Longtime Hamlin County resident, Hilliam H.R. Ching, 97, died Wednesday in a Watertown hospital following a brief illness. Funeral services will be Saturday at 2 pm in the First Presbyterian Church of Castlewood with the Rev David Morelh officiating.
Relatives are requested to meet at 1:30 pm in the church parlors on Saturday to attend the services. A family devotion is set for 1:45 pm Saturday in the church parlors.
Burial will be in the Castlewood Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 pm on Friday at the Shaw-Messer Funeral Chapel in Watertown and preceding the services at the church.
Pallberers will be grandsons, Larry, Roger and Dale Ching, Robert Raasch, Donald Goldhorn, James Olson and Douglas Grow.
Mr. Ching was born Nov 8, 1881 to Mr and Mrs Hugh Ching in rural Castlewood. He married Annie Jardine on March 30, 1908. Mrs Ching died in 1959. Mr Ching lived his entire life in Hamlin County with the exception of six years when he and his wife homesteaded in Cheyenne County, Colorado. He attended the district school near his family farm home. Mr. Ching was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Castlewood and the oldest member of the congregation. He served as a church elder for many years. He was a member of the District No 3 School Board, secretary of the Farmers Elevator Board at Castlewood and was on the Citizens State Bank board. Cr Ching was a farmer all of his adult life.
Survivors include five daughters, Mrs Earl (Mary) Raasch, and Mrs John E (Lois) Goldhorn, both of Caslewood, Mrs Clem (Margaret) Sonntag of Janesville, WI, and Mrs Clyde (Helen) Brooks and Mrs Ernest (Phyllis) Olson, both of Watertown; three sons, Melvin and Wilbur, both of Castlewood, and Hugh of Edmond, OK; one sister, Mrs George (Ethel) Shaw of Castlewood; and two brothers, Russel Ching of Sturgis and Dewey of Castlewood; twenty-seven grandchildren, forty great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren also survive.