KAY LASH COLLECTION, CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF STEUBEN 
COUNTY, ANGOLA, INDIANA.

WALTER MICHAEL STRAYER, 17 Oct 1907 - 27 Feb 1907

Double Sorrow-Two Deaths in One Household

   For the first time in Angola there will be conducted 
this afternoon in the Congregational Church by Rev.John 
Humfreys, a double funeral, the services being for 
Joseph A. J. Sowle who died Tuesday P.M. afer a ten 
days' illness from pneumonia, and for his son-in-law, 
Walter M. Strayer, who died Wednesday noon from 
tuberculosis.  The double sorrow in the family is a 
bitter one, and they will receive all the consolation 
from friends that sympathy and helpfulness can give.  
Following are their obituaries.  
(Picture included with obituary.  Mr. Sowle's obituary 
is printed separately.)

                    Walter M. Strayer
   Was born in Jefferson township, Williams county, Ohio, 
Oct. 17, 1864; died at the late home of J. A. J. Sowle, in 
Angola, Feb. 27, 1907, aged 42 years, 4 months and 10 days. 
   Mr. Strayer's father was a soldier of the Civil war, and, 
wounded in battle, was returning home on a furlough, when he 
contracted smallpox, and died from the complication just two 
weeks prior to the birth of the deceased.  The mother moved 
onto a farm in Clear Lake township, this county, where the 
son was reared, he oft times living in the home of friends, 
and gaining an education largely by his own efforts.  When a 
young man he came to Angola, and entered the Tri-State Normal 
College, where he spent three years, teaching a part of the 
time to pay his expenses.  April 3, 1889, he was united in 
marriage with Alice Sowle, and to them were born two 
daughters, Margaret and Bernice, who survive with the wife 
and mother of the deceased.
   Soon after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Strayer moved to 
the Clear Lake farm, and later Mr. Strayer was elected to the 
office of trustee of that township.  In 1898 he was elected 
to the office of county recorder, taking charge of the office 
about a year later and serving a little more than four years, 
until the present incumbent assumed the office.  After 
retiring from office, Mr. Strayer for a year was connected 
with the Angola Engine and Foundry Co., when he became 
apprised that the deadly disease, tuberculosis, had taken 
hold of him.  It soon became evident that the only hope of 
prolonging his life was by removal to a different climate, 
and in September, 1905, he took his family to southwestern 
country, and they moved from place to place in search of a 
stay to the plague, but without avail.  The hopeless journey 
was abandoned only when death was at hand, and the family 
hastened to return, that he might pass his last moments among 
friends.  They arrived in Angola last Friday, Feb. 11, and he 
died at noon Wednesday, under the sad circumstances above 
mentioned.
   Mr. Strayer was highly respected in this community, the 
confidence of his fellow men being shown by his election to 
public offices, which places he filled with fidelity.  He was 
a man of high honor, of eminent business capacity, and his  
removal in his prime is a loss which the community 
universally mourns.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

   Walter Michael Strayer, 17 Oct 1864 - 27 Feb 1907, on 03 
Apr 1889, married Alice Ann (Sowle) Strayer, 22 Jul 1867 - 16 
May 1953.  She was the daughter of Joseph Andrew Jackson 
Sowle, 13 Aug 1831 - 26 Feb 1907, and Sophia (Holbein) Sowle, 
11 Jul 1838 - 19 Jun 1917.  They are all buried at Circle 
Hill Cemetery, Angola, Steuben County, Indiana.

"Cemeteries of Steuben County, Indiana, 1990," by Audree 
Seibel Lewis, Vol. 2, pages 1717, 1719, 1771.
Submitted by Mona Hilden-Beckwith
e-mail:  hilbeck123@att.net