Every Funeral Tradition of the Time Was Violated By This Burial

Refutation of Addit Hoyt Fargo blog dated 2/9/12

Here we go again on a wild goose chase making accusations and drawing conclusions base on thin air creation of conspiracy theory.  Clearly Rosemary is laying the foundation for additional false allegations as she has done before.  It would be nice to believe that this is the entirety of the conversation with Mitchell but as I noted previously, Rosemary has misrepresented information intentionally to support her wild accusations - see my notes on a Peterson  conversation with Rosemary and Rosemary stating he confirmed Addie didn't die of diphtheria......she wasn't truthful about that conversation and I doubt she is being truthful about the conversation with Mitchell........or Bowles....at least not totally truthful.  It's a credibility problem that she has failed to come to grips with.

I'll take the easy ones first.

Addie's death was a big deal in Lake Mills.  The historical records support that. premise.

Addie was buried in her shoes and without her jewelry because that was what she had on when she died.  It's more logical to expect her to lie down with her shoes on after being up all day and feeling fatigued....probably expecting to get up later after taking a nap.  Mitchell was right....she died with her boots on and the body was carefully put in a coffin and taken to the cemetery where the mourners paid their respects.....the friend and relatives attended that were not afraid of catching a dreaded disease.  And buried in a proper grave considering the circumstances.
See my previous notes on Rosemary misrepresenting the depth of the grave..and the rest of the story.

Then Rosemary proceeds to state that the presence of the shoes proves that Addie was murdered.  Again, a statement that ludicrous is to be expected but that doesn't make it accurate.  If you go through the Addie Hoyt Fargo blog you'll find that Rosemary makes similar statements about everything.  Even in aggregate these claims are sufficient to prove her case.

Mitchell also confirms that Addie was buried in the best casket available.  There is no doubt that the casket was pretty upscale with a viewing window to not endanger the mourners and very nice metal handle brackets.  It's not like Hildebrandt ran a casket warehouse........not in a town the size of Lake Mills and no time to ship one in from Iowa or Milwaukee.

The lack of a vault means nothing......it's pretty binary. Either there was one available or not...and there wasn't one available.  I'm curious about the details where Mitchell says they had a coffin with a crushed lid.  Wonder where that vault was and how that could have possibly happened.  Addie's coffin had a glass viewing window....think about it.  Maybe I'll call Mitchell and ask him a few questions.....unless he's been coached by Rosemary like I think Bowles was.

Mitchell also confirms the depth of the grave was adequate, even if there is not way to determine the original depth.  He states 3 feet to protect the body from animals.....the first remains were found at 34 inches....last time I studied a yardstick the 34 inch mark at just shy of the 3 foot mark.  The idea that Mitchell was surprised that 34 inches was shallow has to be because Rosemary misrepresented the actual depth...........which she does repeatedly in her blog.  Mitchell's confirmation that 3 feet is plenty puts aside the rest of Rosemary's "wonderment" in this blog entry.

With the amount of Addie's remains that were found there is no chance there was animal invasion.....just plain didn't happen.  I'm sure in a future blog post Rosemary will make this factual information and the Desperate Housewives of Norfolk will be all over it like flies on manure.

I can't speak to the urgency for burial of a diphtheria patient in Iowa or Illinois but these two passages come from the history of a family of doctors in Middleton, Wisconsin.  This was sent to me by another person who thinks Rosemary is incorrect with her conspiracy theories.

In the late 19th century the medical landscape was still grim. Smallpox, tuberculosis, diphtheria,typhoid, meningitis, and measles were rampant and carried a high mortality.

Diphtheria was a big killer of families and was looked upon with horror.  People dying of this disease were buried at dusk with only the minister and the doctor at the grave. All others were outside the cemetery wall.

I'll give you the URL to follow up on this.....because what I write is transparent.....nothing to hide...no profit motive.  Lake Mills was not the most sophisticated community and I'm convinced Oatway, Hildebrandt and the rest provided the best services they could with their knowledge base.  It's easy for Mitchell and Bowles to be a 'Monday morning quarterback'....not so easy to be in fray at the time.

http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/_WMS/publications/wmj/issues/wmj_v103n2/Hansotia.pdf

Way too much is misrepresented in this Addie blog entry for me to summarize all the bad information.. 
Increasingly the laughable 'evidence' that Rosemary generates without historical support suggests she is desperate to make money out of this somehow.  I'm saving my thoughts on that aspect for a separate, future blog.