William Lemen Obit Thanks to Marilyn Fischer: "William Lemen died at the old Lemen home in New Design on Saturday, May 2, 1925, after an illness of ten days." "The deceased was a lineal descendant of Rev. James Lemen, Sr., the pioneer Virginian who came west and settled in what is now New Design in Monroe County in 1786." "William Lemen was born on the farm where he died, on October 25, 1853, the son of Josiah D. Lemen and his wife Susan A. Lemen, nee Bales." "The father being a farmer, William early took an active part in the labors of the farm. He attended the district school, the old Portland school, taught in those days by the best teachers available, and thus secured an education, which was augmented by association with people of literary and scholarly attainments. He taught school for about ten years and then devoted his entire time to the cultivation of his fine farm which at this time is stocked with the best Holstein cattle and other kinds of livestock." "On April 26, 1881, he was joined in holy marriage with Miss Louise E. Briegel, a school mate and childhood friend. This union was blessed with two children, a son who died in infancy, and a daughter, Hulda E. Lemen, now the wife of David F. Kurz, all four having made their home together on the farm since the marriage of the daughter, and lived in happiness and contentment such as rarely falls to the lot of men." "Mr. Lemen was a strenuous worker and early in life became inured to toil. He often related that as a sixteen year old boy, it was his task to husk a load of corn before school, and by such means was enabled to attend regularly without leaving the farm work undone, a striking contrast to modern conceptions of high school life. He was an ardent supporter of good schools and the work of the church. His home life was exceptionally idealistic and beautiful in taste, being devoted to the charms of literature, music, and the discussion of worth-while themes. He was strong in the pride of ancestry and was one of the compilers of the History of the Lemen Family which came from the press in 1898, a volume whose personae recite the early history of several counties of Southern Illinois. He was jovial and happy in temperament, and to meet William Lemen was to hear a joke or story which soon set all his hearers in a merry mood. His spirit of honor never left him, and in this respect he never got older. His home was the gathering place of people from near and far, and after the first visit, the guest was delighted to come again. His farm and his ponds were at all times open to the hunter or the fisherman, and the hospitality of his home and his board was unbounded." "He was a total abstainer and the tippling house with its games of chance, as well as all other forms of cheap and questionable entertainment had no allurement for him. He conversed with the masters of the ages, rather than with the habitués of the jazz or the denizens of the dance hall." "By heredity he was a Baptist. Of late he became a worshipper in the Evangelical church in Waterloo, and where the funeral services were held." "His burial took place Tuesday afternoon in the Waterloo cemetery, after services in St. Paul's Evangelical church. The last rites were conducted by Rev. G. F. Brink and by Rev. F. L. Eversull, of St. Louis." "He was aged 71 years, 6 months and 7 days." "He is survived by his loving wife, one daughter, Mrs. David Kurz, one grandson Walter Kurz, two brothers, Albert of Lincoln, Neb., and James of Columbia, and two sisters, Mrs. Jennie Claidy of Fairfield, Neb., and Mrs. Mary Carlton of St. Louis."