JULIA M. STIMMLER
(née SAKRY)

Born: December 17, 1879   St. George, Benton, Minnesota
Died: September 6, 1927   St. Rafael's Hospital, St. Cloud, Stearns, Minnesota
Buried: September 9, 1927   St. Marcus Cemetery, Clear Lake, Sherburne, Minnesota


Parents:
 
 
Marriage:
 
 
Paul P. Sakry
Margueretta "Margaret" Nagele
 
George Aloysius Stimmler
February 15, 1895
St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota
 

Children: Gilbert Frank May 3, 1900 † Nov. 26, 1919
  George "Babe" R. Jan. 30, 1901 † Mar. 9, 1983
  Clarence Edward Feb. 6, 1903 † June 24, 1984
  Lloyd Raymond Aug. 13, 1904 † Aug. 15, 1990
  Anna "Bess" Geneva Feb. 3, 1907 † Jan. 9, 1999
  Veronica "Frona" Julia June 28, 1909 † May 12, 1997
  Arvilla Bertha Feb. 15, 1911 † July 4, 2005
  Julia "Jewell" Margaret Aug. 12, 1915 † Dec. 7, 1999
  John Archibald Apr. 17, 1917 † Nov. 17, 1966
  Ellen Gilberta Oct. 6, 1921 † Oct. 6, 2010

Notes: In the 1880 Minnesota census, Julia was 6 months old, living in St. George with her parents and siblings Mary, Paul and Hannah.
 
Julia and George were married when she was 15 and he was 18 years old.
 
In the 1900 census, Julia was living in Clear Lake township with her husband, son Gilbert, father-in-law, brother-in-law and one lodger, Mary Halfman, the eldest daughter of Theodore and Julia Halfman (née Kampa). In the 1910 census, Julia was living in Clear Lake with her husband and their six children.
 
Sunday morning, Oct. 4, 1919, a Ford touring car overturned opposite the Stimmler home, throwing out the occupants and severely injuring a child, who was taken to Dr. Gumper in Becker for treatment. They were westbound passengers and no one learned their names [The Clear Lake Times, 9 Oct 1919, p. 5, col. 2].
 
The 1920 census found Julia and George living in Clear Lake with their eight children.
 
Julia and her children spent a few days in Minneapolis in the middle of February, 1927 [The Clear Lake Times, 17 Feb 1927, p. 5, col. 1]. On February 27 she and her husband visited at John Anderson's [Ibid, 3 Mar 1927, p. 4, col. 2]. Julia, her husband George and their children visited St. Cloud on Apr. 12 [Ibid, 17 Apr 1919, p. 5, col. 1]. Son George Jr. and his family from Minneapolis frequently visited the family farm throughout the spring months of 1927.
 
The Stimmler family moved to a farm about seven miles outside Clear Lake in the spring of 1927.
 
Wednesday afternoon, July 28, 1927, around 3 PM on the Stimmler farm in the town of Palmer, about 7 miles east of Clear Lake, Julia was picking peas for the evening meal in the garden near the house when her husband George returned from a trip to Clear Lake he had made about three hours earlier. There had been a fight before he left for town in a fury, although friends who had seen him transact business while there said he appeared perfectly lucid and normal before heading home around 2:30. Once there however, without warning he fired a revolver three times, twice into the middle of his wife's back, followed by another missed shot at his 20-year-old daughter, Bess, who had run to her mother's aid. He then walked a few yards away and placed the pistol against his head, inflicting a shot that caused his instant death. According to the children, prior to the cruel deed he had been prone to jealous rages and made many threats to his family, repeatedly warning over the last four years that he would kill his wife and himself. At the coronorer's inquest it was determined that George suffered a sudden bout of temporary insanity and committed suicide by shooting.
 
Dr. Kingsbury was called and instructed that the injured woman immediately be taken to St. Rafael's Hospital in St. Cloud. Although she struggled to recover, Julia's condition was extremely critical. One bullet lodged directly under her heart and the other was in her side. She was completely paralyzed from the 10th thoracic vertebrae down, and an attempted operation on Aug. 2 had to be suspended due to her severe debilitatation from her wounds.
 
A few days before her death her sisters-in-law, Mrs. Mary McDonald and Mrs. Anna Benninghoff, came from out of town to her bedside and spent a few days with relatives nearby in Clear Lake. Friends and relations were drawn to the area by her impending demise, offering the extended and disraught family their support.
 
Julia lingered in the hospital for six weeks before dying there at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1927. She was 47 years old. Her body was brought to the Dingmann Funeral Home in Clear Lake the same afternoon. The funeral took place Thursday morning at St. Marcus Catholic church and, as Rev. Gospodar was ill, Rev. Kroll of St. Cloud conducted the funeral service. Burial was next to her husband George in the parish cemetery.

Ancestry: The Stimmler/Stimler Line [through marriage]
   
1900 Minnesota Census, Clear Lake in Sherburne County

Stimmler Brothers, from "Compendium of History and Biography," 1905

1910 Minnesota Census, Clear Lake, April 25, 1910

1920 Minnesota Census, Clear Lake, January 31, 1920

Shoots Wife, Kills Himself: Clear Lake Family Row Ends in Death, St. Cloud Daily Times, July 28, 1927

Certificate of Death for Julia M. Stimmler (née Sakry)

George L. and Julia Stimmler Prayer Card

George and Julia Stimmler's Gravestone

Stimler Family Crest      Kampa Family Crest
Last modified: February 14, 2016
Copyright © 1998-2016 Rae Stimler Bordua. All rights reserved.

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