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Grandpa wanted some grape juice and Aunt Kitty was giving it to him with a spoon. He strangled on the juice and in the weakened condition didn’t come out of it.
Pa called John Crawford
who had the telephone office in Okobojo and he got on his horse and came to the
farm. When John got there they got an old door, laid grandpa on it
to keep him straight, put pennies on his eyes to hold them shut, folded his
hands across his breast and covered him with a shirt. The doors were closed to keep out the heat and there grandpa
stayed until the undertaker arrived with his hearse pulled by horses.
He was then placed in a coffin and taken to the cemetery and buried.
The undertaker may have had a motor driven hearse but with the snow and cold it was safer to use horses. This may seem like a “Gunsmoke Movie” where they carry them out to Boot Hill in a big black hack. But that’s the way it was, not 200 years ago, but only fifty five.