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Obituar
ies in 1949

 Hartford Michigan

Click here to return to the Obituary Index

Please email the webmaster if you have obituaries of people who lived in Hartford Michigan, or was active in the Hartford community, at some time during their lives. To find a specific obituary, use the Search Our Site feature, also located on the left menu of every page. The Obituary section was started January 30, 2008 and current obituaries will be posted as they become available. Obituaries are from the local newspapers, unless otherwise noted. If you have an obituary notice (or learn of the passing away of someone who lived in Hartford at one time) of a former Hartford resident from a newspaper away from the Hartford area, please send it. Past obituaries will be added as time permits. Death notices are also posted in the HHS graduate database.
Note: if you have a good or different photo to insert with present-past obituaries for the History of Hartford website and email newsletters, please click here to email them unedited directly to the webmaster. If you don't have a scanner, send photo by US Mail to Emma Thornburg Sefcik, 59320 62nd St., Hartford MI 49057.

Many requests are made for obituary notices and this is a good genealogical resource, as well as providing obits to extended family members who may not have an original. Searching previous year obituaries (mainly prior to 2003) requires a good deal of time. If you found this to be a valuable resource and would like to be a sponsor toward keeping the obituaries page updated, send donations to History of Hartford Obituaries, Emma Sefcik, 59320 62nd St, Hartford MI 49057. Since the History of Hartford website is a voluntary effort, your contribution is much appreciated.

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Hartford Day Spring
4/5/1949

LOCAL WOMAN DIES IN CABIN MYSTERY

Maid Finds Bodies of Pair At Tourist Camp

Hartford Drug Clerk and Michigan City Businessman Meet Mysterious Deaths

     Mystery still shrouds the death of Mildred Stanley Fisher, 34, Hartford divorcee, and Nathan Rosenberg, 42-year-old Michigan City businessman, whose nude bodies were found Monday in a cabin bed at Grande Vista Gardens, palatial tourist camp operated by the House of David six miles south of St. Joseph on US-12.
     Autopsies conducted at St. Joseph Monday night are reported to have failed to confirm the first opinion of sheriff's officers that their deaths were due to asphyxiation from a gas heater in the cabin. Vital organs of both bodies were sent to the state laboratory at Lansing for analysis, and the report of toxicologists there, to be made within the next few days is expected to clear the mystery. Coroner Louis C. Kerlicowski has stated that an inquest will be held next week. A partially emptied bottle of whiskey found in the cabin was also sent to Lansing for analysis for possible traces of poison.
     The bodies were discovered late Monday forenoon by a maid who called to clean the cabin. She notified Judge H. T. Dewhirst, head of the House of David religious sect, and he promptly notified the sheriff and coroner.
When the officers arrived, the heater in the cabin was turned off and a window was open, partially disproving the theory of asphyxiation. No marks were found on the bodies to indicate violence.
     The pair are said to have left Michigan City about midnight Saturday, after lunching with another couple, and to have registered at Grande Vista at 4 o'clock Sunday .morning as Mr. and Mrs. N. Rose of South Bend. Their deaths are believed to have occurred some time Sunday morning.
     Rosenberg was identified soon after the tragedy was discovered, but it was not until Don Chidester, Raymond Helmer and others from Hartford visited the morgue that the body of the woman was fully identified. Rosenberg was a well-to-do Michigan City businessman and former secretary of that city's chamber of commerce. He operated a swanky night club there for some time, but more recently had been interested in a soup concentrate industry in Chicago. A son, Ralph, is a student at Northwestern University.
     Mildred Stanley Fisher, divorced wife of Earl Fisher, whose whereabouts are unknown, had been a resident of Hartford for over two years and had been known to many Hartford people as Mrs. Mildred Baldwin, or Millie Baldwin. She came here with Paul A. Baldwin of Howell when he purchased the present Baldwin drug store from the late George Wilson, and had been associated with Mr. Baldwin in operating the store. Following a disagreement a month ago she is said to have visited Benton Harbor attorneys and laid claim to part ownership of the store. About three weeks ago she went to Michigan City and found employment as a waitress in Libke's Fish & Steak House at 504 East Second Street. It was there that she met Rosenberg.
     About the same time, Mr. Baldwin, who was ill, returned to his former home at Howell, leaving the store here in charge of a pharmacist. Mr. Baldwin's wife, who has been in Hartford on several occasions since her husband purchased the local store, operates the Baldwin Drug Store at Howell. It is reported that Mrs. Baldwin obtained a divorce last October, but that a reconciliation was effected when he returned to Howell recently.
     Mildred Stanley Fisher's father and stepmother, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Stanley, also reside at Howell. The father is an oil driller and has been engaged in the Allegan field. She also has three sisters living in Ohio, and a brother.

 

Hartford Day Spring
4/12/1949

Find Deadly Fumes Killed Couple In Cabin

     Deaths of Hartford Woman and Michigan City Man Are Solved By Toxicologist that carbon monoxide caused the deaths of Mildred Stanley Fisher, 34,. Hartford drug clerk, and Nathan Rosenberg, 48, Michigan City business man, whose unclad bodies were found in a cabin bed at Grande Vista, deluxe House of David tourist court six miles south of St Joseph on April 3 was the report of toxicologists at the state laboratory at Lansing where the vital organs of the pair were analyzed.
     The findings bore out the contention of Sheriff Charles Miller of Berrien county that the deaths were accidental and the investigation of the tragedy was concluded. "Findings of the state toxicologist indicate that the deaths were caused by a gas heater in the lodge fireplace and preclude any theory of foul play,"  Sheriff Miller stated.
     The body of Mildred Stanley Fisher, well known in Hartford for more than two years as an assistant at the Baldwin drug store, was sent to her girlhood home at Williamston, Ohio, near Marietta, for funeral services and burial. The body was claimed by her father and stepmother, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Stanley of Howell.
     Funeral rites for Rosenberg were held at Sinai temple in Michigan City and were largely attended by friends of the former Chamber of Commerce secretary. Casket bearers and honorary casket bearers included more than 40 prominent residents of Michigan City.
     The Hartford woman, who had been working for a couple of weeks as a waitress in a Michigan City restaurant is said to have met Rosenberg
there and to have accepted his offer to bring her to Hartford on the fateful Sunday night. En-route, they stopped at the tourist lodge and met their deaths.


Information for this web site was gathered from personal interviews, newspaper articles, scrapbooks, personal photo albums, and other documented materials – many available to the public at the Hartford Public Library or Van Buren County Historical Museum. Please report any typographical errors, updated information, or incorrectly stated information to the webmaster for correction. Reprinting for personal and instructional purposes is permitted, however, unauthorized commercial reprinting of this information or unauthorized linking to photos-pictures on this site is strictly prohibited without written permission from the webmaster.



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©
A Pictorial History of Hartford, Michigan
Emma Thornburg Sefcik,
Competent Secretarial Service
Copyright © 2000 – All rights reserved.


Revised: January 01, 2016