A. W. SPRICK, OF FONTANELLE, DEATH VICTIM

Was State Representative Of This District For Four Terms

NATIVE OF COUNTY

Albert W. Sprick, 63, extensive Washington county landowner, former state representative from this district, and a native of the Fontanelle vicinity where his family has lived since 1855, died suddenly Tuesday morning at his home in Fontanelle.

Three weeks previously Mr. Sprick had undergone an operation for hernia in a Fremont hospital, and his recovery apparently assured, he had been returned to his home about a week preceding his death. Tuesday morning he had risen and dressed when he was seized suddenly with a heart attack, dying before a doctor arrived.

Born at Fontanelle, Mr. Sprick was the son of the late Henry Sprick, member of the original Quincy colony that founded the Fontanelle vicinity in 1885, and also a member of the first territorial assembly.

Albert W. attended preparatory school at Fontanelle, later becoming a student at Grinnell college, Grinnell, Ia. He then enrolled in Midland college, located in Kansas at the time, and was graduated from that institution.

Returning to Fontanelle, Mr. Sprick became one of the proprietors of the store there, but after the death of his brother, Alfred, he joined his parents on the farm, and with his father, became one of the most extensive raisers of purebred Herefords in eastern Nebraska. Mr. Sprick’s father died in 1906; his mother in 1916.

In 1912 Mr. Sprick was married at Quincy, Ill. to Miss Bertha Westhold, and since that time his interests have been general. For a time he was president of the Nickerson bank; he has farmed and supervised operation of his farms, and between 1920 and 1932 served four terms in the state legislature. He was also a member of the state constitutional convention in 1920 and 1921 For one term Mr. Sprick was president of the Washington County Fair association, and he served as a director of the fair board for many years, being such at the time of his death.

Surviving Mr. Sprick are his widow and four sisters. They are Mrs. Mary Sick of Fremont, Mrs. Emma Langhorst of Fontanelle, Mrs. Clara Roth, Quincy, Ill., and Mrs. Sophie Kruger, New York City.

Funeral services will be held at the family residence Friday afternoon at two o’clock and from the German Lutheran church of which Mr. Sprick was a lifelong member at 2:30. Burial will be at Fontanelle.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

FindaGrave # 8745743