Obituaries

RALPH H. FEIN
Jan. 25, 1915-June 7, 1977

NILES – Funeral services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the Halbritter Funeral Home for Ralph H. Fein, 62, who died at 3:05 a.m. today in Pawating Hospital following a brief illness.

Mr. Fein, who lived at 1820 Howard St., was a member of St. Mark's Catholic Church and was an employee of the National Standard Co. He was born on Jan. 25, 1915, in Chicago, and lived in this area since 1929. On Dec. 2, 1939, he married Iona I. Peterson in Niles, and she survives.

Other survivors include a son, Thomas E. Fein of Niles; five brothers, Louis of Saginaw, Edward of Fairfield, Calif., Harold of Galien, Robert and Jack, both of Niles; two sisters, Mrs. Bessie Wood and Mrs. Edna Coon of Niles; and four grandchildren.

The Rev. Julius L. Hengesbach of St. Mark's will officiate at the services. Burial will follow in Silverb rook Cemetery. Friends may call after 2 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. A rosary will be said at 7 p.m. Thursday.

From microfilm at the Niles District Library, Niles, Berrien, Michigan. Niles Daily Star, Niles, Berrien, Michigan. Tuesday, June 07, 1977; page 02; col. 1 & 2

EDWARD E. FEIN
1880-Dec. 27, 1962

Niles District Library, Niles, Berrien, Michigan. Niles Daily Star, Niles, Berrien, Michigan. Friday, December 28, 1962; page 02.

Edward E. Fein, 82, of 2615 US-31 North, died at 4:45 p.m., Thursday in Hill's Nursing Home. He had been ill several years.

Survivors include his widow, Bessie; three daughters, Mrs. Harry Wood, Mrs. Charles Coon, and Mrs. Charles Sanders, all of Niles; six sons, Ralph H., Jack W., and Robert B., all of Niles, Louis A., Saginaw, Edward E. Jr., a chief warrant officer in the US Army, and Harold J., Akron, Ohio; a brother, Karl and two sisters, Mrs. Louis Anderson and Mrs. John Shea, both of Hopedale, and another sister, Mrs. Bertha Grath, Washington, Ill.; and 29 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

He was a member of the First Church.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m., Monday in his church. The Rev. Gordon D. Everett, pastor, will officiate. Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.

Friends are being received at the Kiger Funeral Home.

MRS. BESSIE FEIN
Feb, 19, 1893-May 7, 1972

NILES – Mrs. Bessie Fein, 79, of 251 Cass St., died at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in Pawating Hospital after an illness of several weeks.

Born Feb. 19, 1893, in Bessmer, Ala., Mrs. Fein had lived here since 1929, coming from Beverly Hills, Ill. On Dec. 14, 1908, in Chicago, she married Edward E. Fein, who died in 1962.

Mrs. Fein was a member of the First Baptist Church, a past president of the Mothers of World War II, founder and past president of the Gateway Neighbors Club, past president of the Army Service Club, a member of the Navy Mothers, the Daughters of America, the Royal Neighbors of America and the Golden Age Club.

Survivors include six sons, Ralph, Robert and Jack, all of Niles, Louis of Saginaw, Edward Jr. of Fairfield, Calif., and Harold of Galien; two daughters, Mrs. Harry Wood and Mrs. Charles Coon, both of Niles; 30 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Halbritter Funeral Home, with the Rev. Arlan Schlundt of St. John's United Church of Christ officiating. Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.

Friends may call after 7 tonight at the funeral home.

From microfilm at the Niles District Library, Niles, Berrien, Michigan, Niles Daily Star, Niles, Berrien, Michigan, Monday, May 08, 1972; page 02

Charles W. Sanders
April 29, 1913 – Dec. 15, 2007

Charles W. Sanders, 94, formerly of Edwardsburg and U.S.-12 East, Niles, died at 6:20 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007, at Cass County Medical Care Facility, Cassopolis, after an illness.

Funeral services will be held at 7 p.m. today, Monday, Dec. 17, at the Paul E. Mayhew Funeral Home, Edwardsburg.

Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery, Niles, on Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Friends may call tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home.

He was born on April 29, 1913, in Bloomington, Ind. To William Sanders and Josephine Crane and came to Edwardsburg and Niles in 1933. He graduated from Eletsville High School in Indiana.

Sanders was a Union carpenter of Benton Harbor, also a self-employed carpenter. He formerly worked at Studebakers.

He was a member of the Local Carpenters Union of Benton Harbor, Draft Horse Association.

In 1936, in Niles, he married Carol Fein, who died July 2, 1968.

His surviving family includes a son, Gary (Carla) Sanders of Edwardsburg; a daughter, Robin (Glenn) Emenaker of Vandalia; five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a son, Ernest “Sonny” Sanders in 1968; a daughter, Rosalie Bader in 1991; brother, Wall, Joe, Merle and Berle and two sisters, Alice and Carolyn.

Arrangements were by Paul E. Mayhew Funeral Home, Edwardsburg.

From microfilm at Niles District Library, Niles, Berrien, Michigan, Niles Daily Star, Niles, Berrien, Michigan, Monday, Dec. 17, 2007; page 02; col. 02.

Frank P. Clark
April 20, 1854-Jan. 7, 1933

Niles Daily Star, Monday, January 9, 1933, page 1, col. 5, microfilm Niles District Library

FRANK P. CLARK, 78, DIES LATE SATURDAY

Resident of Niles For 40 Years Passes Away After Long Illness

Frank P. Clark, 78, a resident of Niles for more than 40 years, died on Saturday at noon in his home, 1030 Oak street. He had been ill for several weeks prior to his death with a complication of diseases.

