OBITUARY: William K Levis
NEWSPAPER: Osseo Weekly Reader
DATED: 1897
An Early Settler Gone.
Wm K. Levis Died Last Sunday Evening After a Very Brief Illness.
His Remains Laid Away in the Osseo Cemetery Today.
Wm K Levis Sr., was called to his eternal home last Sunday evening between the hours of 7 and 8 o’clock, thus another one of our most highly esteemed citizens and earliest settlers has gone to that home from which no traveler returns. Mr Levis took dinner with his son C.M. Levis, Christmas and seemed as well as usual. He ate hearty which is probably the cause of his illness, which overcome him during the evening while he was doing the barn chores. Apoplexy is said to be the cause of his death. He became unconscious about two hours from the time he was taken sick and remained in that condition until he passed away. His death, coming so sudden cast a dark cloud of sorrow over the whole community. He was remarkably active for a man of his age and his declining years have been a source of pleasure to his family and friends, rather than a care.
Wm K Levis was born in Buck Co., Pa., October 16th 1814, making him a little more than 83 years of age when he was called to bid farewell to his earthly treasures and is the fourth son in the family of eight children born to Samuel and Mary (Johnson) Levis, natives of Pennsylvania. Samuel Levis, the father of our subject was born in 1779 and died in his forty-seventh year. His wife was born 1789, and died Jan 31, 1863.
Wm K. Levis passed his early life in Bristol, Buck County, Pa., and learned the trade of a carpenter in Philadelphia. In 1835 he came west to Alton, Ill., where he engaged in the saw-mill and operated the same for a number of years. Mr. Levis then went to Morrison Creek and put up another saw-mill, which he sold and then bought one on Black River, where he remained fifteen years, until high water, which destroyed the plant and lumber, compelling him to sell out. He then farmed in Alma Center for a few years, kept a tavern at Hixton, and then moved to Trempealeau where he kept the Stage Station Tavern. In 1867 he came to Osseo and purchased the old Osseo House – a building which used to stand on Main Street near where Erick Nelson’s blacksmith show now stands – which he managed a few years and then located on a farm of 360 acres lying 1 ½ miles north-east of the village. Later he built a house on a piece of land just outside of the village limits and with his wife lived there until his death occurred.
Mr. Levis was on of the pioneers of Black River Falls, having settled in that city in the 30s. For many years he was a leading lumberman on the river and during the early days when the town was a struggling outpost on the frontier, he helped to repel the attacks of the Indians, when thirty men constituted the entire white population between Black River Falls and Prairie du Chien.
In 1847 Mr. Levis was married to Miss Mary Blanchard, a native of New York. To this union were born ten children, namely: Wm., Mary, (deceased, wife of Patrick Beedy, of Hixton), Sarah (wife of John Wood), Clark and Earnest, the others dying in their infancy. Politically he was a democrat, but was not a radical worker for the cause. He was a good man, kind to his family and obliging to his neighbors. Mr. Levis, in his younger days, was always ready to assist in the upbuilding of the community and was active in promoting good deeds.
The funeral was held in the Congregational church this morning at 10 o’clock, Rev. J. E. Evans officiating, and his remains were laied to rest in the Osseo cemetery.