.S. Army at Langley Field, Va.; Russel, Baltimore, Md.; William, at 
home.  He is also survived by the following brothers and sisters: Milton, 
Cleveland, Ohio; John, Keyser's Ridge, Md.; Eli, Lebanon, Oregon; William of Elk 
Lick Township; Mrs. Charles Weller and Mrs. Irvin Firl of Summit Mills, Pa.; 
Mrs. Clyde Newman, Trent, Pa.; Mrs. James Dort of Lebanon, Oregon; Mrs. 
Sylvester Maust of Sugar Creek, Ohio, and Miss Annie Opel of Salisbury.
  Funeral services were conducted at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, at Mt. Zion Methodist 
Church, Long Stretch, Md., conducted by Rev. S. D. Sigler, pastor of St. John's 
Lutheran Church of Salisbury, with interment in the Church cemetery, under the 
direction of Mortician Durst of Frostburg, Md.
  Mr. Opel was a son of the late Henry and Sevilla Gnagey Opel, and for about 
four years before his marriage, he boarded with Mrs. Mary Newman and her late 
husband, Nevin Newman, during which time he was a valued employee of Newman 
Brothers, who were in the sawmilling business at that time.

Meyersdale Republican, October 15, 1942