Wilmer H. Crandall, Milton, died unexpectedly Monday at 9 a.m. while chatting with Ernest Shellestad at the Milton Oil company service station. When his wife left home on an errand an hour earlier he was reading a morning paper and apparently was in his usual health. Death was due to a cerebral hemorrhage.
The son of Henry and Lucinda Cottrell Crandall, he was born in Milton Junction on Sept. 6, 1870, and went with his parents to Denison, Ia., when he was very young. In 1880 the family moved to North Loup, Neb., traveling by covered wagons. They lived there until 1891, when they moved to Farina, Ill.
Following his graduation from the North Loup high school, Mr. Crandall taught in that vicinity and also for one year in Mississippi. He came to Milton about 1905 where he spent most of the remainder of his life as a realtor.
He was first married in October, 1893, to Ina Burdick, Farina, Ill., and two children, a son Howard, and a daughter, Audrey, were born to them. [Wilmer and Ina separated. Ina took her two children and went to Riverside, California.] He was again married on Aug. 19, 1911, to Darl Risdon, Milton.
Survivors are his wife; his son, Howard, South Gate, Calif.; three daughters, Mrs. Audrey Babcock, Riverside, Calif., Mrs. Marjorie Nelson and Mrs. Joan Lawton, Milton Junction; three grandsons; two brothers, Harry and Fred Crandall, Milton; and several nieces and nephews. His sisters, Mrs. Maud Hurley and Mrs. Floyd Coon, Riverside, Calif., preceded him in death as did a brother and sister who died in infancy.
Funeral services were held in the Fray and Albrecht funeral home, Milton Junction, Wednesday afternoon, The Rev. Carroll L. Hill being assisted by the Rev. Raymond Newell. Kenneth Babcock sang two selections. Burial was in Milton cemetery with Homer Green, J. R. Davidson, A. M. Paul, Chas H. Anderson, Basil Dunwell and Ernest Shellestad acting as pallbearers. Relatives and friends attended from California, Joliet, Ill., Whitewater, Albion, Edgerton and Janesville.
