Left: Vintage postcard relating to hobo culture
"Old Franz" Again Remembered
by Tim white
Sifting through a decade's worth of the Mt. Horeb Mail, I came across a familiar name - Frantz Wilmer. As you will recall, the Society published a September 2001 newsletter article on a transient who was buried in the Mt. Horeb Cemetery beneath a small marker proclaiming "Old Frantz" Wilmer, 1856 to 1940. The two 1940s Mail articles explained further how a community rallied to honor this homeless traveler.
On May 9, 1940 a column written by Hector Gunderson reported that Frantz Wilmer, a German immigrant, passed away at the County home in Verona that week. Born in Wittenberg, Bavaria, Frantz came to America in 1880. In 1893 he came to the Mt. Horeb area and worked on various farms and at local cheese factories. Frantz also frequented northern Wisconsin and Michigan where he worked in the logging industry, but Mt. Horeb remained his home base for 47 years. Gunderson described the funeral arrangements for Old Frantz: "the fine spirit of our village took in even such as he was, and acted in the honorable manner both while Frantz lived and in the arrangements for his funeral." Indeed, by all accounts, the village came together to honor Frantz Wilmer. Jergen Moe and funeral director Isaac Gesme made arrangements for the burial. While Gesme donated all the services, Moe gifted the other arrangements. The Mt. Horeb Flower Shop donated the floral arrangements and the pall bearers were the village police department. Rev. S. Gunderson and Rev. Hector Gunderson officiated at the affair. Many of Mt. Horeb's residents attended the last rites of Frantz Wilmer.
Nearly two years later, in November 1942, another article appeared in the Mail honoring Frantz. Martin Spaanem, who was the Chief of police during many of the years Old Frantz frequented the village, helped fund a stone marker for Wilmer's grave. The article recalled that Frantz had coined the phrase "Spaanem's Hotel" for the Mt. Horeb Jail. The jail would often open its doors for transients. The Mail article extolled Mr. Spaanem as "a man with not only a kind heart but with deep human sympathy." Old Frantz, and others like him, came under that kind of treatment when, in their wanderings, they "hit" Mt. Horeb.
Indeed, in a time when many villages turned their heads to the hoboes and transients who fell on hard times, Mt. Horeb took a genuine concern for these wandering workers, whether it was the offering of an odd job, a handout to provide sustenance, or an honorable burial for a fallen friend.
Throughout history hoboes traveled the byways and railways of our country. Whether it be in search of work or wanderlust, these wandering men and women were a fixture in American society.