Theodore Walther was born near De Soto, March 13, 1872 and died at his home on the outskirts of that city on September 8, 1928. He was married Nov. 25, 1894 to Miss Maggie Lamert and to this marriage two children were born. Helen, now Mrs. Lilburn McCormick and Hobart, who is connected with the American Bank of De Soto. Some years after the death of his first wife on Nov. 23, 1904, he married Mrs. Edith Reppy and to this marriage three children were born, Marion, Theodora and Edith. In his early life he became a member of the Evangelical Luthern Church of De Soto of which he has been a constant and consistent member.
He served his county as Postmaster at De Soto for a time, was for a number of years a member of the De Soto School Board and also served for years as Commissioner for the De Soto Special Road District and during his incumbency in the latter position, he secured for De Soto much of the splendid system of roads it now had. He was proverbially modest, was persevering to excess, foresighted and with a mind of unusual vision and enterprise. He was kind and devoted to his family and ever mindful of their welfare and well being. He was devoted and loyal to his friends and ever ready to submerge his own wishes and desires, when by so doing he could promote their welfare. Constant generosity and helpfulness was his daily habit but so modestly was this done that the admonition as to the right and left hand was literally carried out. As a citizen he was exemplary in his life, regressive in his thought and earnest in action. No step toward civic improvement, toward better living conditions, education or industrial advancement of De Soto, during the past thirty years, but has felt his helping hand and aided by his fertile mind. He was a lover of mankind and the lowly and down and out folks came to him in their troubles and never failed to find a sympathetic friend and helper. The paster, Rev. Bockstruck, of the Evangelical Lutheran church conducted the services, assisted by Rev. Dshlem and Rev. Burton. After the church service the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member, at the cemetery conducted the impressive and solemn duty of laying his body away in the silent tomb.
Mr. Walther leaves behind to mourn his untimely death, his widow and children above named, six brothers, Ferdinand of Scottsburg, Ind., John of Richwoods, Mo., Edward of Davenport, Iowa., Herman and Rudolph of Des Moines, Iowa, and Doctor Albert of De Soto and a sister Mrs. Anna Mason of St. Louis, Mo., all of whom were present. Mr. Walther was also a member of the I.O.O.F. and was a member of the Republican Central Committee and was Vice-President of the American Bank of De Soto and active in its management. He will be missed in the civic affairs of his city and county by his banking friends and by a loyal group of his miners and helpers who drove in from Richwoods to pay a last tribute to their friend. In his last conscious hours he told his near ones, "God has been good to me." We doubt it not, and he has gone on with "All Clear," for his voyage into the mysteries of the Great Beyond where God rules.
