52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 18 Prompt - Institution

2025 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 18

Prompt – Institution

Daniel Fesser (1844 – 1933). He is Bill's maternal 2^nd great-grandfather. He was born in Theodorshoff, Austria and died in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, United States. 

Daniel and Sophia Fesser With Family Circa 1920

 

 In 2019, Week 6, I blogged about Daniel Fesser. I was trying to find his grave. I never did find a grave site at The Northern State hospital or grounds in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. Although he was cremated and possibly buried or lost or well endless scenarios. If you want to know those details please refer back to that blog.

Northern State Hospital was a “mental institution”. I often wondered how Daniel Fesser ended up in the hospital. Daniel Fesser was 40 years older than his second wife, Sophia Schechtel. He was admitted November 7, 1931. He died August 4, 1933 of pneumonia with the contributing factor listed as “senile dementia”. I just surmised that at 86 he probably had dementia and was perhaps too hard to take care of by his younger wife with 4 children.

A few weeks back while going through my Ancestry Genealogy hints, I came across a new one for Daniel Fesser. The hint came from Washington State, U.S. Newspapers.com and in particular this article was printed in The Bellingham Herald on October 30, 1931. The topic was Accidents or Emergency Incidents. 

8 days after this incident he was admitted to The Northern State Hospital. No doubt he had dementia and needed to be cared for in the hospital. It was amazing to me to find this newspaper article. Even more so is the fact that it was newsworthy to be printed. However at this time it was not unusual to find such articles in local papers. I am thankful for these articles because they help shed light on my ancestors in a way that otherwise would not have been known.

Wendy