WASHINGTON J. DEBRULER GRAVESTONE PHOTO
The Daily Reporter, Wednesday, September 4, 1901, Pg 2:
W. J. Debruler Falls Dead in His Home This Forenoon
Heart Disease Was the Cause
Washington J. Debruler, one of the earliest settlers of this city, and a man who has always seemed to possess good health, died without a moment’s warning at his home in the southeast part of town at 10:30 a.m. today presumably of heart disease.
Mr. Debruler had been about town for some hours, calling at different places, and seemed to be as well as usual. His wife has been ill for some time and he procured some medicine for her and took it home. He stepped to her bedside and gave her a dose, and as he turned away he suddenly fell upon the floor and died almost instantly without a word.
Mr. Debruler was born in Clearmont county, Ohio, July 9, 1833, and was therefore a little more that 68 years of age. He enlisted in the army Feb. 17, 1862, as a private in Co. A, Second Battalion Missouri S. M. cavalry, and was in receipt of a small pension from the government.
Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Debruler, of whom six are living. Four daughters reside in this city, one at Joplin, MO., and a son Charles Debruler, in the state of Washington.
Mr. Debruler came to this city in 1869 and for more than twenty years past has been sexton at Mt. Hope cemetery, where he has dug hundreds of graves for the dead of this city and vicinity.
His health was always seemed good and he was a vigorous man for one of his age, but last fall or winter he had a sudden attack of heart trouble, but seemed to have entirely recovered from it.
The arrangements for the funeral have not been determined upon but it will probably take place on Friday under the direction of the G. A. R. of which he was a member.
Contributed by Mrs. Maryann Johnson a Civil war researcher and a volunteer in the Kansas Room of the Independence Public Library, Independence, Kansas.