Mr. Clark was born in Pittsford township, Michigan, on April 20, 1854.  He came to Niles 42 years ago and after a few months' residence else where in the city purchased the home where his death occurred.  He engaged for many years in the barber business in Niles. Mr. Clark was married on Nov. 26, 1979, to Ella Louise McGuirk at Pittsford. She died in June , 1908. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Clark six survive their father. They are Harry V. Clark of Niles, Robert Emmet Clark of Des Moines, Iowa, C. Bernard and James LeRoy Clark, of Niles Alfred Paul Clark, of Carp Lake, Mich., and Mrs. Joseph A. Chmiel, of Niles. Mr. Clark was married on Oct. 26, 1915, to Mrs. Carrie Phelps who survives him, as do two step-sons, Clyde Phelps of Auburn, Ind., and Hubert Phelps of Huntington, Ind., and 10 grandchildren.

The funeral services will be held tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock in St. Mary's Catholic church. The Rev. V. Ducat, rector of the church, will officiate. Burial will be made in the family lot in Silverbrook cemetery.

Niles Daily Star, Tuesday, January 10, 1933, page 4, col. 1, microfilm Niles District Library

FUNERAL FOR FRANK P. CLARK

Funeral services for Frank P. Clark were conducted this morning in St. Mary's Catholic church by the rector, the Rev. V. Ducat. The pallbearers were George Cranston, William Cameron, John Steck, Charles Shockley, John Walters and George Miller. The burial was in Silverbrook cemetery.

Joseph Clark
Abt. 1880*-Nov. 18, 1914

Niles Daily Star, Thursday, November 19, 1914, page 1, col. 1, microfilm Niles District Library

STABBED TO DEATH

Joseph Clark, a Niles Boy,

Meets Terrible Fate

ASSASSIN ARRESTED

Ernest L. Dodge of Binghampton,

N.Y., Wielded a Knife--Result

of a Quarrel Between Two Men

Joseph Clark of Niles, was stabbed to death last evening in a brawl which took place in a dive operated by Mrs. Cora Mann, 205 north Walnut street, South Bend.  Clark was stabbed at about 6 o'clock and at 7:30 o'clock Ernest L. Dodge, 26 years old, of Binghampton, N.Y., was arrested, accused of the crime and lodged in jail.

Clarks' death was the result of a quarrel between the two men, it is said, over one of the women present. Hot words led to blows which caused Dodge to draw his knife.

He cut Clark in the right arm, severing an artery. The knife penetrated the left side. The former wound was the cause of the man's death.

The cutting took place in the kitchen of the house, which was one of the few resorts left in South Bend. When the police patrol, summoned by a citizen who had heard rumors of a cutting scrape in one of the west end saloons, arrived at the place, Clark was stretched out on a sofa in a front room. The sofa was drenched with blood and Clark had been dead nearly an hour, according to Coroner Swantz, who was immediately summoned.

Two Women  Are Found

An immediate search of the neighborhood was started by Patrolmen Alby and Koczorowski. The Mann woman and Mrs. Nellie Brown were found in the house, both, it is claimed, too far gone in the effects of liquor to flee, as the other "guests" had done.

From them particulars of the fray were obtained, and by means of quick work by Alby and Koczorowski, four persons, including Dodge were picked up in and about side streets near the scene of the crime.

Guy Moore, James Kartinos, Margaret Kartinos and Dodge were arrested. Dodge had gone in a north Walnut street saloon immediately after the fight and had become so intoxicated that it was almost impossible to book him at the police station. Mrs. Mann and Nellie Brown were by the men sent with the patrol.

The room in which the dead man had been stabbed was red with blood from his wounds. The women of the place, in an effort to clean the house of any trace of the fray, had only succeeded in scattering the blood over the walls and furniture.

Had Bled to Death

It was stated by Dr. Swantz that Clark evidently had bled to death and that with prompt medical attention his life could have been saved.

He had either walked or had been carried by persons present to the sofa in the front room.

The guests, fearful of arrest, had fled the place, and left him in the care of the two women. The two women, claim the police, were too drunk to properly tend his injuries.

The murdered man was identified at the McGann morgue by John Bachman, Michigan Central detective of Niles.

The death of Clark was the aftermath to an afternooon of carousal. The  men and women arrested had been in the place, say the police, since the early afternoon. Much liquor had been partaken of and the men had almost come to blows several times through the day.

Not much was gleaned from the persons arrested last night. All were more or less under the influence of liquor and had not much to say about the matter. Dodge, according to police authorities, has neither denied not admitted his guilt. He is a laborer who had come to South Bend in an effort to obtain work.

The persons arrested were picked up by Patrolmen Ably and Koczorowski within an hour after the police were notified of the affair. Dodge was located in a side street too drunk to offer resistance to the officers who arrested him.

The other members of the party were scattered over an area of four blocks. Not one of them offered resistance to arrest.

The dive in which the killing took place is one of the worst in South Bend.  It has been under police surveilance for some time, and Mrs. Mann, it proprietress, has been arrested innumerable times.

Coroner Swantz will hold the inquest as soon as the police locate all the witnesses possible.

The father was Herman Clark, a miller by trade, formerly residing at 418 south Third street, Niles. He died Jan. 1, 1912.  Of the remaining family are the mother, two daughters and a son, Misses Agnes and May, and John Clark.

The mothers and daughters moved from Niles to South Bend last Tuesday to make that place their permanent home. John remained here and is employed at home of Mrs. Henry Lardner.

Funeral arrangements have not been completed, but it quite likely that the body of Joseph Clark will be brought to Niles, there being a family lot in Silver Brook cemetery.

*Indiana Deaths state age 34 years.